The largest traveling road show of its kind is making its way along the Eastern Seaboard, almost six months after Bosch Security Systems kicked off the Safe & Sound security and audio tour at ISC West in Las Vegas.

The 56-foot-long truck, which recently stopped in Natick, Mass., less than a mile from Commercial Integrator world headquarters, has about 1,000 square feet of exhibit space and more than eight tons of equipment, with some of the newest and most popular products from several of Bosch’s lines.

Visitors who walk through the truck will see working models of Bosch’s fire detection, access control, critical communications, moving cameras, video command and control, thermal imaging, video solutions (including HD), and installed sound and portable sound lines. The truck, which takes about four hours to set up and knock down, recently earned a bronze medal for national mobile marketing.

Casual Conversation, Business Development

Several people asked Kevin Gainor, northeast regional sales manage for Bosch, about IP and HD video integration, as well as mass notification systems, he says.

“The response has been good,” says Gainor, who was at the Natick stop outside a local hotel just off the Massachusetts Turnpike about 20 minutes west of Boston. “We had a lot of our existing dealers bring their customers. It makes for a compelling story when you can bring all these pieces together.”

In addition to regional sales staffers at each stop, Repworks is also on hand at most stops inside the hotels with additional equipment. Again, though, there are no set agendas and no appointments necessary.

“This is more of a personal way to talk to people and for them to see our products. Potential customers like it because it’s informal. They like the flexibility of being able to walk in and out. It’s a relaxed, no-pressure environment,” he says. “Some people will stay for 15 or 20 minutes, others will hang around for a couple of hours and really look around. The challenge for us is to take those contacts we make and follow up with them.”

Because each stop along the tour is a bit different, Bosch does its best to “balance the needs of our client base with some of the logistics of doing this,” Gainor says. The stops are typically close to the highway in areas with enough space for the truck to fit with no major problems and in places where the truck doesn’t run into weight limit issues. That’s why, for example, the tour didn’t stop in Boston; there just weren’t any hotels in the area with competitive rates in areas where the truck could safely travel.

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D. Craig MacCormack

Craig MacCormack is a veteran journalist with more than 15 years experience covering local and national news and sports as well as architecture and engineering. He joined Commercial Integrator in January 2011. Follow him on Twitter: @CraigMacCormack.

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