As an Offshore Europe newbie, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the event, although the first, obviously, was exceptionally heavy traffic.
On that score, I'm delighted to say we were pleasantly surprised by the relative ease with which we reached the venue.
Having said that - we then made up for our cracking commute time by taking all of about an hour to register!
Still, it did give us time to witness just how vast an undertaking this actually is. In excess of 1500 different exhibitors are all making their pitch and hoping to increase their slice of the pie.
And they do that in myriad inventive eye-catching ways.
Everything from magicians, through semi clad girls, who, despite my best efforts have succeeded in eluding me thus far! Tomorrow's another day though!
I don't think in advance I appreciated the likelihood of the sheer enormity of some of the displays there. When I got there first, I made my way to the Northsound 2 stand, which on first inspection looked great. Not to take anything away from the multi skilled and talented staff who've worked on it - it does look great, and had we given them the budget of some of the others, we would probably have turned out something just as grand.
As it is - our stand (Number 393 - and we'd still love to see you there this week!) is positively dwarfed by some of the monstrosities there.
They're on two or three levels.
They have built in stairs, terraces, restaurants, bars. Chefs cooking to order.
It really is a spectacle.
And the breadth of nations involved is astonishing too.
At first glance I picked out Scotland, clearly, along with Italy, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, and more. And that was just scratching the surface.
The object appears to be to out-goody-bag the competitors.
I felt quite insignificant with my Northsound 2 pens and merchandise, compared to some of the stuff on offer there.
And it's not just products - there are party nights, restaurant invitations....
You name it, it's on offer.
Don't know what it says about me that the producer was offered the restaurant invitations by formal oil company employees, and I got the flyers for the lap dancing clubs!
Our production team's big off-air project for the week is to source and blag as much quality stuff as possible.
If it's good we may auction it off on air for Northsound 2's charity, Cash For Kids.
If it's REALLY good, you've nae chance!
On the show today we chatted to Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, who was keen to start the soundbites, referring to Aberdeen as a 'Global Energy Hub'. Not the last time you'll hear that term this week, I'd confidently predict.
Also featuring, some Aberdeen companies exhibiting on a world stage for the first time.
Mark Griffiths of Codify explained how his company is using it's knowledge base to create market specific solutions in conjunction with the expertise of Microsoft's latest Surface technology.
You can visit their stand at C31 for a truly futuristic Minority Report experience that dispenses with the need for screen,keyboard and mouse technology.
Gordon Adie, MD of another local firm, Arrowdawn, explained how their recent success with Cisco systems resulted in them being awarded Cisco's Scottish Small Business Award, as well as lots of new contracts.
Lastly for today, Rita Stephen spoke to us about the Energetica Project which we'll post online in full for you tomorrow.
Also tomorrow, on the programme, you'll hear from Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy, and learn about how the industry is engaging the interest of the youth of today, to try to encourage them to build the successes of tomorrow. Don't miss the Dragons' Den news.
See you tomorrow at ten.
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