Caryl Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 Grant and I have spent the weekend in ChCh staying with our son Gareth and his partner Dena. We went to the Ingram Micro Roadshow today. On Saturday we went around a few lfs but made a special stop at Animates on Moorhouse to meet up with the Totally Tanked crew selling sausages there. Hi to Humvee, Amanda, Loopy, Donna, carznkats, bdspider and spoon! 8) They were doing a great job and we bought sausages to show our support I bought some zebra angels from Organism to give to Dena for a belated birthday present. (She requested them) On Sunday we went back to Animates to buy more sausages (gotta show more support ) and cruise the car yards (didn't buy anything there) On Monday we met Phantom at the Roadshow then wandered around the exhibits, dropping business cards into the prize draw boxes and getting our cards stamped to go into the 3 big draws held throughout the day. Draw 1 and I won a booby prize of a bag of lollies. Grant's name was drawn next and he won a laptop bag (no laptop in it unfortunately) with a 12V laptop travel multi manufacturer DC adaptor thingie which also works off mains power. Draw 2 my name was drawn again and I won a Eaton Powerware 500va UPS Neither of us was drawn in draw 3 but later my card was selected from a prize draw box and I won a Fuji b/w network capable laser printer :bounce: Gotta love these Roadshows :lol: After the Roadshow we had time to go back to Organism and buy some giant danios for me!! :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsarmina Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 its nice to hear what happens at the roadshows. as they are 1 of our suppliers, we must get to one at some stage. congrats on your prizes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zev Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 Gee Caryl, you two are so tinny at these Roadshow things - didn't you win some stuff last year as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 I didn't win anything Although I did find it kinda amusing when Caryl won a bag of lollies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 Err yes zev. Last year we won a mobile phone, an MP3 player, a hard drive and a Samsung colour laser printer :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 how many people went to the road show. 4? :roll: :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 Not many this year we didn't think (although more than 4), compared to previous shows. We thought there were fewer exhibitors too. One said there were actually more exhibitors but they used smaller spaces for their displays but another agreed there were fewer of them. We certainly felt there were fewer resellers than previous years. The big draws have 12 prizes with 2 of them being booby prizes. Or it might have been 10 and 2 booby prizes. You had a form you had to get stamped from 10 exhibitors and the card went into a big clear box which they spun each time then rummaged through to grab a form. The person named had to be present at the draw. When your name was called you went up, answered a "skill" question" and then got to choose which coloured box you wanted. In each box was an envelope which was then opened and the prize read out. I went totally blank on my first skill question when he asked me what IT stood for :lol: . Luckily Grant reminded me (they don't mind if you get told the answer by someone else). On the last draw, a lot of the entrants must have left early as they drew 5 or 6 names of people who didn't answer when their name was called so, yes wok, there were more than 4 and they kept drawing names until all the prizes were gone :lol: A few of the stands also had boxes in which you dropped your business card to go a draw to win other prizes. Of course, the downside of this is you end up on their emailing lists :roll: In our case we then get everything twice!! :-? In past years, when it was resellers only, we would take our son and sign him up as a staff member so would get stuff 3x :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 Please tell me what the show is? Micro = small roadshow = a tour in many centres Ingram = misspelt chicken? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsarmina Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Ingram Micro is a Wholesaler, supplying computer hardware / software / consumables, as well as some other odds and ends. they have over 30,000 products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Thanks for that Ive never heard of them (but bet theyve never heard of me either :oops: ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 I never thought of them as a misspelled chicken :lol: Ingram Micro are the wholesaler from whom we buy a lot of our computer and peripheral stuff (printers, scanners, cameras, hard drives etc etc etc). I assume the Micro comes from Microsoft. Every year they do a roadshow in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch where they set up in a large venue in each city and have displays from the various companies whose products we buy from Ingram Micro (eg HP, Canon, Acer, 3M, Kyocera and many more). It is a chance for resellers, especially us little ones, to get a look at new products coming out, (being pushed) and time to have a play with some stuff we are unable to keep in stock (unlike the big chain stores) etc. It can be hard to sell a customer something when you have not actually seen it yourself, except on paper or screen. This gives us the opportunity to not only see the product, but to have a play with it too. We can also have questions answered and often