Tomcat takes Rehacare 2017 by storm
The Tomcat team thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this year’s exhibition, which was situated at the Messe Düsseldorf Centre near the sunny banks of the River Rhine.
It took the team a while to actually get to the venue (tunnel delays, 4 hours stuck in traffic on the ring road at Antwerp!) however, the Rehacare team were quick to reassure us over the phone, that we could set up our stand well into the night, if we chose to do so! We left the venue at 1a.m on Wednesday weary and tired, but excited about the look of the stand and the attendees we were sure to greet later that day!
The first day of Rehacare was certainly buzzing with a quiet energy radiating from the 600 eager exhibitors and added to by the droves of attendees, shuffling through the entrance gates with check lists tucked under their arms. The Tomcat team welcomed a steady stream of delegates to the stand, both distributors with a business interest and end users who were simply looking for an outdoor cycling solution to their needs. Towards the end of day 1, we slowly realised that the main interest point seemed to come from our Tiger Trike. Apparently, nothing like it on the market in Europe! Happy days for us and great market research for our marketing manager. So, although our feet hurt and our beds beckoned, we left day 1 with a very big smile.
Day 2 of Rehacare was welcomed by the Tomcat team after a good night’s sleep and a belly full of good German food from the night before. This was definitely the day for distributors! And they came in thick and fast from 10a.m onward. We managed to scramble through the language barrier, in some cases, but on the whole nearly everyone we spoke to had an excellent command of English. Note to self – try and learn the basics of German conversation before the next Rehacare…it’s only polite! 6p.m arrived in no time and before we knew it we were heading back to our hotel room with a skip in our step. If all the interest we received after day 2 turns into solid relationships, then job done!
Day 3 was publicity day for Tomcat. We had prearranged for the Rehcare TV crew to interview founder and managing director of Tomcat, Bob Griffin. The camera crew arrived early and introductions were made before the interviewer, Nadine, arrived promptly at 11a.m. The Rehacare TV crew stayed with us for about two hours – filming the products and of course interviewing Bob. Needless to say, the interview attracted a lot of attention from people passing by, no bad thing for Tomcat and raising our profile amongst the masses! The visitor flow to our stand continued for the rest of the day until it was time to leave again, we all noted – ‘how quickly the time had flown today’!
Our Final day at Rehacare 2017. We were all a little blurry eyed to begin with, as the activities of the week had obviously caught up with us all. However, the constant enquiries that poured in at the stand kept us all alert and awake. It was definitely an ‘end user’ day, as we barely met any distributors, however, the feedback from families and watching children ride a bike for the first time, was immeasurable. There were a lot of tears from parents and a lot of laughter from the children riding Tomcat trikes, what better reward on our last day at Rehacare!