Members of the AkzoNobel Acoat selected National Performance Group gathered Aug. 25-27 at the Fairmont Chicago in Chicago, Ill., for its 17th annual Summer Conferece. The 2010 program drew around 200 attendees from collision repair centers throughout North America. The Acoat selected program is comprised of industry leaders representing the largest and most progressive collision repair centers in the North American market today, AkzoNobel says.
The program featured a line-up of information and knowledge sharing opportunities. Activities for attendees, in addition to the individual performance group meetings, included Early Bird sessions, Walk-About Speakers and Panel Discussions.
Early Bird Session topics included:
eTips V: The Future of IT in the Collision Repair Industry – where industry thought leaders engaged in a round table discussion of information technology trends that will continue to shape and define our industry. Guest speakers included: Fred Iantorno, Executive Director, CIECA; Rick Palmer, President & CEO, Computer Logic; Pete Tagliapetra, Manager of New Business Development, NuGen IT; Frank Terlep, President and CEO, Summit Software Solutions.
Tomorrows Answers Today Innovation 2010 This session showcased AkzoNobel’s commitment to continually focus on our customer’s success. Six exciting new products and services from AkzoNobel were presented.
Increasing Your Emotional Intelligence: This session focused on the importance of understanding personal feelings and the emotional states of those around you and how to react appropriately. Participants learned techniques to increase and develop emotional intelligence to enhance employee relationships and increase productivity in their businesses.
TerraStar Engineering: Featured an overview of the new TerraStar Medium duty truck presented by the body engineers from International Truck. Because of its advanced body construction, the information on repair methods given here was vital for repairers as this truck begins to appear more frequently on the roads.
There were also a number of Walk-about speakers presenting a wide array of topic to the meeting participants. The speakers included:
Bud Center, Database Enhancement Gateway- Focused on the functionality of one of the industries most effective tools. The DATABASE ENHANCEMENT GATEWAY is an initiative which enables those who use collision repair estimating databases to provide feedback to the Information Providers in an effort to promote data accuracy.
John Edelen and Bill Stage, I-CAR Professional Development Program – After two years of work I-CAR is introducing it’s new, performance-focused training and development curriculum.
Mike Sillay, China Syndrome – The collision repair business is emerging in China. With 1.3 billion people and over 200 brands of vehicles sold there, China has eclipsed the US as the largest automobile market in the world.
Summit Consulting, FastTrack Overview- Demonstrated the simple and efficient way that FastTrack can allow a shop to manage the vehicle repair cycle from importing estimates to final vehicle delivery. This demonstration included a review of its customizable Features and easy adaptability.
The Thursday lunchtime panel discussion with audience Q&A focused on Collision Industry Mega trends. Topics discussed included automobile design, claim strategies, the economy, training and IT. Dignitaries participating in this discussion included:
John Edelen -ICAR President and CEO
Chris Evans -Claims Consultant P&C Claims, State Farm Insurance
Randy Hanson – Auto Claims Director, Allstate Insurance
Russell Thrall – Founder & Editor, Collision Week Magazine