Day 4. Wednesday 17 June 2009
June 19, 2009
Luckily, the sun is still shining on Paris for the fourth full day of the Paris Air Show! I honestly thought today might be less hectic, but I was wrong. Both the ITT stand and the chalet were fully booked with customer meeting and media interviews for the day. Mike LoDebole and Mike Alvis were running the Paris Air Show marathon today as each had a full day of meetings with international Marketing Representatives (IMRs) from Poland, Italy and others to discuss opportunities in their respective regions. I don’t know how Mike LoDebole kept all the meetings in order; he literally had meetings back-to-back starting at 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. He was running back and forth from the ITT stand to the ITT chalet. Luckily for him the chalet is within walking distance of the ITT booth. If you need to go to another chalet for a meeting, you are probably better off walking than navigating a golf cart through the sea of people walking around. It is very crowded and people don’t seem to want to move out of the way especially when the air show starts, people stop where they are and just watch. I can’t really blame them either because it is a great show to watch.
While Mike L. was running the marathon of customer meetings, Mike Alvis stepped away to give two media interviews today with Tom Withington, a freelance writer who writes for Armada International and Digital Battlespace and another with David Saw, a journalist from Asian Defence and Diplomacy. Both reporters write for solid trade publications and Mike gave them an overview of Night Vision and established a relationship with the reporters.
During the Paris Air Show, ITT Chairman and CEO Steve Loranger and ITT Defense & Electronic Services President Dave Melcher gave several media interviews including top-tier publications such as CNBC, CNN International and Defense News. During the interviews, Mr. Loranger and Mr. Melcher answered questions about ITT’s aerospace and defense products and services. Their interviews are online for ITT employees to watch. To view the interviews click on the following link http://www.defensenews.com/osd_multimedia.php?o=VSDP
http://www.itt.com/video/paris-air-show/
As the day went on, we were again greeted by the sights and sounds of the Paris Air Show. The sounds make your ears ring for hours after the show and some people are starting to lose their voice from trying to speak over the jet engines. If you don’t stop to watch the show for a few minutes, you are missing out on a spectacle. The aerobatics and sophistication in which the pilots use to perform stops you in your tracks. This is one of the largest air shows in the world, and people from all over the world descend onto Paris for a few days every other year in June to attend the show. ITT definitely made a solid footprint at the Paris Air Show, and we made our competitors, customers and the media take notice of ITT. Night Vision held successful customer meetings and engaged the media at the show. Overall I would classify the Paris Air Show as a success for ITT and especially Night Vision.
