16 January 2011

Ich bin in Deutschland


Actually, I'm not there yet. I leave tomorrow. 

For the next six days I'll be in Cologne and other points in northern Germany on a trip sponsored by Blanco. While there, I'll be touring four different Blanco factories, attending the internationale möbelmesse, or IMM and at long last, visiting the Cologne Cathedral. In what promises to be a lifetime highlight, I'll meet with Blanco's industrial design department on Thursday.


As I mentioned earlier, I'll be at the internationale möbelmesse and I'll be there on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.  The IMM is the world's premier showcase of new furniture and products for the home.


Last year's IMM had 1500 exhibitors and had 100,000 visitors from all points of the globe. This year's expo promises to be even bigger and for the first time in the 62 years of the show's existence, there will be a separate exhibit for the international kitchen and bath industry and they're calling it The Living Kitchen.


The Living Kitchen has its own website and from the looks of things it will surpass the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in the US in size and scale.

I'll be blogging and Tweeting from Germany (albeit sporadically) as part of an industry press junket courtesy of Blanco. If you're on Twitter, please follow me as my timeline there will be live from the floor of the show and the other points I cover this week. My Twitter handle is @Paul_Anater. I'll post updates to Facebook and FourSquare as well.


Blanco is a German sink and fixture manufacturer and their products are widely available worldwide. I sit on Blanco's Design Council, an honor I've held for the last year. It's through my involvement with Blanco's Design Council that I'm Cologne bound.

There are five other Design Council members going on this trip. That all six of us know each other already will make this trip even more memorable that it would have been otherwise. My traveling companions to Cologne are Jamie Goldberg, Cheryl Kees-Clendenon, Susan SerraLeslie Clagett and Kevin Henry. Five out of the Cologne Six are are part of the Blogger 19 interestingly enough. What year this has been. Whew!

Needless to say, I'm beyond exited. Thank you again and in advance to Blanco and their representation in the US for this honor.

6 comments:

  1. Have fun!! I'll be thinking of you! Post from the road if you get time. BTW, thanks for the tip about the gardening gloves.I just got a pair.

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  2. Thanks Melody, you'll get plenty of use from those gloves. When are you off to Costa Rica?

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  3. 509 stairs...to the top of the cathedral in Cologne. My sister and I hiked it when we stayed in Germany for two months in high school. Advice--don't wash down aspirin with a milk shake beforehand--especially if the aspirin is in a fizzing alka-seltzer type tablet form and you don't realize it until later when your German friends translate (and you realize that you aren't imagining your desperate thirst and upset stomach). I will never forget those stairs.

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  4. I will remember that travel tip Sara, thank you. How's the mosaic scene in Germany I wonder.

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  5. Hi Paul

    Are you going to living kitchen again - and with BLANCO?

    Sarah

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  6. I am going back to Cologne in January, yes. However, I'm not going with Blanco this time.

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