5 days, 2 Seminars, 70 attendees,2 countries - Glad its Over

Today 20th February marks the end of a very hectic week for me,starting from 15th February when I flew up to KL to meet with my Germany colleagues from our principals Weiss Technik and Atlas.The seminar week was planned about 3 months prior to February and Mr. Dieter Haus,Mr. Burkhard Severon and Mr. Fred Schweitzer flew in from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur and I flew in from Singapore to meet all of them for the first leg.

On 17th February, we had our co-host and longtime customer, SIRIM arrange for us, at no cost the seminar entitled " Reliability Testing for the Photo Voltaic Industry" and their reach was far and wide to customers in all parts of Malaysia. A total of 40 attendees came,with a major segment in the Photovoltaic and Solar industry. It is still early days yet, but I am pleased and grateful for a supportive principal who has spent alot of money to drum up interest and hopefully spur sales and profits in one of the projected 'star' industries as an alternative fuel source to oil once this Financial Crisis is finally over.We had met with the Managing Director of SIRIM in person, Datuk Mariani who was not only very supportive but struck me as a warm and approachable MD.At the end, we had some decent enquiries and interest from 2 companies, outside of SIRIM.



On 19th February, my company QRA International hosted the same seminar with the same speakers at Hilton Hotel Singapore.Many who turned up at the Singapore seminar were very established Test Lab VPs and Senior Managers.Their presence really honoured out small company as we had practically 90% of Singapore's Test Laboratory senior people attending.



Aside from the several slipups such as broken spectacles,driving half-blind,oversleeping on the job (from too much to drink) - I will spare some of you the embarassment, everything else went very smoothly and contacts were made, customers were truly impressed and enjoyed the rare seminar which was fact full,with good food and a fair dose of German humour - that was necessary as we were seeing each other every day for 6 days at a stretch.

Thanks to Kannan,Wahid the Federer,Taqi (SIRIM marketing), Hasnul (SIRIM) and their marketing team for a successful Malaysian seminar.

Thanks goes to Sebastian, Johnson and Rick (all QRA Singapore) for coordinating the Singapore seminar.

At the end, we had good work, loads of fun, some stressful moments,whiskeys drunked,beer quaffed, cigars smoked and Mas Selamat's sister entertaining us.(Of course I am joking, Kannan will vouch for me!)



A job done well. It was fun while it lasted, now back to the serious business of selling and serviving the test equipment.