SOVEREIGN
Through The Camera Lens Expats come in all forms Event Photography Stories by Elaine Pringle-Schwitter The Expat Expo in Switzerland is the brainchild of Ed and Melanie McGaugh. They are in their 14th year of this trade show and it is run 4 times a year in 4 different cities, namely Zurich, Zug, Geneva and Basel. It is an English-speaking expo and the aim, as the name suggests, is to help expats with the process of settling into a new country and all that it entails. For the last three and half years I have been the event’s official photographer and my brief is to capture the mood of the exhibitors, the ambiance of the venue and the general traffic flow of the visitors. It is a great day out for expats in the areas. The Exhibitors range from large corporate financial institutions to a small family business that make organic skin care products. Every expat from all over the globe that can converse in English will flock to this expo to find the latest products and/or services that will fit their needs. There is even the faithful bouncy castle for the children of the expats. This allows them to have a 10-minute coffee and just soak up the atmosphere. The bouncy castle has been a permanent fixture at these expos, and it is run by a fabulous children’s party organisation that manages to keep themselves busy for the rest of the time running birthday parties for the expat community as well as the Swiss. This is not an exclusive ‘only expats are welcome’ event. On the contrary, Ed and Mel embrace Swiss visitors, Swiss exhibitors and Swiss sponsors. In fact, often on my rounds during my shoots I meet many of the Swiss attendees and tend to engage on the current topics of the day. Usually that is local news, but in this current climate, all anyone wants to talk about is Brexit and what is going on there. I’ll leave that to the politicians to answer. The most recent expat expo was in Zug Lorzensaal, Cham. This tends to be the smallest of the expos and expectations are managed as such. However, this time it was a very different expose to the norm. There was a certain buzz in the air and a rejuvenated feeling amongst the Exhibitors and visitors. Zug 2019 was the launch of the Swiss Edition of the Sovereign Magazine and unbeknownst to many of the exhibitors, there was a wicker basket for them to drop their business cards, with the chance of winning a featured article in the next edition of the magazine. When the exhibitors became knowledgeable about this potential win, they flocked to Sovereign Magazine section of the expo in search of this wicker basket. What amused me was the enthusiasm of the exhibitors to displace their business cards into the basket. I even observed a couple businesses putting more than one business card in, presumably to increase their chance of this fabulous win. Who wouldn’t?
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