I doubt the Prime Minister is one of my readers but even if he were, I'm sure he wouldn't mind me starting my CeBIT blog writing about something other than him.
Being Partner Land at the world's largest ICT and telecommunications trade fair is a great honour for the UK, and the past few days have been a triumph for our messaging about UK exports and the UK as a place to do business.
But my proudest moment of the week (perhaps besides watching violinist Nicola Benedetti perform Elgar at the Opening Ceremony to a backdrop of GREAT images) was when a UK company came up to me and told me what business they had done that day.
Trade fairs are about bringing businesses together but the nature of lead generation is that the fruit of one's labour is not often yielded for weeks or months (or indeed more).
But on Tuesday evening, at a reception bringing more than 100 journalists to the main UK pavilion, one company told me they had sold €100k worth of their 3D printers that day (and had genuine leads for others).
Normally I would not want to name the company, often companies don't like to talk about this kind of success in detail, but Ion Core (with Made in Chelsea star Richard Dinan as their director) are not exactly publicity shy.
Now €100k may not sound like a lot of money - exports from the UK to just Germany are worth more than €40bn a year. But it is of real and tangible value to an SME - particularly sales like that in just one day of a five day trade fair.
And SMEs, after all, were actually our focus at CeBIT this year.
Yes Vodafone were there (and were visited by both the PM and Lord Livingston), cyber security firm Sophos were there (and were visited by Lord Livingston) and BT were our partners in the British Business Lounge.
But there were also over 120 smaller, innovative companies in Hanover (up from 46 the previous year) - and we wanted to shine the spotlight on them.
Being Partner Country brings focus to theUK- the presence of the Prime Minister at the opening ceremony and on the UK stand brought the attention of the world's media. Particularly to Touch Bionics, whose bionic hand is changing lives, and to Engineered Arts, whose Robothespian featured in the opening ceremony.
But it is the thousands of potential partners/customers/suppliers that are crossing the path of our companies at this show - and doing business with us - that is the real measure. GREAT branding and our speaking slots across the show - and thanks to the likes of Joanna Shields, Dame Wendy Hall and Sir Nigel Shadbolt - are driving that business to our stands and to our companies.
At its heart, Partner Country CeBIT is about two messages.
We make fantastic, innovative products and we want the world to buy them.
And the UK is a a great place to do business and we want to see even more of the world's IT companies based here.
And, just in case he does read this, our Prime Minister's presence here on Sunday and Monday helped deliver that message loud and clear.
2 comments
Comment by Heather Nowak posted on
Hi Dan. We were also exhibiting there for the first time and have to agree whole heartlessly with your comments. I personally met over 40 companies from around the globe through the FutureMatch events, networked at the busy evening seminars and events, greeted people at our stand and moved between halls meeting existing suppliers and starting potential future partnerships.
The whole event had a positive feel about it and an international goodwill factor about trading between UK and overseas companies. There were some fantastic new technologies show cased and the opportunity to meet with UKTI advisors.
We are still going through the information that we have gathered but no doubt that the long term benefit if relationships built and possible partnerships will greatly benefit company growth and future trade opportunities.
Comment by Heather Nowak posted on
Hi Dan. We were also exhibiting there for the first time and have to agree whole heartlessly with your comments. I personally met over 40 companies from around the globe through the FutureMatch events, networked at the busy evening seminars and events, greeted people at our stand and moved between halls meeting existing suppliers and starting potential future partnerships.
The whole event had a positive feel about it and an international goodwill factor about trading between UK and overseas companies. There were some fantastic new technologies show cased and the opportunity to meet with UKTI advisors.
We are still going through the information that we have gathered but no doubt that the long term benefit if relationships built and possible partnerships will greatly benefit company growth and future trade opportunities.