It was a tough job, but on September 1, 2015 it was to come: Our new exhibition foyer was opened in the presence of the two parliamentary secretaries Brigitte Zypries and Christian Lange. Even the mayor of Backnang, Dr. Frank Nopper, and Andreas Hammer, the successor of Peter Schlote were on site. And around 500 colleagues who wanted to throw a first look at our new boss.
The exhibition space in the foyer of building 11 was a long-cherished wish. But again and again the project has been postponed because of budget and time constraints. With the substantial refurbishment of building 11 the time had finally come to tackle the project. In November 2014 the Agency Quadraflex came, with whom Tesat worked for many years especially in exhibition design, from Berlin to a first site visit. To bring Tesat and its working areas close to the clients and visitors, but also to the 1200 employees was the goal in the design of the 150 square meter showroom.
The first drafts were eagerly awaited: then a concept was chosen that gives visitors of the room the feeling of being in space. The exhibits seem to float in glass cubes in space, surrounded by stylized orbits. If you look up, the viewer looks at the sky "like a space station" described Uschi Mußhoff of Quadraflex their idea.
On this first draft was still a lot of work, changes and even discards. In numerous telephone conferences and internal meetings the concept has been adapted to the needs of Tesat, but also to the structural conditions.
"The new exhibition foyer now takes you on a journey through five decades of passionate pioneering work in space and provides visions for the future," so Peter Schlote satisfied at the opening. " Tesat now impressively presents its performance and proudly displays its products - from the first amplifier to the Laser Communication Terminal." The mayor of Backnang, Frank Nopper, said in his address adds one more: "As you all know, the high-tech city of Backnang is the center of satellite communications in Germany and in Europe: Without the market and innovation leader Tesat there were no sharp images of Mars and no satellite images of impending storms meteorological, military and political nature ".
But the state secretaries Brigitte Zypries and Christian Lange were enthused by the successful concept of the new exhibition foyers in their greetings. "There are small and medium sized companies, which are each world leader in their field – like Tesat –, but hardly anyone knows, but without them nothing would work", Brigitte Zypries said appreciatively. "You can tell that this company is committed to the training. Tesat-Spacecom invested in the minds of the people” was the great praise from secretary Zypries.
Unfortunately the planned celebration for employees rained off because of an incipient storm, but many took the opportunity to look around in the new showroom. This then also acted really "spacey" because it was threatening dark outside by the storm, and the lighted arches came with impressive clarity.