A Personal Perspective on the International Model Exhibition 1999.
Sorry this didn't get in the last news letter, but copy arrived too late to include .
Most of you I know will at least have seen advertisements in the model engineering press for the IMS at Ally Pally last December. As usual, the club had a stand provided by the exhibition organisers and it fell to my lot together with Eric Offen to manage our stand this year. So I thought to pen a few words about the event for those of you who were unable to attend.
The Venue
The Alexandra Palace is new to me as an exhibitor, and I was pleased to find a very good venue, with a good stand size provided for us; 10 x 20 feet, and nice wide aisles between stands to allow visitors plenty of room to circulate or chat as is their want. The downside is that for us south London dwellers, it's horrible to get to! At least there's plenty of free car parking!
The Club Stand
Our stand has seen many years good service and was getting a bit tatty around the edges. The ministrations of time, repeated sets-up and stripping down and loft dwelling squirrels had taken their toll. A recovering was definitely in order! Thanks here to Mark Adlington for taking time out to purchase the material – a good choice of colour that everyone approved of, and to Dave and Elizabeth Wilkins for the many hours spent in recovering the stands. A really neat job done that spruced up the stands no end!
Setting Up
Setting up day dawned nice and early with a merry squawk from the alarm clock and a groan from me. Up and away I go to open up the club-house for a 9.00AM start. Kettle on – there are priorities! – and soon the rest of the setting up team and models started to arrive. Once we could see how much of what we had to pack, van and car springs started to creak as we loaded up. Always a bit of a tedious job this one, with much care taken to ensure the models arrived at the exhibition in good shape.
It's a good hour-and-half's journey from the club to Ally Pally, and so it was that your intrepid team arrived without incident (I won't mention the traffic for some strange game at Twickenham) and were soon unpacking ready to set up the stand. A quick reconnaissance located our stand's whereabouts and instructions received from the security staff on unloading and parking procedures. Why do security staff always seem so harassed and authoritarian? Must take years of training!! The set-up itself proceeded without any great problems, and soon a good show was put together ready for the morrow.
Let the Show Begin!
And so the morrow arrived with an even earlier merry squawk and groan. The show opened at 9.30AM each day with exhibitors admitted from 8.00AM. So getting there in good time meant arising at 5.30AM most days – AARGH! Horrendous! Ah well, duty calls!
I soon had a routine established; first things first and the kettle goes on and whilst its boiling I can check around the stand making sure that all is as it should be. Tea ready and I start dusting round – must have the models looking good! If I'm lucky I get the chance of a quick look round the other stands before the public are admitted.
Once the team has assembled, we agree a rota that allows us all time to look around the show, go to the restaurant, buy our stock materials and tooling, chat to friends on other stands, and – oh yes! Mustn't forget – look after the club stand!
The Exhibition Itself
I enjoyed the show, all six days of it! As with all exhibitions of this nature covering as they do a wide range of activities, there were some things that left me cold. There were others, by far the greater majority, which caught my interest. There were still others that absorbed me totally and were absolutely inspirational! Marvellous stuff! As you might guess, for me there was plenty to see and enjoy and spend time with.
One of the great pleasures is to renew old acquaintances and meet new kindred spirits. Many were the enjoyable conversations had with others with similar interests to my own, often with an exchange of information and telephone numbers for planned collaboration on projects.
It is also gratifying to be able to tell a visitor about one of the exhibits, perhaps something of its history and how long it took to build, perhaps how it works – I really must get to grips with the Stirling Engine cycle, an explanation including 'Magic liberally dosed with Perpetual Motion' is none-too-technical!
To be able to direct an enquirer to similar exhibits on other club stands in reciprocation is a sure sign of good camaraderie between clubs – no bad thing that, says I!
Stripping
Paint? Naughty ladies or The Chipmunks? No, not at this exhibition! All good things come to an end; so it was with the show and all had to be packed away and transported back to the club-house. We were not permitted to start dismantling until all the public had left the building, and then what a race! Eric whizzed off with the intention of parking his van as close to the loading bay at the back of Ally Pally as he could. Struck gold too! He couldn't have parked more conveniently if he tried!
The rest of us in the meantime seemed to be in competition with the contractors dismantling the stands themselves – fluorescent lights and power points were simply ripped off the stand framework and the power cabling and conduits snipped through with wire cutters! We concluded they were on contract to clear the halls by midnight – they certainly weren't hanging around for anybody!!
And so all our exhibits were again carefully stowed and a long journey back through the legendary North Circular Car Parking Facility went with little incident but much tedium.
And So To The Future
It was a good exhibition at a good venue, definitely an improvement on last year. It seemed to be well patronised on all days and in particular the weekend when many families attended. There are some thoughts in the air to improving the club's display stands; I have noticed a definite upgrade in the standard of club displays in recent years and it would be great for our club to stand out even more with a really smashing display. Has anybody any ideas that don't involve too much expense or labour?
Of course, no display is complete without exhibits and here I would like to thank all those who generously loaned exhibits this year. To be able to show a wide variety of our work, whether complete or partially complete makes an engaging display and does attract interest from the public. By the way, don't be shy about standard of workmanship, people love to see 'perfection', they also appreciate seeing models built to a standard they too can achieve. You're proud of what you have achieved I'm sure; show it off!!
I would also like to say a huge thank you to all of you who assisted so ably in setting-up, breaking-down and stewarding the stand. All of your efforts are greatly appreciated and the show could not have been done without you. Many, many thanks.
And so to conclude;
Do I enjoy mucking in at the IMS - Yes.
Is it hard work? Oh yes.
Is it worth it? Oh very yes.
See you there next time, and don't forget to bring forth your produce!
TTFN. Jerry Burchell. |