drinktec 2013 – the first exhibit has arrived

The exhibition centre in Munich, Hall B6, 10 a.m. – carefully, the prongs of the fork-lift truck move closer to the waiting truck. At last: the first Krones machine is moving into its new home for the next few weeks. And there to welcome it is Helmut Götz. The 46-year-old commissioning technician from Rosenheim, together with his Neutraubling-based colleague Oliver Schindlbeck, is in charge of the on-site preparations for the drinktec in September.

The fair team have for two weeks now been preparing the hall for the erection work. Today, the truck arrived with the very first exhibit. You must feel rather excited when the first machine is brought inside the hall?

Yes. The preparations for erecting the EvoLite have been completed, and we’re looking forward to the machine arriving, when the empty hall will start its transformation into the bustling drinktec 2013.

What do the first steps look like?

The machine’s components are unloaded using fork-lift trucks, transported into the hall, and erected there with a mobile crane. We’ve meticulously marked out the precise positioning of these components on the floor of the hall beforehand. Now each exhibit wio be placed in position down to the very last millimetre. Even the tiniest of the machine’s parts is aligned using a spirit level and docked in place.

Ensures a smooth process: Helmut Götz

How many of your colleagues helping to make sure that the machine ends up in precisely the right place?

Erecting the the entire exhibit will take ten of us six whole days.

This kind of erection job involves quite a bit of stress and a lot of hard physical work. What do you do to wind down after a busy day of erection work?

After a stressful day, what I like doing is to sit around for a bit talking to my colleagues. We briefly review the day’s work and then we chat about private things. Being part of this fair team involves more than just the work, it means you’re part of a mutually supportive team, one where humour is never far away.

So far you’ve been involved in 16 trade fairs – this year’s drinktec is your second one. What does it mean for you to be part of the preparations for such an important event?

For me, this job never stops being exciting. You can never know precisely in advance whether you’re going to come up against some “minor problems” and what they’ll be. Solving them is on the one hand a challenge for me, and on the other hand it makes me proud when they’ve been properly solved. I really like working in this fair team, we all get on fine and help each other out. Quite generally, too: my remit at Krones a varied one: I gain a lot of experience and get to visit loads of different countries. I’m really grateful that Krones provides me with such a broad spectrum of work.