Initial reactions to the first ever European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition seem, on the whole, to embrace the idea of an NBAA for Europe.

Farnborough-Aircraft.com gauged interest for its F1 project, Embraer spread the word about its Legacy and Dassault began the countdown to Paris where we await the official announcement of a new family Falcon.

That said, there were enough covert whisperings around the show to believe the jury are still out on a final decision.

If you’re looking at the question of accessibility, EBACE is peerless. Once past Cointrin’s airport staff, it’s a simple ten minute trolley-push to the exhibition hall. No queuing, no shuttling, no hassle. For those who took the day-visit option, it must have been a dream.

The convention itself was officially opened, somewhat bizarrely, at 4.30pm on the Wednesday. After a smattering of pomp and ceremony, ground-breaking speeches were made and the world’s aviation press gathered for a close-up of the ribbon-cutting.

You had to be quick. Within seconds, the ribbon had been snipped, the scissors discarded and the dignitaries had left to continue their conversations in private. Lesson number one: Never leave the press with only one photo from which to choose. The next morning’s front page photos were less than gripping.

A quick scan of the aisles showed that, to their credit, the exhibitors were out in force. Honeywell set up alongside Jet Aviation, Raytheon neighboured Pilatus and LifePort went back to back with GKN.

The visitor count looked somewhat meagre on the Wednesday, a good deal healthier on the Thursday and reasonable on the Friday. When the sun did finally make its presence felt on the final day of the convention, there was a flurry of visits to the en suite static display.

Announcements were made by several big players but in news gathering terms, this was not so much a press conference exhibition as a meet-the-operator show. Certainly, the OEMs made use of the opportunity to refresh the client with M&O updates.

The press room remained eerily empty throughout, although lunch-time always attracted the usual sprinkling of famished journos.

With Switzerland housing a fine number of European borders, Geneva is an ideal place to host the show and this was coupled by a friendly response from the locals. Although a few words of French would have made your stay a lot more enjoyable – Geneva is surprisingly behind other areas of Switzerland in the fluent English-speaking department – the Genevois were more than happy to lend a helping hand.

So was it a success or a flop? As I’m sure was the case with the first NBAA, there were faults to be found. However, as a shop-window to business aviation enthusiasts around Europe, the show was a success. Well targeted, reasonably attended and conveniently located.

Richard Evans, editor, EBAN, richard.evans@stanstednews.com