After an anxious and prolonged wait, I finally received the photograph that I took with the world renowned Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California.

Ryan Swerdloff, VP of Marketing at Vinpower Digital with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California at the CeBIT trade show in Hannover, Germany March 2009.

As a California resident, one may consider it odd that they would meet the Governor of their state nearly 7,000 miles away in an obscure town in Germany. But that’s what exhibiting at one of the largest consumer electronics IT trade shows in the world brings about. Of course it’s also noteworthy to mention that the Governor of California is one of the most recognizable movie stars of all time, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The fact that California was a partner state of CeBIT made sense that the Governor would take time out of his busy schedule to attend this trade show. In addition, California is one of the largest developers and exporters of CE/IT products in the world. Plus with Governor Schwarzenegger’s immense popularity around the globe, his presence certainly elevated the presence of Californian exhibitors like ourselves. With our headquarters in Los Angeles county, we are directly aware of the benefits California has to offer when it comes to it’s large pool of skilled engineers and labor, close proximity to major shipping ports, and large concentration of component suppliers, not to mention the excellent weather.

It is for these reasons that I had to travel nearly half way around the world to meet the Governor whose official residence is only 300 miles from our factory. With that said, it was an exciting day to meet such a popular figure that I have watched since my childhood as well as a strong statement for the technological prowess of the “Sunshine” state.

The Plextor PX-DM300 was a joint venture developed by Vinpower Digital on behalf of Plextor of a compact 3 slim CD/DVD standalone duplicator which was first introduced nearly 2 years ago in Japan. Initially, we were chosen to work on this project because of our strong engineering background and the fact that we currently have the most reliable and functional standalone duplication controller on the market. Plus Plextor knew that we could meet their lengthy list of stringent requirements essential in order to brand this unit with the Plextor name.

These kinds of products often have short life spans, especially in the IT/CE product realm. So the fact that Plextor not only continues to offer the PX-DM300 but also is still actively promoting the product is a strong testament to its durability and demand in the marketplace.

We are proud of our association with Plextor as they have a strong reputation for quality and longevity in the optical disc duplication field. Seeing the unit as the only duplicator displayed amongst a bevy of Plextor products, which are wholly unrelated to disc duplication, is a coup de gras for Vinpower Digital in our efforts to become the leading global CD, DVD, Blu-ray duplicator manufacturer.

Munich Hall, which is the largest trade fair restaurant in the world, provides traditional German meals and drinks at a spacious ballroom with 3200 seats. You can see waitresses all in traditional costume and you can enjoy all kinds of delicious food and Bavarian cheese. Best of all is Munich beer in a huge traditional glass which the waiters and waitresses impressively carry up to 10 or so by hand to your table.

Every year when Vinpower attends CeBIT, we will bring customers to the Munich Hall to enjoy this traditional Bavarian style restaurant and all its entertainment and excitement. Munich Hall offers a variety of choices and dishes. Most of them are traditional hearty fare such as Hendl (chicken), Haxn (knuckle of pork), Würstel (sausages) along with Brezel (Pretzel), Knödeln (potato or bread dumplings), Sauerkraut or Blaukraut (red cabbage) along with such Bavarian delicacies as Obatzda (a fatty, spiced cheese-butter concoction) we had ordered that night.

With its dueling live bands playing music in the background, the whole place is full of excitement and cheers. After a few dinks of traditional Munich Beer, people were dancing happily on the hall floor, chairs and tables, and singing along with the music. It is truly a great place that you celebrate in an authentic atmosphere and let the busy trade day come to a relaxing end.

This was my first visit to Europe for the CeBIT trade show in Hannover, Germany, so exciting!! Especially since CeBIT is the biggest IT tradeshow in the world.

Even though this was my first experience at CeBIT, Vinpower has participated at CeBIT for the past 5 years. It’s a great opportunity to introduce our newest products to our European customers at the show.

To arrive at Hannover, we flew into Zurich, Switzerland and transited on to Hannover. I saw beautiful Alps from the plane, that’s wonderful. The apartment we stayed is quite near to the “messe nord” (the CeBIT event venue). The weather was quite nice, no snow.~~

At our booth, sharkcopiers and me!

Our autoloader duplicators always catch people’s eyes causing them to visit our booth! We displayed the Cube, Titan lite, and Titan supreme models…from 25 -1000 disc capacity.

We are launching many different kinds of duplicators this year which we received very positive feedback from the attendees during the show. *happy*

My pink pants~ Love it!
My colleagues cannot stop singing the “Pink Panther” theme song around me when I wore it. @#$R$…

Although the Chinese New Year has passed and all we have are our memories, this past New Years celebration was even more special because of the global economic hardships that have affected us all. It’s a testament to how we’ve persevered and managed to forge ahead even under difficult circumstances. This is a direct reflection on the employees within the company and how we have all stuck together to make our products even better and more desirable so that we can gain greater market share and continue to prosper in these difficult times. This is in honor to those I work with and how we’ve all come together professionally and socially, especially in this case.

Say Good Bye to 2008, we welcome 2009~~

In celebrating the Chinese New Year, we had our annual dinner party, or as we say “Spring Wine”, at a Korean BBQ restaurant in the Los Angeles region of Southern California.

Guys, let’s have dinner

Everyone within the company are welcome to join the festivities. We had lots of guests ranging in age from 9 months to 50. But I would say it’s also a beauty contest, as I am working with handsome men and beautiful women.

First up, the male group~

Our sales guy and R&D leader, or u can say the sexist guy and smartest guy.

Our valuable R&D team showing the mood of the evening.

This expression is so FUNNY ~~ Thanks to our production line guys to make sure we have good quality products shipped to our customers~

Here comes the baby group

See how cute they are. There are no winners or losers in the kid’s world, so I will say they’re all winners of the baby group.

Best things always comes last,

Beauties from Taiwan. say chees~~

We have beauty with big eyes and with see through lace back dress beauties….. What’s that guy looking at?
I can announce it’s best of the year.

Great papa and mama group,

It’s a wonderful night and thanks for all members who joined this meal.
See you next year~~

Happy Chinese new year~