A week of Hell and Heaven

I know I have been quite morbid for the past week and if you have been following my twitter, you would also realise that I've been tweeting about the Nirvana Memorial Centre and the burning of effigy for my grandma. It's going to be a week of hell and heaven to me this week as I will be working 9 days non stop in a row with Saturday and Sunday from morning till 7pm.

Like what I've written earlier, work was inevitable and even when my grandma was lying in that coffin, I still went to work because I was fully in charge of the current MIHAS exhibition going on in Matrade at Jalan Duta from 23rd to 27th of June 2010. It's the biggest Halal exhibition and it was my 3rd time setting up the Fidani booth.

Wei Mei & the unfinished booth

I have a different theme and design every year. Last year I had a double decker booth here but due to the limited budget for this year, I have to settle for a simple booth like this which also costs RM25k for the fixtures excluding the 10k rental fees. This year, the big boss wants to concentrate only on corporate and wedding orders but instead, we've got quite a number of export inquiries.

I cut my finger while trying to set up the foldaway table. So useless of myself.

This guy scares me. When I was setting up the booth, he walked over and asks if he could take a picture with me and I said, errr... ok and then I regretted the decision because not only he took a picture with me, he held my hand and asks if he could kiss me. I said "hell no!!" and the next minute, he kissed my hair. Eeewwww.... I had to wash my hair with Clorox. When Wei Mei saw him passes by, she asks me to hide. LOL....

If you follow my twitter @ 3iling, you can see that I did a few updates today such as strangling the chocolate bunny and also holding a beautiful bouquet of chocolate roses. I will be updating from the exhibition centre as sometimes you get to see some amazing things that people do, for example, stealing my chocolates!

I wanted to tweet about our PM coming to our booth to sign on my newest chocolate box but the twitter wasn't working. I was just standing next to him and boy, the reporters are like a sea of people! Everything went by like a whizz.

There were some really funny incidents today. A foreign exhibitor came and asked if I was a chinese and I said yes, I'm a Malaysian Chinese and he said "wow, you are very beautiful and you don't look like the other Chinese" (I wasn't making that up and yes, that stroked my ego pretty well). Then another visitor came and talked to me and when I asked them what chocolates are they interested in, he told me that I am very beautiful. -_- And I served him some chocolates. Before he went off, he gave me his card and told me that I am better than the chocolates! heheh... I am not sure if I was selling myself or the chocolates.


This came as a surprise when the organisers told me that Fidani won the 1st prize for the best packaging award. It was indeed an honour to be winning this 3 years in a row. When the CEO of Matrade presented the trophy to me, he told me he wasn't surprised that we won it. I was taken aback when this morning, a judge came to my booth and asked me to impress her with my chocolate packaging and I did by promoting the Fidani Chocolate Tubos range. This is indeed a very good farewell gift for me.

And all the freebies I received minus the free food which has filled my stomach this afternoon!

And the heaven part was meeting friends that I only see once a year. Most of them are the exhibitors that I have befriended over the past 3 years and we get to see each other only at MIHAS once every year. But now with the BBM, I get to save their PIN and stay in touch. Cheers to BBM!

Good shots with the PM

These shots with the PM are sold by some of the freelance photographers and we bought 2 sets of photographs from them at RM50 & RM350 respectively!

Next time I also want to take along my camera where ever the PM goes so that I can make some money out of snapping photos!

Now at least I know how my hair looks like from the back! Lol...

Look at the sea of people!

Datuk Mustapa gives thumbs up for Fidani!


PM making his own Chocolatease Bars.

Hmm... He said that he liked our chocolates!


Our stand was also featured in Harian Metro yesterday!

MIHAS 2009 @ MECC

The MIHAS (6th International Halal Showcase) 2009 at Matrade Exhibition and Convention Centre has finally completed. It was such a tiring exhibition as I have to be at the stand everyday for the past 6 days from 9.00am to 7.30pm. I've actually calculated that I'll be working 13 days in a row for these 2 weeks. I think it's the longest working days I've ever gone through in my 25 years of life!

These are the pictures that I've taken with my sister's Sony Alpha except for a few which is using the normal Sony digital camera.

The RM50k Fidani duplex stand.

