At its meeting in
Palm Springs, Calif., the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) voted 99-98 to
hold its fall meeting in conjunction with the SEMA Show in November 2011.
Although CIC has
previously held its fall meetings in conjunction with Automotive Service &
Repair Week (ASRW), which includes NACE, the group held its fall gathering in
conjunction with SEMA in Las Vegas last year. That decision was made on the
heels of NACE moving its dates to mid-October, away from the SEMA and AAPEX
events, which are typically held the first week of November. ASRW organizers
recently announced that they will move the event from Las Vegas to a rotating
slate of cities, starting with Orlando in 2011.
Aaron Schulenburg,
executive director of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS), which
debuted the Repairer Driven Education (RDE) training track at last year’s
SEMA Show, was appreciative of the CIC body’s decision to stay with SEMA.
"SCRS is excited and
humbled by the support from the industry, and from the CIC body, in its
decision to again hold the 2011 fall meeting in conjunction with the SEMA
Show," Schulenburg said. "It’s important to understand how much the
feedback from the exhibitors and attendees that make up this body has meant to
us, and that we’ve been working
closely with SEMA on amplifying next year’s experience even further based on
that feedback.
"We’re working
through the logistics of what we know will be a much larger footprint in the
collision section this year based on early feedback from both past and new
exhibitors; the name of the section itself is changing from ‘Paint, Body and
Equipment’ to ‘Collision Repair and Refinish,’ so that our industry’s identity
within the show is further pronounced. And we’re working through the logistics
to better and more easily identify members of the collision industry on their
badges to help the exhibitors identify the industry on the show floor.
"These are just a few
examples, but they’re indicative of the desire of SCRS and SEMA to embrace
what our industry brings to the show, and the feedback we receive from it. We
have no goal greater than to provide the most unique, exciting and enhanced
show experience that we can that will directly benefit the collision repairers
who invest in attending it."
Ron Pyle, president of the
Automotive Service Association (ASA) which sponsors NACE, was disappointed with
the vote but said it would not derail his mission to make NACE bigger and
better in 2011.
"CIC and NACE have a
long successful history together, but we understand the competitive nature of
our industry and will be aggressively pursuing every opportunity to provide the
best value for today’s independent collision repair professional at the world’s
largest collision repair event," he said.
NACE will be held Oct. 6-8
in Orlando. SEMA will be held Nov. 1-4 in Las Vegas.
More information:
NACE Moving to Orlando for
2011
