The launch of the new extra heavy duty platform, Topdeck Premier, at ABTT was an unprecedented success. Demountable stage orders were taken on the stand for the first time in the 17 years we have been exhibiting.
This year’s show at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in the East End was a complete departure from the leafy surroundings in Westminster we have previously enjoyed. Last year we have met our potential customers to the background soundtrack of leather on willow emanating from the School cricket field opposite. This year, setting up the stand in a multi-storey car park left you in no doubt the game had changed. More “West Side Story” than Noel Coward’s “Hay Fever”. However, if that is what we have to do to sell our portable stages, then we have booked our parking space for next year already!
Michael Varley, the person many of you will talk to when you phone the Mainstage office, was on a show for the first time. He could not believe the level of interest in our whole range of products, but was especially thrilled with how many were interested in our new Bleacher portable seating tiers, as he had a hand in designing them. As Michael said, looking around the show I now realise that we seem to be the only UK Company making a range of staging and seating products, that people actually want.
Alongside Premier and Bleacher, we were showing for the first time our Debut Silhouette. Designed specifically as a raised drama block to aid imaginative drama in studios, the matt black finish is finding interest in a lot of places. We are using a revolutionary textured black paint finish to the metal to achieve the completely non reflective surface. Together with the new reversible tops, that are carpeted on one side and either painted by us, or left natural on the other to allow the user to apply their own paintwork, the Debut Silhouette is an economical solution so lightweight, that no single element weighs more that 7Kg. Thus making it ideal as a: stage for schools, a stage for drama studios, or even a stage for exhibitions.