get problems solved. We can gather CDs of information, product catalogues and leaflets to show our customers. It is also a chance to gather useless freebies :lol: . I have a great pen collection, a few post it pads, rulers, mini flashlight, bottle opener, a number of keyrings, stress relievers (you know those squeegie balls and stuff), Chupa Chups (I ate all the chocolate), caps, reusable carry bags and, a sign of the times, a couple of squirty bottles of disinfectant spray. :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsarmina Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 ok, i definitely have to get to the next wellington one! i agree, it is very hard to explain to your customers what a product is or does if you haven't seen it for yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 They are worth attending Tsar and we find them fun and informative. Of course, you have to listen to a lot of sales pitches! :roll: :lol: They are heldaround this time every year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsarmina Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 yeah, we get the email invites to them, but it always seems to occur just as we get really busy at home, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Not many this year we didn't think (although more than 4), compared to previous shows. We thought there were fewer exhibitors too. One said there were actually more exhibitors but they used smaller spaces for their displays but another agreed there were fewer of them. We certainly felt there were fewer resellers than previous years. The big draws have 12 prizes with 2 of them being booby prizes. Or it might have been 10 and 2 booby prizes. You had a form you had to get stamped from 10 exhibitors and the card went into a big clear box which they spun each time then rummaged through to grab a form. The person named had to be present at the draw. When your name was called you went up, answered a "skill" question" and then got to choose which coloured box you wanted. In each box was an envelope which was then opened and the prize read out. I went totally blank on my first skill question when he asked me what IT stood for :lol: . Luckily Grant reminded me (they don't mind if you get told the answer by someone else). On the last draw, a lot of the entrants must have left early as they drew 5 or 6 names of people who didn't answer when their name was called so, yes wok, there were more than 4 and they kept drawing names until all the prizes were gone :lol: A few of the stands also had boxes in which you dropped your business card to go a draw to win other prizes. Of course, the downside of this is you end up on their emailing lists :roll: In our case we then get everything twice!! :-? In past years, when it was resellers only, we would take our son and sign him up as a staff member so would get stuff 3x :lol: I also think there were less exhibitors. They also had cheaper stuff on display rather than the flashy stuff no one has enough money to buy. I guess it's a sign of the recession though. Trying to get sales of things people might want to buy. I haven't managed to win any prizes in the years I have attended ... no fair As far as the name goes, I'm pretty sure the Micro isn't to do with Microsoft. Ingram Micro (formerly TechPac in NZ) is I think the worlds largest IT hardware distributor. They're certainly NZ's largest wholesaler. They have a large base of specialist staff and stock or can get almost any IT related brand you can think of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Grant tells me the micro bit originally came from microprocessor. He is a geek (and a nerd) so is probably right :roll: They have reduced what they bring to display in the South Island because of transport costs, so one of the dealers told Grant. We used to find it annoying that they would display all the big ticket items, suitable for big business, when our customer base is small business and home users. There was a lot less on display this year too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 so are you telling me that my working our of the name was slightly off target? small dumb chickens that are on the road :oops: Caryl, Most large companies show what they want to sell and rearly target what the retail is needing Its interesting that in a down turn, companies increase advertising and trying to sell to those that either havnt got the money or are not opening the budget books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Grant tells me the micro bit originally came from microprocessor. He is a geek (and a nerd) so is probably right :roll: They have reduced what they bring to display in the South Island because of transport costs, so one of the dealers told Grant. We used to find it annoying that they would display all the big ticket items, suitable for big business, when our customer base is small business and home users. There was a lot less on display this year too. Hehe I'm the opposite. I go to those kind of events to see what big ticket items I should be looking at. This year I was quite disappointed. However, I now have about $100k worth of product to investigate for the next financial year You could definitely tell that the majority of people were interested in the smb / home user products though. The stands for the bigger ticket items had less people around them (good for me) and the seminars for products from Dlink were full whereas NetApp was empty. The Datastor forum is a much better event for big ticket items. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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