“How do the bees help power your gates and barriers?” Amid the countless challenging questions posed to the Solar Gates team at Highways UK this year, this enquiry sticks out.
True, we had live bees on our stand (carefully contained within a hexagonal see-through box where they happily got down to ‘buzzness’ over the two days). Also true, we make award-winning solar-powered gates and barriers. However, bees don’t take easily to electronic engineering jobs. They do well in the teamwork exercises but lack the pristine focus (and physical strength) needed for surveys, installations and maintenance.
We gently explained this to the visitor and they happily moved on. We also had “Why do you have wasps on your stand?” from one passerby and “Is this your bee?” from a fellow exhibitor who had seen our bees earlier in the day and proceeded to track down and capture one they saw flying about the vastness of the NEC, using an envelope and upturned coffee cup. It wasn’t one of ours though, we could tell as it wasn’t wearing a promotional polo top.
Baffling bee queries aside, it was a fantastic couple of days for all of us at Solar Gates. Sticking to our sustainability ethos, we had real organic turf underfoot and a calming Scandinavian-style wooden display, complete with honeycomb shelves, to welcome visitors.
Our Instaboom Go drew more oohs and ahhs than a fireworks display, as we explained the simplicity and power it packs to traffic management companies keen to know more. And why wouldn’t they? It saves them money, makes for effortless traffic control and keeps road crews safe.
Old friends dropped by to hear about our latest innovation, the SOSEC 200+, which includes a 7m barrier arm to suit wider access points. Our very own Scarlett Roberts, who has more energy than an afternoon of lightning bolts, did yoga demonstrations and told all and sundry about a series of inspiring events over the coming weeks that will give people with convictions a real chance to rebuild their lives and leave crime behind, all thanks to employment. Find out more here.
Solar Gates Managing Director Neil Sampson drew a crowd several times when by donning a bee veil and helmet to demonstrate how beekeeping works.
Our catalogues, including details of all our products, flew off the shelves, while our jars of homemade honey proved as popular as the latest iPhone, going by the amount of requests the Solar Gates team had.
I personally spoke to current and future customers from as far afield as: Wales, Scotland, Ireland, South Africa, Poland, the United States, Italy, Greece, India, Barbados and Senegal – to name but a few. Plans to open a Barbadian depot are already in full swing. Several staff members have already made enquiries about branded flip-flops and sundresses.
Highways UK 2024 was billed as the largest and most successful event to date – and it didn’t disappoint. Hundreds of world-class exhibitors, thousands of visitors, all coming together to share ideas and innovations. What more could you ask for … aside from a bee-powered barrier?