Fidani 2009 New Products - Chocolatease & Chocolate Tubos

The desserts made using Fidani's Finest Chocolate!

The crowd at our stand on weekends.

Pic was sent to me by a NSTP cameraman.

Carol (who's an expert in exports) & me.

Me & Wei Mei and the plate of free 5 STAR fried fish fritters from our neighbouring stand.

The whole fair was very enjoyable as I get to meet people from all walks of life - from traders, buyers, suppliers to end consumers. I've also been talking non-stop from 10am to 7pm daily answering enquiries and to also "kepoh" around as there were 4 big halls with 620 booths to roam about.

Besides that, publicity for Fidani has been overwhelming from pictures with the PM in newspapers to news broadcast on RTM1, Bernama TV and Astro Awani. The Ad value for Fidani during this exhibition has indeed superceeded what I've been expecting.

Never would I have to spend money on lunch as I've been getting lots of free food from neighbouring stalls like Maggi noodles, sausages, fried chicken, nuggets, satay, drinks and ice-cream! And not to forget about my daily dose of free chocolate drink from Milo, Vico and Cocoarich! Hehe...

Even some of my usual wine drinking suspects came to visit me at my stand and I took them on a free food tasting from halal dim sum to non alcoholic beer and champagne (sparkling juice)! It was so much fun but my feet suffered terribly.

It's been such a tiring weekend and yesterday I have to attend a Malaysian Cocoa Board dinner at Berjaya Times Square in conjuction with the Malaysian Cocoa Fair 09. The food was utterly terrible. Not only it's unpalatable, the service was so bad as the waiter spilled the food all over when they serve. I wonder whether Vincent Tan actually tasted the food from his hotel! At 1k a table, I rather eat somewhere else! The best dish for the night was the cucumber from the satay plate. I've got 2 more dinners to go this week and probably a biz trip up north and Genting this weekend. Busy, busy, busy....

Related Posts:

MIHAS DAY 1
MIHAS DAY 2
MIHAS DAY 3
MIHAS DAY 4
MIHAS DAY 5
Good shots with the PM

MIHAS 2009 Day 5

Today is finally the last day of the exhibition. I'm so tired and exhausted that I worry I won't be able to wake up to go to work tomorrow. I've just came back from Matrade and it's already 10pm. It's such a bummer to be working till late today as it is Mother's Day, my Grandma's birthday dinner and my colleague's wedding dinner. Boss, if you're reading this : don't you think this is such a big sacrifice?!!

I haven't even have my dinner and I planned to starve to bed as I've put on much weight from eating all the fried food at the exhibition. I think I'm coming down with a fever and sore throat!

More updates soon.

MIHAS 2009 Day 4

I had a really busy day today. Besides having to wake up early and drive myself to Jalan Duta, I have to answer so many enquiries, and then try to sell some chocolates and lastly to make a few trips to the ATM to deposit the cash.

However, the day has been very interesting. I've got a job offer from another chocolate company, had an interview with Berita Harian, took a picture with KJ's mom, talked to a few interesting people, got myself 3 big slabs of beef from Allanasons and camwhore with some employees of Istak, a non-alcoholic malt drink. The boss, Afzal from Allanasons has been so nice. Although I only meet him once a year, he could still recognize me! He has just instructed his girls to send me a tray of buffalo satay to my stand tomorrow since he'll be off to KK for a holiday! They are the biggest exporter of halal frozen boneless buffalo meat and they took 8 stands at MIHAS!

Adel, me, Wei Mei, Alireza & Ali from Istak.
Seriously, there's too many Ali in Iran. Almost all of them has an Ali in their names and they all looked quite alike to me.

Chef Zam & me. He loves our coffee coated chocolate.

KJ's mom and me. Although I hated him, but it doesn't hurt to camwhore!
Ah.. she closed her eyes!

Arrgh.. I have to wake up early again tomorrow to replenish some stocks from the factory! There goes my Sunday, Mother's Day, my Grandma's birthday and my colleague's wedding dinner. Unfortunately, I am not able to attend any of them all for the sake of one exhibition.

