More than 2,500 guests recently attended this year’s Performance Expo of the Hans Hess Group at the BILSTER BERG, giving the in-house exhibition of the Cologne-based group of companies the highest number of visitors since it was founded. Two years ago, the Schwenker company – the youngest member of the Hess family of companies – had already chosen the BILSTER BERG as the venue for its own in-house exhibition. The Minden-based car parts specialist joined the Hess Group in 2017. Because of this, the most recent in-house exhibition was organised for the first time as a major event for the entire Hess group of companies. The event-experienced Schwenker team took over the organisational responsibility. Viktoria Kurth, Executive Assistant at Schwenker and co-responsible for the organisation of Performance Expo 2018, outlines the development of the event as a continuous success story: “In the beginning, the event was held on the company’s own premises. As the number of visitors continued to grow over the years, they were eventually forced to look for new locations for the in-house exhibition. Since 2016, the BILSTER BERG has been the suitable venue. At our first event there, we were already able to welcome around 2,000 invited guests. This year, the number of visitors has increased by another 500 people. The Hess Group is delighted with this great response from the public, as well as the very positive feedback from the customers on site.”

In addition to press representatives from industry magazines, regular customers of the Hess Group and their families were invited to the Performance Expo 2018. These customers are made up of car part dealers and workshops from all over Europe who regularly purchase spare parts from the companies of the Hess Group. For an entire weekend, customers were able to find out about the latest innovations, services and offers from roughly 120 exhibitors on site in the immediate vicinity of the racetrack at the BILSTER BERG. The event location in turn meant that the topic of racing played a very special role that weekend. During a total of 15 hours of track operation, the racing taxis completed more than 1,000 trips over the BILSTER BERG to offer the guests of the Hess Group the experience of the race track. Taxi drivers experienced in motor sports, all of them in possession of a valid racing licence, steered the racing taxis over the challenging 4.2 kilometres of the circuit and brought a big smile to everyone’s face. The youngest visitors were also catered for: they were allowed to drive around the BILSTER BERG in a beetle specially equipped for children and were thus able to get a taste of “racing air”. A special highlight of the weekend was the visit of the reigning DTM champion René Rast. From now on, the Audi factory driver will wear the logo of the MOTOO workshop, which belongs to the Hess Group, on his helmet.

After a long, eventful weekend, the organisers of Performance Expo 2018 were also very satisfied with the way the event went: “When we started preparing for Performance Expo 2018, we first went through all the contingencies and intensively asked ourselves what emergency situations could arise. Fortunately, none of these cases occurred. In retrospect, we know: If something unforeseen would have happened, all the internal helpers as well as the BILSTER BERG staff would have immediately given us a helping hand”, Viktoria Kurth summarises the event. “We already know the BILSTER BERG team from the Schwenker Trackdays and other events – so this time it was again a lot of fun to plan and coordinate the event from start to finish together with the people from BILSTER BERG.”

(Editor: ramp.space Photos: Schwenker )