Joyce's Column: November

Last month we had a successful ACOS show at the ILEC Conference Centre within the IBIS Hotel, Earls Court area, London and I have to say this really was a great show both in product and attendance, and Karen Codd of Swan Events deserves a great round of applause from everyone for the organising of this show.

Exhibitors had nothing but good things to say about the show, Tony Morrison of Innovative Technology said this was the best show they had been to in years, GeWeTe’s Mark Edmundson was also upbeat stating they had transacted business and received lots of enquiries and on the amusements side Martin Austin of Cosmic Leisure had been non-stop on his stand with visitors.

Cosmic Leisure had some very eye catching cranes on their stand including Aries 3 and Rainbow aptly named as it is offered in the 7 colours of the rainbow, both are prize every time cranes with a percentage control, 3 different sizes of grab dependent on the size of plush, retractable plinth, tempered glass and can be linked together, no wonder visitors were stopping at their stand it was just too good to walk on by without stopping, regardless of what Dionne Warwick would have said!!

The evening out for both exhibitors and visitors to the show was absolutely splendid, held across the road at The Prince which in itself is an awesome venue, drinks, food (yes proper food) and music were provided from 6pm until 11pm and it was absolutely packed with everyone enjoying themselves. Martin Austin went to get me a Prosecco and lo and behold came back with a bottle in of course an ice bucket, I did share it around I might add, and I enjoyed my boogie with 7’s Above Ian Pawson. This was a great networking event and I saw many people there that wouldn’t normally attend some of the after -show gatherings, but I think this one has set a precedent for any future ones, no matter at what show. The only thing missing at The Prince was Guinness, which disappointed some of the men mainly, but hey you will be able to drink it to your hearts content if you attend the Irish show on March 5/6 2024 at The Crowne Plaza, so maybe something for you to consider and of course you are also assured of great craic in Ireland too, so what are you waiting for, well I know March 5/6 2024!!

Thanks as always to HC Terminals Bob Hepworth, Tim and Josh Stayman for their company after this get together and the meal we had in Earls Court despite the fact that the restaurant didn’t really want us, but Bob being Bob made them get some food they kept saying we couldn’t have, so a great finale to the end of the night.

The previous evening Steph and myself went to an Italian restaurant in Kensington, the décor was lovely and the plates on the table were like side plates and we thought that this was probably for a complimentary starter they were going to give us, but how wrong we were, those side plates were for our meal. Steph settled on king prawns and was told is would be 4 king prawns which was quite a surprise, I had sea bass fillet and luckily enough I ordered some roast potatoes to accompany it so we both shared them. Mind you the gin and tonics they had my favourite Gin Mare and the red wine were excellent, and of course so was Steph’s company, so all in all we had a great evening, finishing back at the Ibis for a nightcap of course, as one does.

NSM’s Martin Agabeg surprised me at ACOS when he told me he had been at NSM for 40 years, gosh Martin you must have started there as a child as you look too well to have been there for 40 years, anyway well done, and here’s to the next well not 40 years, but many years to come.

I saw Intergame’s Philip Clegg at ACOS and guess what he’s threatening to retire in March 2024, notice I said the word THREATENING? Philip says he remembers me from the first day he joined World’s Fair as a 17 year old, and he thought I was a formidable woman. I’m not really as I think you have found out over the years Philip, I might be strong but I do not think I am frightening, well I hope not anyway.

I was talking to Marc Miller and his lovely wife Jo at ACOS and it had just appeared in the tabloid press about thrill seekers being left dangling 32ft in the air when their seaside roller coaster at Adventure Island, Southend on Sea had got stuck, anyway a platform was raised and rescued 7 people from a car at a 90 degree angle and all were safe and sound, and in good spirits. The ride re-opened later after it had been fully tested and guess what the ones that had been rescued were the first ones to come back to ride again, they obviously thought they got great thrills and value for money Marc, after all they did get extra time on their ride. Well done on getting the riders down safe and sound, that is what I call a good operator, puts the safety of his customers as a priority.

Sorry that Sega’s Peter Murphy didn’t make it to the show on the last day, he apparently wasn’t too well on the first day, but by the second day he was worse, I do hope it wasn’t too serious Peter (or PM as I call him) and you were missed on the second day.

It was nice to meet 2 new members of staff on the Sega stand these were a young lady called Isabella Garrett (Izzy) who has joined them on the STS (Sega Total Solutions) sales-spares division and a young man called James Clark who has joined them on the EMEA sales division, both of them were enjoying the show and their time with Sega, and hopefully they will be long stayers. Anyway, welcome to our wonderful industry and you can rest assured you won’t be a stranger with us.

John Vallis was also enjoying his new role with Innovative Technology and he is dealing with the Biometric Facial Recognition and Anonymous Age Estimation products, assisting to develop existing markets whilst exploring new market segments. The release of these 2 solutions have caused real excitement in numerous different markets and are very much a part of now and the future.

John’s move to ITL was somewhat of a whirlwind and so far it has been great and he says being part of ITL and the team he feels as if he’s got the old ’JV get up and go’ back again, which for him is very important for his own self esteem. Well done John on such a good move for both you and ITL. 

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29 November 2023

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