Helitech Portugal, 5-7/10/10

[Andy Healey]

Hello all. I'm organising a conference on 21st Century Training here in the autumn and want to run a discussion forum on how to deal with a perceived skills gap as we baby-boomers head off into the sunset. That's front, back seat and ground crews. I'm told that's a live topic in several sectors, notably firefighting and SAR, but I'd like to pick your massive collective brain to discover:


Is it a problem?
If so, where is it (or will it be) most prevalent?
How are people addressing it?
Do you think such a discussion would be valuable?


All comments gratefully received. This isn't a huge money-making enterprise btw, we plan just to cover costs. Looking forward to some feedback.

[Dantruck]

Count me in Andy:)

I can always nip across from LEAX, especially if you're buying the beer.:ok:

Dan

[SHortshaft]

Was HeliTech Portugal 2010 a disaster or just a disappointment?

Less than half the size it was last time I am told. A plus this year was the on-site restaurant with its €30+ special...a minus was that the restaurant seemed to take up 25% of the show floor space.

If this is a sign of the helicopter industry’s recovery then maybe it will / should be the last of its type.

If you were one of the others in the couple of dozen people that made it to Estoril what do you think?

[Rabina]

The show was just plain poor. Not the organization, but simply the fact that there were not enough attendees or exhibitors. There seemed to be more booths selling magazine advertising rather than real helicopter products. Only Eurocopter and AW were there as manufacturers, no Bell, PZL or Sikorsky.

This show can't go on in this guise. It needs to be somewhere more heli-oriented than Lisbon. Marseille-Marignane or Nice possibly?

[heli1]

Agree with Rabina...complete waste of time with just a handful of helicopters ,a poorly attended conference and mostly magazines and small exhibitors talking to each other though a lack of customers.Even the weather was crap!
Still I noticed Ned's booth was completely empty so he obviously made the right decision !

[Ned-Air2Air]

Heli1 - Glad someone noticed I wasnt there :}

Actually had a family emergency so had to pull the plug at the last minute and stay close to family here in Sydney for a weeks period. So made the trip to Bathurst for the V8 Supercars instead for my motor racing mag since it is only couple of hours from Sydney, which is where I needed to be for family reasons.

Sue and their team run a good show, maybe its just the wrong location which I tend to think is more the case. Portugal is too far off the beaten track, my suggestion would be Sion or Nice or maybe even on the outskirts of Paris. I think attendance would be much more there.

I will be at HeliTech in the UK next year so stop in there, will be there for sure.

Ned

[PANews]

Although I can fully understand all of the negative comments - really only day one worked in a broad sense - there were many plus attributes about the event that should perhaps be highlighted.

The event was not a complete waste of time for everyone I met. I know of two exhibitors that appear to have [surprised even themselves] with the level of customer interest and even sales talk [each subject to confirmation by signature on the dotted line].

Why? Well reading between the lines on both of them there have been other show cancellations across the planet due to the recession and it is clear that these customers came to the product because it was not locally available.

As I have business in Spain next year it suited me to find all the Iberian 'targets' in the same place. For me that aspect worked and moving the event to anywhere outside Spain and Portugal would not serve anybody. It may be Helitech Europe but it is also one of the few venues in that part of the Europe. There are lots of similar events in France and Germany.

The handful of helicopters - most of which were there last time, less a few - were a great disapointment and must surely either indicate the recession we all know is there or a wish not to pander to spotters - or maybe both. The majority were based at Cascais/Tirez and simply pushed out of the hangar. last time it was later and the fire season was over so there were more options including the plank wing fire stuff complementing that tired old Short 360 airliner.

I would be the first to criticise the air display bit. The only change from last year seems to have been that the water drops missed dousing the fire fighters on the ground and this year the ground based fire trucks did not have to rescue a situation where the demonstrating water bomber clearly failed to control the controlled fire by putting it out!

The poorly attended conference reflected the weather and a realisation that the tale that the Portuguese do not do rain is not far off the mark.

