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Executive Hire Forum: ON THE ROAD AGAIN Canned Heat’s classic from 1968 seems an appropriate song title this month as EHN has spent most of the last four weeks on the road. The period from Sunday 23 April until Thursday 18 May has been dominated by a series of four major exhibitions, with the HAE International Conference - on FA Cup Final Saturday - thrown in for good measure. As a result of these events, this month’s EHN features several show reviews, all aimed at highlighting the wide diversity of products and services available to hirers. Under the title ‘Constructive ideas’ on page 22, we consider the latest developments at Interbuild, followed by HAE’s International Conference and Hire Awards of Excellence on page 10. Our pictorial summary shows all the winners from Amsterdam and we’ll leave it up to you to decide whether the winners were worthy. We would, however, admit to surprise that, at the Association’s first continental event, not a single European hirer was rewarded for its efforts. Our Safety & Health Expo review, ‘Safety showcase’, follows on page 15. Such is the importance of this exhibition that even the Minister responsible for Health & Safety was in attendance. Undoubtedly the most important exhibition in this hectic schedule was SED, hosted for the first time at its new home in Rockingham Performance Park in Corby. Although we also attended the Intermat exhibition in Paris during this period, we have added the Paris product launches into our SED review and this commences on page 47. IMPRESSIVE SHOW LAYOUT SED is justifiably billed as The National Event for Construction and exhibitors were impressed with the layout of the show, its atmosphere and the general feeling of being present at a significant event. The wide tarmac aisles were certainly much easier on the feet than the previous venue. Exhibitors were “seriously busy with excellent levels of enquiries” on the Tuesday and Wednesday, although, with the onset of rain, Thursday was much less so. The over-riding problem that the organisers must face up to in time for next year is the traffic chaos that blighted SED on the first two days. As traffic hold-ups and delays were widely anticipated when Rockingham was first announced as the new venue, we even travelled up to stay the night before in order to get into the Show early on the first morning. Our 12-mile journey took an hour on largely single carriageway roads in the Corby commuter traffic, but we managed to be parked up on the SED site by 9am. Throughout that first day, all sorts of traffic ‘horror stories’ went around the showground – all of them certainly travelling much faster than the traffic outside! Crosshire, on page 60, recounts his own experiences in attempting to get to SED and how, after two hours of gridlock, he gave up and went back to work. Crosshire poses a number of relevant traffic questions that need to be addressed in time for next year. If he had managed to get to site, he would certainly have been surprised at the lack of police to direct traffic and the alleged 100m long queues of people trying to get into the event. In spite of all this, 95% of visitors did persevere and attend the Show and, as we have stated, exhibitors were more than happy with the overall event. Just think what the organisers can achieve when they learn the lessons of this year! Executive Hire News › Archives › June 2006 › Executive Hire Forum › On the road again
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