A national conference with a direct dealer focus
Since CADA’s National Conference in Vancouver a few years ago, we at Canadian auto dealer get asked on a regular basis whether we know the timing of the next event.
Our answer is, and continues to be, that we are not aware of plans for a CADA conference in the near future.
Typically, that conversation expresses the need for a Canadian event that will offer seminars with a national perspective, supplementing the strong roster of provincial association conferences available to dealers in their home provinces and regions.
We’ve had that conversation often enough that we decided to step into the breach, so to speak.
So let me be the first to invite you to CADEX, a two-day conference to be held this September 8-9 just north of Toronto.
The conference will cover a range of issues facing dealers in a time of dramatic change that is much more profound than a recession/recovery cycle alone. We are not limiting the focus to a single area, such as remarketing or financing, but will instead tackle a number of the most pressing issues dealers need to wrestle with, at both strategic and tactical levels.
Some of the sessions will be high level to be sure, including a detailed look at the research CADA has done on the future of the dealer network in Canada. Rick Gauthier, CADA President and CEO, will be speaking at the dinner dividing the two days, sharing his thoughts on the research they’ve commissioned.
Some of the sessions will be more tactical with immediate application in your store. We will be looking hard at social media as a tool for building customer connections, store traffic and customer-paid work in your service department. We will deal with remarketing and inventory management and money, including its availability and its cost.
One notable session will be delivered by Dr. Marie-Noelle Bonicalzi, Dean of Georgian College and the Canadian Automotive Institute. She has a unique view into the dramatically different work habits, expectations and attitudes of the workforce your store will be employing in the next few years. Young professionals have very distinct ideas on job descriptions and career paths. Many of the traditional roles in your dealership will have to be redesigned to attract the best and brightest from this talent pool. Dr. Bonicalzi will help you understand how to be successful in this.
There is more information on the conference available at www.cadexcellence.ca. We will also be using social media tools including Twitter and Facebook to get the message out and, more importantly, to give you a chance to shape the conversations.
We are also starting to research the usage of social media tools in Canada’s retail automotive business, an effort that will be continuing over the next few months. We are just starting to use social media in our own business, and to date our efforts have been more ‘dabbling’ than tactical and measurable. Does that describe your own efforts?
An ever-increasing number of automotive dealerships have gone well beyond casual use of social media and are achieving measurable gains in repeat customers and customer-paid service. Our research will help you understand what is possible and how to get there yourself. We’ll present findings at the conference in September. And much more.
Lots going on. Stay tuned!
