IBM
0193 IBM EXHIBIT2
Towards the end of my time with IBM, I ran a very sophisticated IBM exhibition; called, appropriately, ‘EXHIBIT’. It initially ran for six weeks in the UK, although it then toured Europe for three more years. It was carried on no less than 22 forty foot container lorries, which brought traffic in Kensington to a standstill when they arrived – even though this was arranged for a Sunday. It cost £1.5 million for the UK's first six weeks. Over the whole 3 years the cost must have been near to £50 million, making it one of the most expensive exhibitions ever.
The overall logistics were spectacular. In its first six weeks in the UK just under 100,000 people passed through it. The greatest problem was finding IBMers to staff it. During any one day we needed 70 staff, with a complex two-shift system to cover the manning from 9.30 am to 10.30 pm. To make matters worse, it ran for seven days a week. Of these 70 staff, at least 50 needed to be trained IBMers, to man the more than 20 separate exhibits. Recognising the inevitable problems (where, because of the training needed, these staff had to be at the exhibition for at least a whole week, and preferably for two) we concentrated on using trainees.
It was opened by the Tory Minister for Education, the government’s its right wing guru, Michael Joseph. Give him his due, he took it seriously, and I spent a number of afternoons sitting with his parliamentary secretary, working up his speech. I thought I had better get the best police protection for him, since it was at the time when the IRA was very active, and he was a senior member of the cabinet. To my surprise I was told “He’s not on our list”, and the protection was refused. Even when I got the police sniffer dogs in to search for bombs before he arrived, the handlers wouldn’t send them under the structure – because it would have been too dangerous for the dogs. In any case, the handlers said, “they never find anything”! Eventually, the police did send a PC to ‘protect’ him. She was an 18 years old trainee!
IBM eventually had nearly 200 trainees involved. Even so, we needed two admin staff dedicated (for a total of nearly three months) to finding, and then ensuring they attended, the 300 man-weeks of effort needed. We typically had to run with just 30 IBMers at a time, making up the difference with specially trained temps.
The EXHIBIT building itself was designed by Renzo Piano It was a glorious confection of wood and polycarbonate; based on pyramids linked together to form a long tunnel. It cost several million pounds to manufacture. I well remember one garden centre owner who, having seen it on television, travelled down from Yorkshire - wanting to buy it once it had been taken down again. He wanted to use it for his new reception building. He was disappointed that we were next taking it on to Copenhagen, and shocked when told how much it would cost to build another one!
There actually were two complete buildings, which leapfrogged each other, since it took something like six weeks to assemble them. Renzo Piano, however, insisted on holding all the intellectual property rights to the building – so he had to agree to any changes we needed to make. When the building actually arrived, the emergency exits were boldly marked in green with Italian word ‘Uscita’; since it had come from Italy. As this was not terribly helpful for the British public, and was totally unacceptable to the safety inspectors, it had to be changed to the regulation ‘Emergency Exit’. Obtaining approval from Renzo for this change took the best part of two weeks of haggling.
Just as annoying, British Telecomm failed to deliver a key TP line in time – until I explained that I would point out this fact in ten foot high letters for all 100,000 visitors to see. The line was working within three hours after that.
Then, at the last minute – timed to perfection, all the computer equipment and exhibits turned up and were slotted into place. Set up by the IBM Europe team, which travelled with the exhibition, all the exhibits were up and working in a matter of hours. Some bits of it were, though, a bit of a cheat. It was in the early days of graphics, and we had one of IBM’s new terminals on display; showing wire frame manipulation in real time. Many visitors were intrigued by this and asked how much the terminal cost. They were shocked to learn that it cost more than twenty thousand pounds. What they didn’t know was that it was driven by a full scale IBM mainframe hidden on an air conditioned 40 ft trailer behind the bushes; and that cost several million more!
From the entrance, where they could get ‘brochures’ and leave their coats, the visitors went down one side for 50 yards or so and back up the other. Every ten feet or so there were exhibits, which ranged from a touch screen guide to New York to industrial robots. Each was manned by an IBM trainee, who demonstrated them to the public. It was what a perfect exhibition should be.
My own full time contract staff manned what I called the ‘front of house’. I deliberately pushed the theatrical analogy – and the staff soon were very enthusiastic about their roles in the performance.
The main problem was getting so many visitors through, and controlling the queues. I resolved this by installing a PC in the separate caravan which contained the booking office. On this PC we booked visitors in by 5 minute slots. So, when you turned up, you were issued with a booking for a specific time. You could then spend the waiting time in the Natural History Museum. It worked magnificently, not least because almost half the visitors were school parties, who could be given their bookings well in advance. This was just one of my ideas, which was then taken up much more widely by museums and exhibitions.
The contract staff became one big happy family. I was especially close to my assistant, Katrina Shurety. She and I worked as a very close partnership and, though she was then also a temp, after Exhibit closed I got her a job in IBM. In fact she later ran the next EXHIBIT visit to the UK, at York. She was a fascinating girl. Her family had once owned most of Cannock Chase, but had frittered their money away on failed business ventures. She herself had previously worked for the city bullion merchants who had perpetrated a multi-million pound fraud, and she had – all unknowing – signed the duplicate certificates which were at the heart of the fraud. Accordingly, she was the only member of my various staffs who had to be given time off for regular interviews with the fraud squad!
We worked very long hours, from nine in the morning to six in the evening, with the general public, and then from seven to eleven, with invited IBM customers and guests. These included politicians. My favourite was Shirley Williams. Apart from being the main rival to Elizabeth Taylor in the latter’s film breakthrough, she was one of the best Prime Ministers we never had. To my surprise she was minute in size, but gigantic in personality. I was especially charmed when the then director of the Natural History Museum begged me to introduce him to her – much as you might to a film star.
EXHIBIT itself was much the same in the evening as it was during the daytime, though it was deliberately run less crowded for these VIPs. As we had no space to feed them, though, I persuaded the museum to rent us their dinosaur hall. Accordingly, we brought in a cold buffet, and out VIP visitors ate it while inspecting the full size replicas of dinosaurs. I also arranged for a girl string quartet, in flowing white gowns, to play on the steps at the end of the hall. It was a spectacular success.
Even so, the museum was nervous that the diners might damage their exhibits. But nothing untoward happened. They were, indeed, so pleased with the success of the venture that they then started to run similar events for other organisations – nicely adding to their income.
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