Any old promotor drivers around

‘Baghdad International Exhibition for Military Production’.
This exhibition was nothing to do with foreign companies setting up production in Iraq, it was just an excuse for the Iraqi’s to get their hands on the latest weapons and technology. It should have been titled ‘Military Equipment Exhibition’ but the Iraqi’s were to vain for that.

By the mid to late 80’s I was spending most of my time in either Iran or Iraq. In fact I worked in both countries the whole time the war between them was taking place. Not full time but one year in the mid to late eighties I spent a total of seven months between the two. Promotor Exhibitions were the leading exhibition service company and event organiser for both countries and I handled much of the work. From selling our services, both freight and travel and the many other services exhibiting company representatives needed to enable them to do their job, I was kept busy. I had a good contact in Baghdad who worked with the British pharmaceutical companies and a couple of times a year seminars would be held and the British companies would hold an exhibition at the same time. It involved us shipping out one trailer comprising stands and exhibits and again we provided flights and hotels for our clients. Promotor driver Tommy Birch was my choice of driver as he had been an electrician before his driving days so could wire up the stands. Tommy would drive out whilst I took the easy option and flew.

I think it would have been late November 1988 as I was wrapping up the job at the Baghdad International Trade Fair and flying home next day that I noticed a few important looking Iraqi’s in the British pavilion. Later in the day our agent asked me to talk to them as they were organising a ‘Military Production" exhibition for the following year. At the meeting I outlined our companies experience in organising British Group participation at such events and "hay ho’ we were asked to get involved. The Iraqi who was tasked with organising the exhibition was Hussein Kamel al-Majid, Minister of Military Industries and Saddam Hussein’s son in law. Little did I know then what a ‘can of worms’ we were getting involved in. Even Maggie herself was involved.

Upon my return to the UK we set about organising the exhibition. We approached the British Overseas Trade Board and various trade organisations for support but strangely nobody wanted to know so we took it upon ourself to form a ‘British Group’ to participate at the event. We did a mail shot and advertised the show but it proved hard work to get anyone interested. We realised later that there were a great many companies involved in supplying the Iraqi armed forces but they preferred to keep their heads below the parapet. A lot of business was hush hush but still supported by the British government so why shout about it. However, we had two companies involved that made the event viable. One was the Iraqi owned ‘Matrix Churchill’ from Coventry and the other was BAE Systems who were trying to sell the Hawk trainer jet amongst other things to Iraq. We also managed to pull in a small number of other others and a grand total of twelve companies participated.

The ‘British Group’ were allocated part of the British Pavilion so that meant we were setting up on known territory. I contracted the building of the stands to our friend from Cyprus, George Stavaros, who had built stands for us at events in North Africa. Matrix Churchill had a large stand with a fair number of machine tools on display. BAE had a smaller stand but we had to kit it out internally for them. Of course they didn’t have a Hawk trainer there. That was down at the old airport which had been revamped a few years before and was located in the suburbs in the north west of the city. Here a large number of foreign companies were showing off all kinds of military hardware but unfortunately we weren’t involved.

Whenever I was involved in an exhibition in Iraq one of my first ports of call was the British Embassy. I got to know a number of ‘commercial secretaries’ over the years and this event was no different. I was also introduced to the “Military Attache” who was very interested in the show but neither of them wanted to be involved other than keeping an eye on proceedings. We shipped the exhibits out in two trailers. One was a Promotor lorry the other was a subbie. I handled all the onsite work myself with the help of local labour provided by our agent. The travel arrangements for the exhibitors was not too arduous. I think a number of the exhibitors made their own arrangements but we still had a fair sized group that we stuck in the ‘Ishtar Sheraton’ Hotel down Sadoun Street. I only had to meet one small group at the airport and ferry them back to the hotel but of course as most flights came in around midnight it meant I didn’t get much sleep.

More to follow;.