Host Milano – Setting up the ACS Stand
I actually arrived on the afternoon of the 16th October and was whisked by Truck to the Host exhibition centre, back door pavilion 18. There was still some stuff to unload as Paolo and team had driven 800Km the day before arriving in Milan the previous evening. I left my luggage in the truck and helped complete unloading. We finished around 7:30 pm, there wasn’t much more we could do as electrics, lighting,plumbing and some painting still needed completion.
We arrived at 7:30 am on the 17th with 14 hours left before the centre closed to get everything ready for opening on the 18th. There was a lot to do.
Hopefully the Video gives a flavour of what it was like, sorry about the quality. If I learned one thing about host, it was that I need a better smartphone!
Host Milano – Early one Morning
It was early on the first day of the exhibition, the ACS stand was set up, so time to go and browse a small part of one of the 6 huge pavilions. Sorry about the quality, but it’s a cheapo chinese phone and perhaps I need something a little better. my excuse for a decent Christmas present perhaps.
It’s a long video, so probably only for diehard coffee fans, really I just did it to give a flavour of what it was like. Soon to come some video of the ACS stand and the setting up(once I’ve edited it). Plus some machines more familiar to home users in the UK.
Host Milano 2019 Oct 18-22 – The Arrival
Finally got home late last night just after midnight. Really got a flavour for what it’s like to visit and to exhibit at Host. It runs every two years and makes anything we have in the UK look tiny in comparison. The Coffee and Beverage area alone is huge and all the time I was there, I didn’t get the chance to see the entire exhibition. I flew out last Tuesday evening and spent 7 days in Milan, all of it apart from evenings at Host.
Tuesday evening – Picked up by truck from Milan Airport and whisked to, no not my hotel…but to an exhibition stand still being painted/constructed, as were all the others, with carpenters, electricians etc.. preparing all the booths. We unloaded all the stuff and went away.
Wednesday and Thursday working from 7:00 until 7 and 8 pm – Started setting up the stand with all the kit and getting everything looking (and working) well. It’s a lot more work than it looks, especially as there was no plan as such. It was more of a concept held in a couple of Italian brains, that was quite fluid. Late on Thursday it was all ready. A walk around just 2 of the 8 pavilions confirmed how huge the whole thing was and it appeared to have mushroomed almost overnight from a bare hall to a fully fledged exhibition. The only thing missing was carpet, just a grey concrete floor. Met a few people who wandered over to say hello. Although I have communicated with them via e-mail I had never seen them. Michael who owns ECM was a lot younger than I expected but spoke perfect English and worked alongside his team the entire exhibition.
I did wander around that evening, seeing the final touches before opening and more than a few people recognised me?? I’m suspecting through reflections in Video and photos, as I try not to publish my photo on the web.
Friday Morning – Everything ready and working, the exhibition sprang into life (Carpets laid during the night). Doors open and along come resellers, buyers and retailers from all over the world. Probably the least represented nationality was the UK and everyone commented that although not many from the UK attend, this year it was even less. There were a few vloggers and bloggers, daughters, sons and heirs…but in reality this was a trade show for the trade. It’s not cheap to set up a stand there, some companies had obviously spent a huge amount to be there. It got busier and busier…Israel, Greece, Ukraine, Spain, Germany Holland, USA, Australia, Ireland etc.. Luckily we had enough of the languages within our group and many people spoke good English. I was required to translate for the Dublin and Australian guys of course because English speakers in our team couldn’t understand them….the Irish guys from Dublin who were wandering around the exhibition were probably having the most trouble
The Coffee and just about everything else started flowing and Ripples who were next to us started the music! Thankfully this was in short bursts, but ripples was like 12 young people on speed having lots of fun, I really feared some of them were going to drop dead.
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I only popped up to get an adaptor from upstairs and let the Crem One 2B finish warming up after it’s firmware update (I had been running some older firmware for a few weeks while Crem made some changes I asked for) and thought I could start on my thoughts about Host 2019. More to come if people are interested, plus photos and video.
Intermission
So a brief interlude from continuing my diary entries for the exhibition. There was so much to see it made my eyes hurt. Some madness from Faber, which had a range of normal pod machines, but also these steampunk style pod oddities. I almost wanted one….but only if I could make my own pods.
I think they actually worked as the motorcycle (or lawnmower) cylinder one had a set of rubber gaskets on the cylinder and a heater plus other bits as well…
Also nice to see Macap finally fighting back…unless it’s too expensive for the home market…..70mm burrs if I remember rightly. This is the Digital Model and there is the non digital version which they expect the home user to buy because of the price. It has a micrometric adjuster which can be dropped to allow fast knob rotation to move to brew and back. They are prototypes so price not yet disclosed. Size wise that leaflet if a few cm larger than a postcard, so it’s not a huge grinder. The hopper was from a domestic model, the actual hopper was much larger as they have not yet manufactured the mini hopper for this grinder (wasn’t time).
Coffee Equipment Reviews 