Munich. Wicked or friendly-looking, but always with a fresh gleam and lovingly arrayed, the latest BMW models await the visitor. One of the gentlemen fondly strokes the bonnet, and an amorous sigh gushes from the technology & design studio at the roaring sound of the engine over the test earphones. One of the trade visitors – Martin Eichhorn, Managing Partner of Competition Partner Group Frankfurt – claims that he has never seen a woman stroke an engine block so tenderly. But an X5 engine definitely has an allure of its own! Or the X6 hybrid!
The (other) ladies can design their own dream car in the design lab, with a bit of red leather here, touch of black paint there. Bayerische Motorenwerke stages its brand down to the smallest detail, especially since the opening of BMW World created by architect Wolf D. Prix (Coop Himmelb(l)au) between the parent plant and Olympic park two years ago.
130 ladies and gentlemen explored the car maker’s event portfolio during the first trade visitor day on 24 March 2009, from the Double Cone, the “Holy Cow” and latest addition to the list, through the museum to the cutting-edge BWM World Auditorium for 700 guests. “In the meeting room over the auditorium we organised the Fujitsu Executive Discussion Evening in April 2008 with dinner in the club restaurant,” reports trade visitor Martin Barents of Eventureline Munich. “The catering was really first-class.”
“BMW is currently working with exclusive caterers,” explains Verena Adams. “This is not an optimum situation but it does ensure a high quality.” In the BMW World the caterer is Do & Co from Vienna, and in the museum Rokundco from Munich. Adams is a member of the promotion and brand image team under the direction of Peter Dengler. He and his team organised the first trade visitors’ day and staged the partners, as it’s not enough to be just a venue.
The third venue is BMW Classic, home of the vintage car collection. Three kilometres from the parent plant, all vintage models, be they two or four-wheelers are well looked-after there. “We like to try unusual things,” says Cornelia Heyer during the presentation. “And here you can see the female take, combining the red flower decorations on the long table with red cars and motorbikes.” Catering is provided by the in-house kitchen.
“The people here are fantastically committed,” says one planner. The event pros also attended the BMW drivers’ training that afternoon and evening, which saw its inception 30 years ago and has lost none of the “fascination of driving”. In the Business Club meeting room on the top floor of BMW World, up in the clouds, Florian Bandenwerper tells visitors all about X5 training in Namibia or winter training on a frozen lake in Swedish Lapland. Three training sites are available, but the gentlemen really pricked up their ears when they heard about Oberpfaffenhofen and Fürstenfeldbruck, where the M5 runs at full speed.
Tours on the glass roof of the famous Olympic stadium with abseiling plus a new 150-minute tour of the parent plant put a gleam in the visitors’ eyes that rivalled that of the paintwork. And that evening’s highlight was the presentation of the auditorium with a back wall that opens out to the foyer of BMW World. The floor can be raised or lowered. And two cellists rose up from the ground, followed by an extract from Mission Impossible, which took full advantage of the technology. On-stage catering rounded off the trade visitors’ day.
“Wonderfully organised,” says happy congress pro Dr. Markus Preußner, one of the managing directors of PCO Interplan München. “The event was extensive but very entertaining.”
