Any old promotor drivers around

Come on, be truthful. How far did any of you long haul boys go for a photoshoot or did the boss have you in the yard early on a Saturday morning to wash off the lorry and line it up with the rest of the fleet so somebody could reel off a few photos for posterity or just the bosses vanity. No, I didn’t have to do that either. But I did have to do a photoshoot but under slightly different circumstances.

In the mid to late 80’s Promotor had organised a few All British Trade Fairs as I have posted recently and Dave Stage had been instrumental in setting them all up. I was also involved in the office but my main job was on site at that time. We had been involved in providing services to companies at the Tehran Fair but Dave could see an opening for one of his all Brit shows to be held in a hotel in the centre of town where many Iranian business men were based.

We had no problem getting a decent group of British companies interested, I think there were just under twenty in total. We booked space in the main function room in the Intercontinental Hotel, the only big hotel in the centre of Tehran. Flights were booked, visas organised and hotel rooms reserved. There wasn’t a massive amount of freight, you could hardly display a large generator in the function room, but we ended up with about two thousand kilos of exhibits which we decided to send out air freight. The display stands were built by a local contractor, one we had used at the main Trade Fair previously. This chap was a very useful contact for us as he knew his way around and had a lot of contacts in Iran. It was him who gave us the first inkling that all was not rosy on the political front.

Sure enough we fell out with the Iranians again and there was talk the British diplomats would be leaving for home. We were in a very difficult position. Do we press on with the event or cancel it immediately. After all the diplomats hadn’t left yet. Dave Stagg wanted to cancel and he went into Peter Calderwood’s office to discuss the situation. Peter of course would make the final decision. An hour later Dave emerged with a face like thunder. ‘He’s decided the event goes ahead as scheduled’ said Dave through gritted teeth. And with that we set things into motion. The local standfitter was given the go ahead. Airfreight was sent. Our local custom agent was informed and my flight confirmed. It was all systems go until the inevitable happened with less than a week to go to the opening ceremony. It was a full bust up. The Iranian diplomats in London were on their way home as well as the British ones from Tehran and Dave Stage was left to say ‘I told you so’.

It was at this stage things really turned awkward for Promotor. We had done a lot of the work and already paid out for things like airfreight, hiring of the function room and the construction of the stands. Peter was adamant that all the companies must be invoiced as if the event had taken place. However, we needed proof that the stands had been constructed and so I----------

------flew from Heathrow on an Iran Air flight to Tehran where I spent two nights in the Intercontinental Hotel met Bijan Nabavi our customs agent to tell him to return the airfreight and the hotel manager to give him the bad news.

But most importantly I did a ‘photoshoot’ in the function room using the completed stands as a backdrop before flying home.