This was our first official year attending European Experience as a vendor, and we did so in partnership with USP Motorsports, under their umbrella so to speak. We've distilled our product offerings that we bring to shows in an attempt to cut through some of the noise and encourage our customers to become familiar with our core offerings. While we still stock a large variety of brands and parts in house for web orders, we feel it's important to make the shows specifically about Black Forest Industries and what we add to the community.
And speaking of the community, it seemed to be very healthy as the city of Savannah was overrun with German vehicles as far as the eye could see. Our hotel was conveniently located at the corner of "Burnout" and "Send It!" which had a crowd gathered for hours both nights we were there. The authorities were very relaxed when it came to the mayhem as it took them well into the second night to uneventfully shut things down. Another highlight for us was when we spotted a customer of ours carrying a BFI engine mount in the parking lot. After a brief exchange we wound up helping that customer install his brand new mount right on the very same corner in a parallel parking spot.
Regarding the show itself, we were very impressed with the venue as it offered ample space with a fairly logical layout. The somewhat DIY seeming racetrack added to the atmosphere, especially when the vendors were given the chance to rip their cars around for a few minutes at a time. (Note to self: bring track car next year).
Overall this show seemed to have its own personality immediately, and the city and event location greatly added to that. While this is no replacement for SoWo (RIP) EuEx does have the potential to become most of what SoWo once was, and in a city that is far better equipped to handle us tourists. We're looking forward to coming back next year, and likely doing it bigger and better. Until then, here's a look at just a few things we saw :
