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PALME Middle East show in Dubai

On May 20-22, 2007, ILDA represented Members at the PALME Middle East trade show in Dubai, UAE. Thanks to PALME's Jonathan Gadalla, ILDA had a stand where we handed out 8-page printed lists of ILDA Members and encouraged the use of lasers. Also thanks to Jonathan, ILDA Members who exhibit could receive a 10% discount on their stands.

We will be at next year's PALME, April 27-29 2008. The 10% discount for ILDA-member exhibitors is also valid if you want a 2008 stand; click here for details.

ILDA's stand at PALME 2007

In the ILDA stand, we had flags of each Member country. The flags attracted a lot of passers-by, who invariably asked if there was a laser company in their home country. We probably made about 150 contacts. It was pleasantly surprising how many people were interested in lasers, but didn't know who to contact. We would go through the 8-page Membership Directory and highlight Members from the attendee's country/region.

Many PALME attendees were from Dubai, and asked about Members with Dubai offices. We passed out the business cards and other literature given to us at PALME by Members with Dubai offices. One member was two stands down from us, so we could simply walk over to the stand with the inquiring person. (That alone paid for the company's annual dues!)

Incidentally, if you are a Member with branch offices, please see our Policy on branch office listings webpage.
This describes how branch offices can gain greater visibility, when potential clients are looking for
a company in a particular country or region.

ILDA Member stands at PALME 2007

ILDA Members with stands at PALME included LOBO, HB Laser, 3rd Dimension Eventech, MT-Electronic, Kvant, Highlite International, Neo-Neon, Matrix Laser and Big Dipper Laser. Here are brief reports and photos from each company. If you prefer the photos only, click here for a slideshow.

LOBO Lasers (Germany)

LOBO Lasers gathered large crowds every 30 minutes for their 15-minute multimedia show. Originally designed for the German theme park “Holiday Park”, it featured video projections on rear screens and motorized scrims. For example a woman’s face would be on the rear screen, with her hand (video) on the mid-air scrim, with laser animations in her palm. The most popular part of the show appeared to be the precision-choreographed beam show towards the end. LOBO consistently drew among the largest attendance of any stand at PALME, demonstrating the continuing appeal of lasers as a unique crowd-pleaser.

LOBO was introducing Coherent’s new yellow laser, the HOPS: High-Powered Optical-Pumped Semi-Conductor Laser. It has an output of 3 watts, and requires only standard 220 VAC input. Output is 588 nm. Also new at LOBO was the blue version of the Zaphir moving light (PHOTO). Zaphir features output of 0.5 and 1 watt in blue, and 0.8 watts in green. It can also be fiber fed with “as much laser power as you want”.

Many attendees recognized LOBO’s work from the 15th annual Asian Games which were held in December 2006 in Doha, Qatar. According to Alex Hennig, the opening of the show, which used almost 100 watts of laser power, was “three times more expensive than the budget of the Olympic Games.” The show won First Place in the 2006 ILDA Awards for Live Stage Performance.

Alex recounted how “people recognize the ILDA Awards” which continue to impress their clients and potential clients.
 

HB Laserkomponenten GmbH (Germany, Dubai)

HB Laser drew attention to their booth with a 3-beam array from a 10-watt green projector, that could be seen the length of the PALME exhibition. On one wall, they showed graphics from the “world’s smallest” white-light laser projector of 1.6 watts. (The LightCube projector is 38 x 28 x 17 cm, and weighs 10 kilograms. HB includes a two-year warranty with unlimited hours.) The white was very intense and beautiful, thanks to 500mW of blue at 442nm. HB has other LightCube white-light solid-state systems as well, with powers up to 15 watts.

In addition to showing laser applications, they also demonstrated an interactive video display. This was focused on the ground, so that passers-by walking on the image would be detected, causing the video to change in response. The system was developed for HB by Xarrin Advanced Technologies, who also attended in HB’s stand.

HB was one of four ILDA members at the show with a presence in Dubai. Emily Noorollahi fielded questions from the many local clients who attended PALME.
 

3rd Dimension Eventech (Saudi Arabia)

Abdulwahab Baghdadi and his son Abdulhai Baghdadi manned the 3rd Dimension Eventech booth. As a Saudi, Abdulwahab was the only ILDA member dressed in the traditional robes of the Middle East. At their stand, 3rd Dimension Eventech was highlighting their lighting services, which include lasers. The company is very busy, with 10 shows in the past two months in the region. An upcoming show in June is for the Saudi Ministry of Defense (the third time in a row that the company has done this show). The company recently acquired a new 8-watt DPSS to add to their deep stocks.
 

MT-Electronic (Austria, Dubai)

Mario Tomazetich of MT-Electronic in Austria had a small but effective stand highlighting the company’s services. Mario echoed the views of a number of exhibitors, that PALME this year seemed more sparsely attended than in 2006. (Part of this may be attributed to the show being in the hotter month of May, rather than during its usual April dates.)

MT was one of four ILDA members with a Dubai office. They have a warehouse which is soon to be set up as a showroom. They have done a number of club shows in Dubai, plus a fixed installation at the Red Square nightclub in the Moscow Hotel. MT’s other Mideast show locations include Damascus, Syria.

MT’s projectors include 500 mW deep-blue (445 nm) laser diodes, to give beautiful violet colors and a wider color range.

New ILDA Members joining at PALME

Xarrin Advanced Technologies (Dubai)

Xarrin makes Utopia laser software, created the interactive video system shown at HB's stand, and does laser show installations in the Middle East. At the show, Xarrin's Ali Hamidi and Hamid Aeinehsaz signed up for ILDA Membership.

ILDA Members without PALME stands

MediaLas (Germany, Dubai)

Dirk Baur and his wife Elena attended the show. Although MediaLas did not have a stand of their own, they were represented by at least two companies. Universal Effects had a balloon with a 360-degree laser show; the projector was designed and programmed by MediaLas. Also, Dirk now lives in Dubai for a few weeks of the year, and has helped set up “Dubai’s largest laser and technology showroom”. The company GTech Devices represents MediaLas in Dubai, as well as Litestructures truss, Baublys laser engraving, and other companies.

Magical Water Fountains (Belgium, Dubai)

ILDA Member Phillipe Aerts of Magical Water Fountains in Belgium was another non-exhibiting PALME attendee. Phillipe’s membership in ILDA paid off; just three minutes after he dropped off his business cards at ILDA’s booth, an attendee came up to me asking about laserists in Dubai and Belgium. I immediately flagged down Phillipe at a nearby stand, and introduced the two. Hopefully Phillipe will get some business out of this contact!

A reunion with Adela Kriland

One of the highlights of the show for Dirk and myself was the serendipitous discovery that laserist Adela Kriland was working in one of the booths, for an AV company. Long-time members may remember her as a Mexican-based laserist who met Swedish laserist Jan Kriland at a Laser F/X conference in the mid-1990s. After a whirlwind romance, the two married and Adela moved from the heat of Mexico to the relative cold of Sweden. Adela showed us photos of her adorable 4-year old daughter, who she says is a “mini-Jan”. Due to Jan’s recent health problems, she has been working shows for the AV company, but still keeps in touch with the laser industry. Adela sends a big “hello” to all her friends in ILDA and the laser display community.

Non-ILDA laser companies at PALME

There were a few non-ILDA members at PALME. These included Oracle Laser, tarm (as a representative of a multi-company booth), Chauvet, local Dubai company RST, and a few Chinese manufacturers.