out I spoke the same language and soon they crowded around my bench and bombarded me with questions. This was truly fun for me. I looked up to many of them because some had 30+ years of experience and now those same people were asking me for my opinion and advice regarding the training. Afterwards I asked Alexander if this was somewhat comparable to the questions and the crowds he worked with on trade shows. That got us talking about the trade shows he did to promote his school back in 2014. During the talk I said something along the following line: “would it be helpful if I join you on your next trade show, so people can see what a student is capable of after 3 months working with you? They can ask me questions, and company owners can see the real results that are possible when they send their staff to you for training. And, and, and...” (I laid it on pretty thick. I really was pumped to help him on a trade show). After some contemplation on his part, and me helping him remember my offer, he explained he didn’t really need me there to work but I was welcome to join him if I so choose. I could drive with him to Switzerland (the Baselworld trade show it was!) and he would pay for my restaurant and train fare expenses. A couple of weeks before we left, Alexander received a 901 steel hand-piece from GRS to test out the metal and see if he could set some stones in it or do some engraving on it, with the idea of continuing that during the fair. He received two, just in case something happened with the first one, which was not the case. One morning he dropped it on my bench and said “if you want, you can do something with it. For example something that is typical Dutch (I’m from the Netherlands, and he did something on his knob that was related to his country), and you can finish it in Basel.” “So, if I want, I can do whatever I feel like with this knob you just gave me, and try on it as many of the techniques we tackled together during the course?” It took me no time to answer wholeheartedly yes to that question! From that point on I put in many extra weekends and late hours until we left for the show, and by that point I had the majority of the work done on the top part. Back then, when he still did trade shows with his own physical stand, he used to share a booth with GRS Tools at the Inhorgenta and Baselworld shows.
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