Last week I spent 24(ish) hours in Switzerland. It was a very last trip minute but when I got the call I knew I couldn't say no. The brief excursion was at the end of six days of constant (but by no means a chore) travel;
Blackpool >
Birmingham >
Brighton >
Geneva and back.
The Friday before I flew to Geneva I was watching the sun set over Brighton beach. I'd never even heard of a Swiss Franc before, and knew nothing of these mysterious Swiss power adaptor that are seemingly available nowhere. Wacky stuff. That will teach me for not researching, but hey, there was very little time.
I headed to Gevena to meet up with the
Kia team, who were showing at the Gevena International Motor Show (GIMS for short...). A quick Google / hashtag search told me that GIMs was a huge deal in the motorcar industry. A press + public show which is attended by anyone who's anyone in this industry....and now Buckets & Spades of course!
Kia invited me to the show to capture their
innovative approach to modern design, explore new technologies, immerse myself in
the history and future direction of the Kia brand, and to
investigate how a car
show like GIMs can be enjoyed from an alternative angle.
I wasn't there for the performance side of things, but it was hard not to get caught up in their world. It was let a Top Gear situation - all standing around grunting - and more of a
celebration of where Kia have achieved in the past, and where they're going in the present.
As I said, the performance side of things isn't my speciality. I've never been into the inner workings and technical side, but to understand why certain things are designed in a certain way it does help to grasp the basics. Like anything,
the more you immerse yourself into a subject and surround yourself by people who are passionate and enthusiastic about a subject, the more it rubs off on you. It works for anything;
whisky, pets, trainspotting, trainers,
fitness, illustration...the underlying connector is passion.
I spent little over a day in the city of Geneva, two of those hours were in traffic ironically. The city is buzzing with activity in the day time, but deadly silence at night. Other than a few hour's sleep, the rest of my time was spent exploring Kia's stand at the show, where both existing and brand new models were exhibited. My fuel for the day was strong and black, snacks were anything I could get my hands on and wi-fi was at a premium. It seems every single person in that exhibition centre was jostling for those illusive five bars, to Tweet, email and share their findings. It wasn't a race but the event was running faster than any menswear show I've ever been to. Fitting I guess?!
The show was an eye-opener for me. We heard from people with enough passion to fill a petrol tank twice over, and had chance to experience Kia's cars without actually driving one. I know this may seem weird, but it gave me chance to actually appreciate a process which started in the drawing room - so easy to forget when you're driving from a to b. To most people this will sound like a throwaway comment, because who really cares, it just moves us about? Well, I guess I do. And anyone else who's interested in the design process and the idea of improving will hopefully back me up on this one. Maybe I'm actually more interested in how they're made than how they perform?
After nine busy hours at the show and one last huge glug of perfectly fresh Swiss air, we we packed up our kit and headed back to the airport. And that was it, time to spin our watches back an hour. We planned to see much more of Geneva but there just wasn't enough hours in the day. The only thing that was left to do was grab a bite at Burger King and browse the mountains of Swiss chocolate at the airport. Still, I'm glad I packed a few emergency Snickers bars, those Swiss sure know how to charge!
Thank you to
Kia for inviting me to join the team for a day, if only we could have stayed for longer. Another time hey, now how about that road trip...
Thanks for reading,
Mat
