Over the past month, we have hosted our first round of Showcase days where we invited our resellers to spend the day with us at our UK office. The purpose of these days was to rebuild relationship after the challenges of the past two years and to interactively showcase our full product range. In reflecting on these days, we’ve realised that they have been even more successful in even more ways than we had first hoped.

We started the day with coffee and in great British fashion by discussing our respective journeys and the recent weather. Things got more interesting as we took a trip through our thirty-year history, referencing our recently updated cabinet containing the evolution of our tachograph download products, as well as other hardware and software projects that we have developed over the years.

We then continued with an office tour and an introduction to our team; venturing through our warehouse space, exploring the full scope of our 3D printers and the workshop room and explaining our stock, packaging, labelling and production methods. We then ventured upstairs into the development zone where dreams come true, or more appropriately; where concepts emerge, firmware is written, hardware designed and products are established.

Having met the team, we then moved out onto our mezzanine to begin the product showcase. In the space of a couple of hours we worked through our entire product range; taking time to explore the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of each product, getting hands-on and asking and answering questions.

This was a mutually helpful time. For us as a manufacturer it was useful to hear how our products are being used across the industry, to gain insight and feedback, as well as to take note of opportunities for further development to better serve our resellers and their customers. For our resellers, they were able to deepen their understanding of our products, to discover features they didn’t know existed and to physically interact with our products, particularly our handheld devices (which many of them hadn’t done before).

We deliberately made time over lunch not just for food, but for conversation and (optional) fun. One of our foundational values is relationship and so it was important that we caught up with those we’ve known for years and got to know those that we hadn’t previously met. With Scalextric, table tennis and our very own Mat Games (more on that another time), it was good to be able to socialise with something a little different and to talk about more than just business.

After lunch, we shared some of our latest product developments; taking time to unpack the process we’ve been through and the reasons for the development. It also allowed us to discuss both the practical and the principle of the new products, to gain early feedback and industry thought – this all being a hugely vital part of our product development cycle. We’ll be releasing more information about these in the coming months.

With the last hour or so of the day, we were able to target specific topics of discussion or training needs to each of our resellers. Having time face to face to troubleshoot on issues, dive deeper into some of the more specialist sides of our products and digicentral, to talk through sales and marketing strategies and to discuss business needs going forward were what really helped round off the day, where everyone was able to feel the benefit of our time together.

We are looking forward to hosting many more of our Showcase days in the coming months and years. If, as one of our resellers you would be interested in attending one, please contact us.

To the rest of you we hope to see you at either:

ITT Hub 11-12 May at Farnborough International

The CV Show 24-26 May at the NEC Birmingham