The Tire Cologne – My First Big Automotive Aftermarket Exhibition

When our Schrader team decided to exhibit at The Tire Cologne, one of the biggest tyre trade fairs in Europe that opened its doors for the first time to the public this year, I did not know what to expect both from an organizational and personal point of view. I have only been with Schrader for 9 months and this was my first time ever attending and organizing such big automotive trade show. These trade shows fall under my responsibility, I wanted to do well and make the team proud!

The preparation for this event started months ahead of time and I had a lot of challenging decisions to make during the planning process. Administrative work was one part, but the real struggles were designing a brand new 100 square metre booth, creating a booth staffing schedule and customized product presentations amongst other things. One special project developed by our marketing team was a digital fortune wheel application to promote our Schrader Academy training offers. Booth visitors could win a free Schrader DEKRA certified TPMS Training for Experts session. We had never done anything like this before, so figuring out the logistics behind creating that was a really interesting learning experience.

Finally, the big week from the 29^th of May until 1^st of June has arrived and to be honest, I was very excited and also a little bit nervous! I felt like there were a thousand things on my to-do list and I assume that many of us are familiar with this “fear” when you feel like you may have missed something. Luckily, many of my colleagues have been working for Schrader for several years and they supported me by sharing their experiences from former trade shows. I think the most exciting moment was when the whole team entered the exhibition hall together and saw the brand new booth for the first time. It was such a great feeling to see the actual outcome of all the efforts that we put in this project and the positive reaction from the team.

The whole week was just a great success, as we had many international visitors and held thrilling conversations with current and potential customers. More than 16.000 trade visitors from 113 countries came to The Tire Cologne, which is definitely an impressive result! From my own perspective it was an awesome learning experience for future shows and it helped me identify areas that we can continue to improve.

On the last evening, some colleagues and I went to the beautiful Cologne Cathedral, where I could take a little bit of time for myself to reflect what we accomplished as a team over the last few weeks. I just felt thankful to be part of a great team and the opportunity to learn something new every day! With this experience behind me, I am looking forward to preparing for the “Automechanika Frankfurt” show this September!

June 8, 2018