Today is the big day!

The conference starts at 08:30 with informal networking before the opening ceremony at 09:30. We had a lot of visitors from a number of clubs visit our stand throughout the day – from Premier League side Stoke City to Tufan FC – a new club hoping to conquer Azerbaijan.

The day started off at 7:30, final preparations were made to the Totum Sport stand and we were ready and waiting for the doors to open at 08:30. 1000 delegates were expected at the day and every delegate will receive a Totum Sport brochure alongside a sachet of Totum Sport. Totum Sport will feature throughout the event from our logo being on the TV screens to the lanyards.

We’ve had a steady flow of visitors to our stand throughout the morning – our first delegate to the stand was Stoke City’s International Development Project Manager, Angela Smith. Angela, who was also one of the most famous squash players had already heard about Totum Sport and wanted to learn more. As well as having a stand at the exhibition we had also pre-arranged meetings prior to arriving in Zhuhai. The first of these was with Chad Harpur, from La Manga Sports Club – La Manga is a sports resort in Murcia, Spain, which is used by a whole host of clubs from all sports. We then met with Alex Faus from SportiveWays and ended the mornings meetings with Stuart Larman from the Asian Football Confederation and Ruslan Nasibov (Chairman) and Turjay Ahmadov (Member of the board) from Tufan FC – Tufan FC are a newly formed club in Azerbaijan and aim to conquer the Azerbaijani league, they were very interested in Totum Sport and the science behind the product.

A lot of interest was had at our stand, we met a range of people from Football Clubs and business. Bastian Patzold of Lagardere Sports, Chris Burger, who represents Olympique Marseille, Zac Karlaftis of Birmingham City and Colin Otten from VDL Seating Systems – to name just a very few! A very special guest to our stand was Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura – Chief Secretary General of FIFA, Totum’s Head of Science, Roger Meacock educated Fatma on Totum Sport and the science behind Totum, Fatma then proceeded to try Totum Sport for herself.

We attended talks throughout the day, speakers included Atletico Madrid, FIFA, the Premier League and Totum Sport of course. We occupied the 15:20 slot in the academy and our talk revolved around educating the audience on Hydration, Nutrition and Totum Sport. We followed a talk from Liverpool legend, Craig Johnston, who’s talk focused on „The Future of Technology and How China Will Win the World Cup” – a tough act to follow!

Speaking at the talk were Totum Sport’s CEO, John Kelleher, Head of Science, Roger Meacock and Nutritionist, Marie Farag. Attendees including Bayern Munich, Borussia Monchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund, Marseille, Tenerife, Internacional,  and Stoke City – to name just a few. We made our way back to our stand and we were greeted by a queue of people who had more questions on Totum Sport and wanted to try it for themselves.

Meetings continued through the day, we met with Roberto Mickel, who holds the position of Director with CD Tenerife, Tenerife are currently in the Segunda Division in Spain but they are pretty much certainties for promotion to La Liga, next season they will be facing the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid. The end of the day was looming but there was still time to fit in one more meeting, this was with United Soccer Africa President, Olubunmi Jinadu, who seen how special Totum Sport is and can’t wait to introduce it to the African market.

The day had finished but the night was just beginning, all of the delegates and exhibitors left their stands and congregated in the networking area and let their hair down after a hard days work. More networking ensued before the congregation moved onto the poolside of the near Sheraton Hotel for food and drinks. The setting, under the convention’s skyscraper was both elegant and stunning – of course, more valuable contacts were made.

The night ended in the Sheraton’s hotel bar in quite bizarre fashion, Roger and I (Michael, Totum’s Marketing Exec) faced Borussia Monchengladbach’s Head of International Sales, Peter Hambuchen and General Manger, Martin Theiss in the World Cup Final of table Football, and England V Germany final gets the juices flowing in any sport. It was a repeat of the 1966 World Cup final as England ran out victorious. It was a high-scoring and close game as England ran out 10-9 victors, football’s coming home!