Mostly magazines is a bit far off the mark thanks to Ned's absence! But yes there were a few too many as a ratio to the real traders but that is fairly common with most events [in the recession?]

I am not sure why the small exhibitors are singled out for talking to each other through a lack of customers. Shows are about that very thing and if anything rescued the event it was that. All events are about Networking, talking turkey and hopefully picking up customers from a new part of the world where there are few other options.

That happened quite widely.:ok:

[Rabina]

I'm not trying to put the Portugese show down, but even the most talented spin doctor couldn't make this show any more than what it was; which was a very poorly attended event with less notable exhibitors than the premier event 2 years ago.

I'm not questioning the validity of the show, just the location as others have said. Give it an airport in a place that people know and go about their daily aviation business. Cascais is not a major field and will never attract but a fraction of the HAI or Helitech Duxford crowd. I'd go along with Sion, Marseille, Nice, Lyon, Milano or even Issy (if they don't bulldoze the site soon) options as alternates. To make these shows work with decent attendance you need to attract the major manufacturers which has a knock down effect to enforce their suppliers to show up, etc. A few years ago, there was another heli event in Geneva trying to use the EBACE concept, it failed miserably and was a one-off. Just my $ 0.02, which isn't worth very much these days.

[PANews]

I remember that event in Geneva. It failed miserably in a period when trade was pretty good. Indeed I think it actually managed to be worse overall than last weeks Helitech [which is being generous].

I recall that the Helitech team were trying to get the mainland Europe event set up in Spain and had just given up on their quest when Cascais officials and the locally based operators made a promising offer that led to the present location.

I suspect it is not just a case of 'pull a preferred name out of a hat' as has been suggested in this thread so far. Pick the name of a grass strip somewhere in central Europe and it WILL be better that Cascais to someone - possibly everyone who does not do business on the Iberian peninsular. The people running Helitech have clearly examined that option and tripped up over some vested interest somewhere, just like it seems they did in Spain. If you want a GA or helicopter show in the areas mentioned you will be running slap into the likes of EBACE, Berlin, Friedrichafen, Bitburg all of which have a desire to soak up helicopters - but none of which address the Iberian region.

I wonder if the complaints in this thread would be less if the event was held in Cascais Town Hall? No real helicopters at all then.

The real answer to the core of this thread can only be given by the exhibitors, llarge and small. If they sign up again to 2012 the event will happen. If they do not, game over.:ouch:

[SayItIsntSo]

In my e-mail box today I received a news letter Reed Exhibitions that declared:

Helitech Portugal 2010

A great sucess

Helitech Portugal attrached 1,600 attendees for three days of face to face business between key rotary personnel and industry leaders. The exhibition offered visitors the opportunity to view the latest cutting edge products and services, applications and technologies from the rotary industry, attend the conference and watch the live aerial firefighting displays.
The Helitech team wants to thank everyone who attended for making it such a success."

Apart from the need to run a spell checker on the article I find it to be an excercise in 'spin'. I am in agreement with those that posted earlier questioning the future of such shows and whether they represented value for money for the business visitor.

[PANews]

There is little doubt that spin is the game here and with other shows, but as I said the only decision being made here will be by exhibitors - in two years time. The organisers can spin away but it is the opinions of those that pay the bills that matter.

Since originally posting this reply I have heard that there have been changes at the organisers of Helitech and that the long standing organiser Sue Bradshaw no longer works for Reed. If true this tends to confirm that perceived poor show performance will have its 'fallout' and staff will change.

The same applies with the Dubai Helishow.

The organisers claimed that 3,000 people would be attending. They did not.

Sitting there in a hall far more vast than the facilities at Cascais [twiddling my thumbs] I doubt I counted 250 different faces over three days. Lets be kind and say 500......

Day 1 and Day 2 were really dire. But the feedback on day 3 was that it was the right 250 that came through the door - maybe 150 of them on that last day!