medica 2008

the day after my mom and mar left, cade and i were off to dusseldorf, germany for medica 2008. medica is the largest medical device trade show in the world. while obelis doesn't manufacture any kind of medical device, our goal is to make every company at the show our client. since day one of the internship, preparation and execution of the medica show has been my main work assignment. it was fun to finally see all the work pay off.


this show was gingantic... the venue contained 17 halls FILLED with thousands of exhibitors, which is the same as like 4 or 5 south towne expo centers. huge. the picture above is one of the smallest halls and you can't even see half of it. we split into teams of two and went booth to booth to find clients. by the end of each day, we were pooped but we had a blast.

here are some highlights:


we had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world... cade took this picture during a meeting with a potential client. this picture is funny to me because nobody takes pictures at these meetings. but little cade, bless his heart, couldn't pass up the opportunity to document his experiences. i am sure this guy was so confused.

i got to play bartender for a night. we hosted a cocktail party at our booth one evening and we had a grand time schmoozing all the guests.


another big highlight was seeing what the medical field is coming out with next. there were so many crazy contraptions, live demonstrations (like 3D ultrasounds, oxygen therapy, and exercise equipment) and free samples.


on the day cade and i were paired as a team, we tried out a bunch of things. my personal favorite was this jiggle jive machine from korea. the lady told me to stand on this platform and them she turned on these vibrations that made me jiggle all over. yes, this happened in front of a crowd of people. the machine is supposed to flex unused muscles in your body and this supposedly leads to weight loss and toned muscles. in my opinion, the only reason that thing helps with weight loss is because once you see your body jiggle like that, you never want to eat again. yikes.

cade loved all the massage chairs.


he also thought this was funny. apparently, so did i.


it was fun seeing all these new inventions and technologies. we got to see surgery videos, speak spanish and japanese, and we even stocked up for back to school by taking all the free pens we could.


plus, we got to wear these sweet shirts everyday. lucky for me, they only ordered size small for all the girls- which definitely didn't help me when i was on the jiggler.


cade worked really hard on all the marketing material for the show.

here he is with one of the banners he designed. he made flyers, banners, catalog cds, powerpoints and the huge backdrops you see in our booth. he did a really good job and the booth looked fabulous.


we had a great time at medica. being an intern for obelis has taught us so much and we are so glad we have had this opportunity.