Robe Roadshow Cruises Croatia in Style

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The Robe ROBIN International Roadshow visited picturesque Croatia in great style in a major event organised by Pula-based distributor Sali Trade, who integrated the Roadshow with their annual Open Day, already renowned as a 'must visit' production industry event of the year.

Robe's sales director Harry von den Stemmen and technical support manager Ales Grivac were on hand to present the latest products together with Davor Vujic and Mladen Korac of Sali Trade.

This showcased the Roadshow to over 100 key players, included rental companies, lighting designers and programmers, venue managers and installation specialists from all industry sectors including a strong TV presence, with representatives from 1 national and 3 regional Croatian TV stations and a national Bosnian Serb station.

Over 10 major companies active in theatre and the arts attended - including the National Theatre from Zagreb, Split, Osjek and Rijeka, plus representatives from theatres in Slavonski Brod, Požega, Pula, Zagreb, etc... together with those engaged in live events, corporate presentations, clubs and festivals, etc. Some travelled from as far afield as Serbia, Bosnia and Slovenia as well as from all over Croatia to be present.

Robe 'family' members, distributors MK Lighting & Sound from Slovenia and Studio Berar from Serbia also attended.

The event was staged in the magnificent Dom Oružanih Snaga (House of the Armed Forces) in central Pula, founded in 1870, as 'The Marine Casino', a naval officers social club. This built on the formula that was such a massive success last year for Sali Trade - providing an un-pressured and convivial social and business environment in which guests could also enjoy individual attention and in-depth product demonstrations.

The ornate main hall of the venue features a fabulous compact pros arch stage and was the ideal space for the mini trade show set up of the event, in which representatives of all the leading brands that they distribute were invited to participate - in addition to Robe and Anolis, this includes Selecon, Rosco, Schnackenberg, ShowLED and 8 others.

Sali trade partnered with audio sales company Dicroic, who include L-Acoustics and Riedel in their portfolio.

It opened at 10 a.m. and ran until 5 p.m. in the afternoon, allowing guests to arrive and mingle at their leisure.

Additionally, a full programme of seminars ran concurrently in an annexe, including two presentations by Simon Stuart, MD of leading UK lighting rental company, HSL. He spoke about their experiences and use of Robe technology in theatre installations and on tour and also in the concert and live music sectors.

"Having Simon to speak from a large international award winning rental company really added credibility to this year's event ," confirms Mladen Korac. All the seminars were well attended, and people kept arriving throughout the day.

The ROBIN Roadshow featured all the latest launched products, including the ROBIN 600 LED Wash, the ROBIN 600 Series Spot, Wash & Beam and the CityFlex along with the ROBIN 300 Series Spot, Wash and Beam, the CitySkape 48 and 96 LED wash units and the CitySkape Xtreme plus LEDForce. DigitalSpot 3000 and 7000DTs and the classic range of AT Series 575s, 700s and 1200s were also on display.

There was huge interest in all these, particularly the DigitalSpots and the ROBIN 600 series .... however, once again, it was the ROBIN LEDWash 600 that took plenty of limelight, with its super-slim construction and 37 individually controllable 10 Watt RGBW multichip LEDs arranged in 3 concentric rings. This is of particular interest to those thinking of using units to create funky audience-facing effects!

The first sale of Robe LEDWash 600s was confirmed the day after the show, together with another one for ColorSpot and Wash 2500s .

Harry Von Den Stemmen comments, that in the 4 years Sali Trade has been a Robe distributor, they have seen market share in Croatia grow continuously - even through the economic downturn of 2008/09. "Davor and Mladen always organise a great event which is highly respected and one reason why so many will travel to be here. It's a very professional set up and informative with the seminars, plus a highly productive atmosphere in which to meet new people and some of those we already know from the regions".

The Sali Trade Open day after-show held at the Rock Cafe in central Pula proved popular as always, allowing the business and the partying to continue well into the night with superb live music, food and vibes ...

For more press info. on Robe Lighting, please contact Louise Stickland on +44 (0)1865 202679/+44 (0)7831 329888 or Email ‘[email protected]'. For more product and general info, check www.robe.cz or call + 420 571 751 510.

Photo shows (Front L - R ) Ales Grivac (Robe Technical Support Manager), Davor Vujić (Sali Trade) Harry Von Den Stemmen (Robe Sales Director), Back L - R : Emil Koller (Sale Trade Technical Manager), Mladen Korac (Sali Trade), Simon Stuart (HSL)