CHARLOTTE — Taffy Event Strategies and the North Carolina Motorsports Association (NCMA) announced the launch of High Performance Expo (HPX), a new trade show set for June 3-5, 2025, at the Charlotte Convention Center.
According to Taffy Event Strategies and NCMA, HPX will be the first trade show to simultaneously serve the automotive aftermarket’s B2B and B2C communities in the Southeastern U.S.
Jenn Heinold, President, Taffy Event Strategies, shared that research and conversations with NCMA members and industry leaders “uncovered a need for the Southeast to have an automotive aftermarket event to call their own.”
“There’s certainly race teams and buyers from a business perspective, but these enthusiasts/consumers really do a lot of investing as well, so we didn’t want to neglect one side or the other. We actually wanted to build something that served both,” Heinold said.
The inaugural HPX trade show will be held in the Charlotte Convention Center’s B and C halls, and Heinold expects it to span approximately 70,000 net square feet, include 300-500 exhibiting companies and be visited by 10,000-20,000 attendees. It will offer keynote addresses, a new product showcase, a conference program, networking opportunities, activations and more.
The show’s management team is collaborating with industry leaders, exhibitors and buyers to plan the show and ensure that it meets the community’s needs.
“We’ve had early conversations, even before the announcement, with some key exhibiting companies, because we did not want to build this in a silo,” Heinold stated. “We’ve got also a really strong membership base with the NCMA, so we’ve involved their membership base as well… we all are stronger together, and that’s been a theme throughout this process.”
Additionally, Taffy Event Strategies and NCMA are planning a series of events for the weekend after the trade show, June 6-8, at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and other racetracks in the area to drive more industry connections.
“The culture of cars in Charlotte is just overpowering. It makes a ton of sense to put the event where the community is… [and] in my experience, community-driven events always are the most successful,” Heinold said.
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The racing and performance community in-and-around Charlotte will also be invited to participate in HPX’s marketing strategy.
Leading up to the event, Heinold shared that the show’s marketing team will host VIP media days “where we actually bring the media into the shops around Charlotte… [and] let them get hands-on with the product, and, more importantly, the people engineering and building the product. That’s a level of access that hasn’t been had in the past.”
“What has gotten me so excited is really the team that we’ve assembled to work on this show. They are super smart, and I’m thrilled to work with them, and that’s been part of the fun… being able to roll up our sleeves, [and] become part of the community, has been just so valuable, and, let’s face it, it’s a cool community to be a part of,” Heinold said.
Click here to learn more about HPX.