MIHAS 2009 Day 3

And so this morning, my dad called me and inform me of my appearance in the NST 2nd page and then I received a text from Datin (my boss's wife) telling me that I'm in NST and Berita Harian. It was the picture where the PM is sprinkling some almonds and hazelnuts onto the block of chocolate at my stand and I was just beside him and was seen looking else where! Lol...

NST 8th May 2009

The chocolate that PM made. Maybe I should sell it on lelong.com! Lol...
Any takers?!!

The plague that he signed to launch my 2 new chocolate range.

As I googled for Fidani Chocolatier, I also found this article with me in the picture! Although I'm quite far behind, but I'm still proud of the fact that the Fidani name was mentioned!

Bernama 8th May 2009

And I was also fortunate enough to have a picture taken with Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, the Second Finance Minister whom was at my stand this afternoon.

From Left: Pn. Norma, Dr. Wong, Datuk Ahmad Husni, Tn Haji Arshad & Me.

The bad news was, I still need to work throughout the weekend until 7pm daily and probably up to 8pm on Sunday! I was so tired today that I can't feel my legs and feet at all! My feet were screaming for a break as I have been wearing heels for almost 10 hours today walking around the stand!

MIHAS 2009 Day 2

Today was one of the busiest day since it is also the official opening ceremony day for the exhibition. I was there even before 9am to prepare the booth for the PM's visit at 11am. Hi bodyguards came early to inspect and scan the gift that was meant for the PM. It was not a new thing to me as it was also done the same way last year during Pak Lah's visit and also before the King's visit.

My double story Fidani stand.

As the PM was approaching, a sea of reporters, cameramen, and officials were seen. The VIPs for the day that I recognize were Datuk Mustapa and Mukhriz. I was in charge of passing the gloves to the PM for him to decorate the block of chocolate with nuts and then later to invite him to sign the Chocolatease and Chocolate Tubos launching plague. The cameras were flashing none stop and I now know how it feels like to be a PM! Lol...

A photo captured by my assistant.

After that, some reporters came over to ask for information and they showed me a photo of the PM making the chocolate that will be published tomorrow in Berita Harian. I've just asked my mom to grab a copy of that newspaper tomorrow! I was also interviewed by RTM1 yesterday in BM!!!

Now, why am I so excited?!! Probably because my hardwork in trying to lobby the PM's visit to the stand has finally materialised and my boss is satisfied?!!

MIHAS 2009 Day 1

I regret not taking any pictures of my booth today. But I shall do it tomorrow.

Yesterday was such a tiring day for me. I was at Matrade by 10am and by the time I leave that place, it was already 11pm. The setting up of the stand took too long the time as my stand contractors were so meticulous and perhaps slow! I understand that a double deck stand would take a longer time than a single deck one but this one was taking quite sometime to built.

I am so tired after the first day of the exhibition. I think for a minute I couldn't even feel my legs. They were sore and tired. But I was quite happy because I received numerous compliments on my stand and my chocolates. They were my pride after months of hardwork. You can't imagine the amount of people stopping at my stand to snap a picture and my contractor received multiple enquiries of his stand! I better claim my commissions from him! Hmmph...

After weeks of harbouring the PM to make a stop at my stand to officiate the launch of my Chocolatease and Chocolate Tubos, the hardwork finally paid off. He will be coming to my stand tomorrow to do exactly what I wished for. Last year, I managed to invite Pak Lah to launch my Symphony range and I'm quite satisfied with the results of my persistence, determination and also my intelligence. Lol...

To make things special at my stand, there were chocolates for sampling and also some specially made Fidani desserts to be served to my customers which was ordered from Breadpitt, whom is a pastissier at OneWorld Hotel.

Fidani Chocolate & Green Tea Macaroons

Fidani Petit Crunchy Milk Chocolate

These desserts are made using the Fidani chocolate which I've passed to him last week together with my signature transfer sheets so that the desserts he made will carry the Fidani identity. And the desserts are not cheap considering the size is just one bite size! It's just like the petit fours but it was tasty!

We will be serving these delectable desserts tomorrow at my stand together with some delicious D24 durian chocolate truffles!!! Please do come and visit me at my stand D71&D52 at Matrade Exhibition & Convention Centre (MECC) during this MIHAS 2009 which would be opened for public on this Sat & Sun (9th& 10th May 2009) from 10am - 7pm.

