SPEAKERS CORNER
well, not really but I’m sure the time will come when each coastal town will have it’s own exhibition!
The list is endless and it must be a logistical nightmare for the
exhibiting companies,
who in the main, tend to be the same major players targeting the same major
clients.
So, where do we go to find the key to unlock this treasure trove of opportunities?
Well, a good first port of call is the vast amount of resource available in the ether, sorry, I mean the internet. Google is happy to provide list after list of wind- energy this, wind-farm that, renewable- this and offshore-that…….. ream after ream of rainforest-dependent paper can be printed out providing a huge untapped reservoir of potential contacts all ready and waiting to be contacted by a new army of suppliers. Just have a look for “Wind Industry Organisations” and you will see what I mean.
Once you have trawled through this fascinating network of organisations, committees, quangos, federations and charities (yes, there is even a charity devoted to offshore windfarm activity… honestly !), the key players soon become apparent.
Without wanting to plug any of these or single out any one organisation for particular praise, these are the main trade bodies representing the major windturbine manufacturers and are as good a point to start as anywhere in terms of aligning your organisation within the industry.
The good thing about all this exposure Once you’ve worked your way through that lot, you
then come to the vast array of Government bodies that are available – this starts with the Chambers of Commerce, BusinessLink, Envirolink, UKTI, DECC and so on. If you manage to connect with the right people in the right department (and this is no easy feat…….. you need to persevere!) you can find genuinely useful individuals who have the resources and commitment to help companies just like ours.
What impact the latest Government spending cuts will have on these organisations and the funds that were available is anyone’s guess. From our perspective, we received superb support to help us have a presence at the recent Husum exhibition and also some funding for travel costs.
This neatly leads us on to our other main resource of information – attendance at exhibitions.
If you have the time, money and energy, you could spend more or less the whole year moving from one exotic location to another following the raft of exhibitions like a kind ofWind Energy groupie! Fancy the delights of Shanghai in January? Dubai in February? Rome in September? Amsterdam in November? Aberdeen in May? Skegness in ...
is that it allows you to get an overall view of the wind market quite easily and very quickly – the bigger problem is to find the right contacts at the right company. As an example, one organisation we approached at an exhibition was growing so quickly they really had no idea who was responsible for which department and there was an air of organised gold-rush style chaos.
And finally, what about an old-fashioned direct approach without the use of any Government agency, website, or exhibition? The short answer is – it still works!
The main problem at the moment is that we all seem to be getting ready for an industry that is not yet up and running in this country. We all know it’s coming, we all know there are going to be great opportunities but the great unknown at the moment is – when?
As I said earlier – interesting times indeed.
John Deasey Slingco Ltd
www.cablegrip.com
Wind Energy NETWORK
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