E-mobility

Once again hot on the acquisition trail, last week I attended another little get-together at a large energy provider. This company was located right in the middle of a city about 60 km away from our city, and that presented the first problem. Upon (final) arrival, after having been stuck in several traffic jams, I was greeted by the parking garage attendant with the words "We haven't been told about the conference!" yelled several times, over and over again, as the explanation for why there were no parking spots left. All this while holding his cigarette at precisely the level of your face behind the steering wheel, so I very quickly closed the window to avoid suffocation or nicotine poisoning. And all this from visiting a provider of green energy!

Fortunately I soon found several parking spots in the garage (one for motorbikes only, two temporarily closed for I'm not sure what reason exactly with one of those lay-flattable sticks in the middle of them and two parking spaces for the disabled) and made my way, quite disgruntled by this time, into the futuristic-looking company building.

Things did vastly improve once I got inside.

For a start, I was given a badge and an apology for the lack of parking spaces by a gentlemen at the futuristic-looking reception and directed to a lecture room on the ground floor. When I entered the room, a smart-looking gent from the company was in the middle of introducing the event, and said good-morning to me as I walked in, thus averting all eyes to my entrance. Well they would have been averted to me anyway, what with the entrance door being right at the front of the room.

Anyway, in contrast to the last do, this all looked very serious and not just a bunch of MDs on their day off. The room was full of suits and even the ladies (3 in total) were wearing suits! I was definitely underdressed for this one. I was sporting black Esprit leggings and a natty little Esprit sweater in beige, with black ballerinas. I guess I looked like I should be handing out the biscuits!

And speaking of biscuits, I had come to snack paradise. As I was the last person to arrive, I had to go to the back of the room, where there was a whole table spread for 4, and I was the only one on it! There were two little coffee pots filled to the brim with hot coffee and 2 plates of yummy biscuits! I hadn't eaten breakfast so I can tell you I tucked right in there. And I don't know if it was the fact that the event was really well organized (apart from the parking garage) or if it was the coffee and the biscuits, or if the presentations were just really interesting, but I started to have a really good time!

The first two presentations were by the smart-looking gent and a smart-looking lady who talked about renewable energies and what the company is already doing, how they monitor the city's consumption, etc. and the house of the future, all that kind of thing. Then towards the end of all of these talks, 2 more suits walked in and I thought, hello, someone's even later than me. The two suits sat down at the end of my table, those seats being the only free ones, and started to tuck into my coffee and biscuits! The first suit then began an endless whisper-thon to the second suit, who proceeded to write down everything he was saying.

This went on and on, and it was really disturbing my appreciation of the presentations. Suit No. 1 just didn't stop! Seemed to me like one of those people who need to be talking all the time (I was once in a hospital bed next to someone that was like that, it drove me nuts!) It got to the point where I was thisclose to turning round and asking them to take it outside. And then, guess what! The last talk finished and the smart-looking lady said that she would like to introduce Mr. So-and-So to hold a talk on E-mobility. And Suit No. 1 stood up!!!

Oh boy. Yes, Suit No. 1 was the E-mobility presenter. He had 30 minutes' time to tell us about it but he rattled on for about 50 minutes. And here's the thing. Suddenly, all the men in the room woke up. It was as if they had been lulled into a kind of boredom-induced slumber while the other speakers had been rattling on about household appliances, heating, lights, homes and the like, but now we were talking about CARS! we had clearly finally reached the point of what all this was about.

This was the presentation where I kind of went to sleep. I mean I need to get from A to B and if we all need to be driving electric cars in a few years, then I will have to buy one and use it like everyone else. I won't be bothered what it looks like, just as long as it is reliable and gets me to the place I want to go in a reasonable time. But that didn't appear to be the general opinion surrounding me. I wouldn't have believed you could find so many questions to ask about electric cars!

Yes, e-mobility will definitely become the thing apparently. It will take a while, partly because it currently takes hours to tank up a car on electricity, but mostly I think, according to what I experienced in this presentation, because most men will need something a bit bigger and faster than a Smart!

Mind you, it might solve the problem of this company's parking garage, and several thousand other parking garages, if no-one drives these new cars. Perhaps we'll just all end up taking the tram or a monorail in the sky.