two days ago we were in frankfurt to meet with the director of musikmesse, wolfgang luecke. the musikmesse is the world's largets annual convention for musical instruments and we have been exhibiting there for nearly 50 years. many subjects for our next year's presentation were discussed with wolfgang. some of them weren't easy subjects. but that is why you meet face-to-face so you can confront and solve delicate issues effectively and immediately. all in all, everyone has a positive and optimistic attitude towards next year's international musikmesse in frankfurt.

the "IAA" - international automobil ausstellung - international automobile exhibition - took place on the fairground right at the time during our meeting and of course we took advantage of the situation to checked it out. it's the world's largest car show and was a funny experience for me.

first of all, i got some real great ideas as far as how to display a product effectively, and how to make it look as perfect as possible in a exhibiton-stand. i will try to use some of those ideas for our own display concepts.

more than that though, i have been attending musikmesse in frankfurt now since 19 years as an exhibitor. however this was the first time ever that i was on the fairground when there is no musikmesse happening. so i was not used to NOT see any musical instruments, but only cars instead. i walked into hall 3 (where our stand always is), and there were just cars. audi, volkswagen, skoda, seat, bentley, and lamborghini to be precise. i was able to locate exactly that 16 x 11 meter area were our booth always is. but, there was an audi A5 instead of our booth. that was a really weird feeling for me. but then i thought that our floorspace got an at least equally excellent product display with an audi A5 and other great cars.

check out the fotos i took.

- norbert

name: franz wagner
with meinl since: 1991
current position: working in the pad printing dept.
side note: author of music education books

franz originates from karaghanda in kazakhstan from where he moved to germany in 1990. in 1991 franz started to work for us. back in those days we were wholesaling various instruments and franz was in charge for the maintanance and repair of our accordions and guitars. since ten years now franz has worked in the pad printing dept. and puts the logos on all (!) our cymbals (except the ones which are laser engraved). thats a lot!

before he came to germany, franz studied music and arts in altay-krais, siberia. he graduated on the "accordion-bayn (b)". thats a special kind of accordion. he has also written several educational books, is an accomplished music teacher, and has conducted a russian balalaika orchestra for many years. he is the most complete musician from all meinl employees. a modest and silent gentleman with a great character.

i will never forget this one eye-opening incident i had many years ago: i saw franz in his repair shop while he was working on an accordion. i asked that i would really like to listen to him playing. first he felt weird to "perform" for me. however, finally he took the accordion and played some music of a contemporary russian jazz composer to me who's name i have never heard before. it sounded amazing! from that moment on i knew that franz is one of the best musicians i have met so far. he also tunes my piano at home.

welcome back and i hope you have had great summertime so far. here at meinl everything is going great. we were closed for summer holidays and everything is back on track again. we are now fully involved with the development of all the news for next year, preparations for new catalogs, and million of other marketing ideas and projects for later this year. some exciting things coming up :-)

one of next year's drumming highlights will certainly be our drum festival which is going to take place here on our premises in gutenstetten, germany again. yesterday we have decided about the dates.

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDER: THE NEXT MEINL DRUM FESTIVAL WILL TAKE PLACE ON THE 26th and 27th OF JUNE 2010.

don't ask me about the line-up. there are no news yet. however, i am going to start working on that now and if anybody has a suggestion as far as who from our roster we should present at our drum festival next year, please feel free to let me know.

i am going to be attending the drumworld festival in holland on sunday, and will be at key music in belgium to attend a dirk verbeuren (soilwork) workshop there on monday. make sure to follow me on twitter (meinlcymbals) and facebook (norbert saemann) where i will make live-updates from those events. it would be nice to meet some of you in person there.