Dubai Part 2: Sweets of Middle East in Dubai

The reason why I was in Dubai recently was due to the Sweets of Middle East exhibition. This exhibition is under one of the major organisers, Koelnmesse which also organised the annual ISM in Koln and Sweet China in Shanghai. I can gladly say that I have been lucky to be able to attend those 3 exhibitions in a span of 2 years. And so happened that my dad is residing in Dubai, I was able to get another week break from my boss to stay with dad and mum.

The preparation for our stand was done quite last minute, just about 1-2 months before the exhibition date which is on the 3rd - 5th of November 2008. I was in charged for the fixtures, decoration & layout, flight and accommodation but lucky my colleague Carol had been a big help during that time as she was a seasoned traveler and exhibitor. She was in charged for exports and I really need to learn a lot from her. Sometimes I still don't get the export terms and the flow. You have to be well versed with all the container sizes, ports, shipper, liner, forwarding agents, FOB, CIF, Bills of lading and all sorts of certification. I think I still prefer selling chocolates locally - save all the hassle.

When we departed from KLIA, we had so much trouble trying to check in all our baggage. It took us almost an hour trying to negotiate with the staff behind the desk because we wanted to check in 7 cartons of goods and 1 box of POS materials. We were faced with a lady staff with PMS (pre-menstrual syndrome) because her face was sour all the time and she refused to be leanient with us. In total, we have exceeded almost 75kg of weight and was charged RM5k for excess baggage. Gosh, I've never paid so much for excess baggage, or rather I have never paid any. Usually I just passed it off by pleading and some flirting. If that was bad enough, not until you hear that our flight departed at midnight and arrived in Dubai at 3.30am! We had to pay for an extra day of accommodation and the flight sucked because it was so full and uncomfortable.

We had the whole day on 1st for sightseeing and then on the 2nd, we went to the Trade Center to set up the stand. Me and my colleague had to move the cartons from the van to the main entrance of the centre without any trolley. After that, my GM managed to borrow one trolley from the contractors to help us transfer the cartons to the hall, which is about 200m away. He looked so funny pulling the trolley like pulling a cow admist such a modern structure.

Oops I'm going to get killed for posting this.

(Warning: To my colleagues reading this, if you tell boss, I'll strangle you!!!)

The set up was completed in 5 hours with the help of the contractors. We had no idea how to stick those ink jet stickers without spoiling it. After that Carol and I filled up the shelves and the display with the boxes.

I really like the exhibition here. It was so unlike China where people are so uncivilized. They took your catalogues and then sell it as recycled paper outside the centre, they kept plastic bags in their pockets so that they can grab your samples and put them in and all sorts of antics. It was such an embarrassment to the Chinese. On the last day of the exhibition, a whole group of them will just marched into your stand and take everything without your permission. Your laptops, stationery and chocolates will get stolen if you don't tie them up. It was so terrifying. In Dubai, you don't have to worry, nobody takes anything. they will ask for permission to sample the chocolates. How nice and educated.

This is Gil from Jelly Belly. He is such a nice man and so sweet of him to send me a mail. According to him, this picture should be in People Magazine. Lol...

My colleague Carol with a box of temptation from Fidani.

Overall, it had been a nice exhibition, meeting old friends from other companies in the Malaysian Pavilion and also making new ones with other exhibitors. We have enjoyed the past three days at the exhibition centre. The organiser representative, Mei Li was so kind to buy us nasi lemak (translated as fat rice literally). It was no surprise having someone to buy you nasi lemak but the irony is that the nasi lemak was bought in Dubai from a lady whom is a Singaporean selling it! Lol... I wonder how much would it cost considering a packet of rice with meat (in Chinese we called it "chap fan") is around RM22-30. For that kind of money, I can eat a good meal at Tram Car.

This is the nasi lemak in Dubai! Defintely not as good as the ones here.

In an unrelated note, the traffic jam was so bad yesterday. It took me 2 hours to go home on a journey that is 20 minutes. Bugger....

