September 4-7, 2019 – Friedrichshafen, Germany
With summer shuffling swiftly into autumn, the world’s bike industry descended on the sleepy town of Friedrichshafen once again at the start of September for Eurobike 2019. As has been the case for close to 30 years, this trade fair – located a stone’s throw from the picturesque Lake Constance – opened its airy halls last week to companies wanting to showcase their brand new equipment, and the 138 crew pitched up again to represent our clients Dainese, Giro Sport Design and Messe München… though this time, we literally pitched up: our entire team was camped out in the parking lot for the event’s duration, serving breakfast each morning to our spiderweb of contacts as they traipsed their way into the trade show. 138 Breakfast – On Tour!
Of course we, like most people in attendance, spent the majority of our time cruising the boothes, representing the clients we handle PR and communication for and doing that well-known trade show tango of twirling from one meeting to another until you realise you haven’t eaten since breakfast. It was this latter point that led us to think about offering our contacts something a little different this year, a little more… filling.
Each month at our office HQ in Munich we lay on breakfast for our network of clients, colleagues and friends, so knowing that a bunch of brands organise early morning bike rides at Eurobike, that the halls can be hectic and that a good, healthy breakfast is essential, we decided it was the perfect time to take this 138 institution on the road! Each morning, from 7-9am, we laid on a spread of nutritious pancakes, muesli, fresh fruit, tea and coffee with which our contacts could fuel up on before starting their day-long meeting marathons.
As with our Munich-based gatherings, the 138 Eurobike Breakfasts were authentic, informal get-togethers, with no agenda beyond catching up, swapping stories and making connections. And eating good food. Of course, media could also take the opportunity to get information on the key stories from the brands we represent outside of the more hectic in-hall environs, but primarily our goal was to be able to hang out with people we work with regularly but only manage to meet in person a couple of times a year.
And we can happily report that the breakfasts were a great success! Over the three mornings, more than 60 friends swung by our glamping spot in the East parking lot – a mish-mash of journalists, partners and assorted industry folk from across the world – to have their bellies filled, their caffeine levels topped up to ‘trade fair-ready’ and to get the lowdown on each other’s latest projects.
The feedback of our breakfasteers was overwhelmingly positive, so much so that this is by no means the last event that you’ll see us in breakfast camp mode at. The ‘138 Most Important Meal Of The Day Tour’ will keep on rolling – coming to a venue near you soon!
