In Kuwait, Phil Massey, general manager of Sennheiser UK and ME, Mig Cardamone, business area manager for Middle East, Ryan Burr, business development manager for ME and Heston Saldanha, consumer channel sales manager, met up with partner aDawaliah Trading, part of Universal Holdings, to undertake a two-day training schedule.
The first day saw Ryan Burr conduct a session on installed sound, focussing on how the various products within the Sennheiser's portfolio are suited to various situations.
This included comprehensive information on the new ADN conference system, infrared simultaneous translations systems, system 2020 for both tourGUIDE and translation, as well as the fully automated guidePORT system. The group of 15 attendees drew from their own experience to help visualise how the systems could be worked into their current projects.
The second day included a presentation on the consumer range of headphones and headsets. "We have decided to highlight our consumer range in the Middle East," said Heston Saldanha. "The best way to do this is to get the products out to our partners and make them enthusiastic about the potential customer base we can build based on their quality." Additionally, a seminar on third party professional brands distributed by Sennheiser ME was held, which included information on K-array and DAS loudspeaker systems.
The Qatar leg, held in conjunction with local partner Darwish Holdings - 51 East, followed a similar format. This saw Mr. Saldanha visiting retailers such as Virgin and offering advice on how best to position Sennheiser products in a very active headphones market, whilst showing staff how to help the customer make their decision.
Highlighting Sennheiser's professional range of products, Ryan Burr again focussed on the installation side of the business, with particular attention paid to the K-array range.
The training schedule in the Middle East is part of a larger programme being conducted by the Sennheiser Group worldwide, with a further two large interactive sessions recently held at Bristol's Ashton House and Knebworth House in Hertfordshire, both in the UK.
"With our technologies developing into much more complex systems, it is very important that our partners and customers are offered both training sessions and some hands on experience with the products to ensure that they understand them and can see how they help improve the quality of the projects they are working on," said Phil Massey. "Our attitude towards education and understanding will help keep us at the forefront of the range of professional audio business segments we are involved with."
The Team at Sennheiser Middle East are planning further sessions in both Qatar and Oman at the end of the busy summer period.
(Jim Evans)