Tax Free Asia Pacific Exhibition

I went missing for a week, neglected my blog and lost sleep over the two exhibitions which was held back to back in 2 different countries! Lucky, I was still alive and kicking so that you guys can see what's cooking in Singapore on the 12th to 15th.

I stayed at Swissotel The Stamford (tall building) that cost $S400 a night!

It was Fidani's debut at the Tax Free exhibition and everything has to be perfect from stand to publicity. This year has been a challenge to me as I have never before handled such a big project (2 projects to be exact) where I have to organise and execute the plans from filling up the never-ending forms (each exhibition has a set of more than 20 pages of forms), working with the ID for the stand design, decide what product to exhibit, invitation of customers to writing press releases. These of course do not include the contingency plans that I have to prepare just in case of emergencies. Life for me during April & May was crazeee. Anyone that asked me out for lunch was turned down because I don't even have the chance to eat.

THE STAND

Front View

Side View

Fidani Display

I must say that the design was quite impressive. The money spent was worth it. A stand like this easily cost RM100k for the set-up and another RM20k for stand space. All the stands at the exhibition namely Bacardi, Diego, Toblerone, Mars and MNG were all nicely built. If I count the number of exhibitors who actually took the standard shell scheme booth, I can tell you that it's less than my 10 fingers. This is what you call an exhibition of international standards and due to the nature of duty free business, everything has to be done in class. I am loving the exhibition already.

THE PEOPLE

3rd from left is Albert Chiang (Boss of Bonia)

With Boss, and Dato Gary Thanasan (publisher of KLIA Times)

With Kevin, interested agent for Dubai

With a potential client from Middle East

With Carolina, she's responsible for the optical brand of B+D. She gave me a pair of sunglasses worth $S100. So sweet of her.

With my GM, Amy (I took over her job), and my colleague Daphne

My boss actually instructed us to take a picture of every client or important people we met at the stand! Maybe he wanted them to be documented so that we won't forget their looks! haha...

THE PRESS

Chef Amer being interviewed

Melody interviewing me for The Moodie Report.

The editor of Gulf-Africa also did a short write up for Fidani. Read the article here. There were quite a few interviews and after attending to all of them, I can actually repeat the whole introduction thing for Fidani like a broken record. We were a good story for them because this is our first time exhibiting here and it's always interesting to read something about a new kid on the block. It's time to bring Fidani out of Malaysia.

THE FREEBIES

Well, at the end of the exhibition, it has been a tradition to exchange goods or simply just to give away the exhibits because sending all the goods back to one own's country is not cost effective. Often, the charges for the freight is more than what the goods are worth except for some exceptions like jeweleries, liquor and expensive products. Even when it comes to liquor, throughout the show it has been free flow and on the last day, some of brands do give away bottles of them but no one wanted it due to customs check and heavy baggage. I had a bottle of Stella beer on the last day and it tasted great. This is the exhibition where you can drink and take, while smelling the nice fragrances from perfume stands and get free chocolates.

Not wanting to loose out in the freebies scouting, I walked around to see what can be exchanged with chocolates. Before the last day, one of our manager has already helped us get bags and bags of chocolates from Hersheys, Mars, Toblerone and other brands. There were also free umbrellas, giant Chupa Chups and also bags given away.

Warning: The following pictures can be disturbing and don't watch if you have a faint heart. Don't get the wrong impression of me. I am NOT REALLY a freebie queen. Haha...

Disturbing and alarming? Those are just the chocolates and I have a few more things that I didn't show which includes the cosmetics from Clarins, VMW, Givenchy, Loreal and Jenifer Lopez & Swiss Army perfumes, a pair of sunglasses from B+D, a carton of cigarettes, some mini cigars and some T-shirts. I know, I know.....I can't help but take them all home and share it with my family, friends and colleagues. When I board AirAsia (sadly, my company only allowed us to fly AirAsia for destinations that it covers), my check in luggage was already 15kg and I had to carry more than 8kg of chocolates in my land luggage. My arm almost break.

Overall, it had been an enjoying show. Now back to reality, I have to send emails to everyone thanking them for visiting and also to follow up on the inquiries. I hated the following part the most! I have to write a report too on both the exhibitions and the returns of investment which will determine the participation in the coming exhibitions. Haih.....

Angels please come to my rescue