Dealers Seek More Meaningful Education & Hands-On Workshop Experiences

The Digital Dealer conference in Las Vegas just finished. I spoke to a few workshop speakers and their sessions were full. This is great news for those who secured a teaching slot and invested in dealer education.

The exhibit hall vendors I spoke with wished they had more booth traffic to justify their investments. It appeared to some that the attendees were more interested in workshop content then shooting the breeze at their booth.

I did hear that the Impel and TradePending booths were very busy, so not everyone was complaining. I also heard that Kevin Frye and Atul Patel had a jammed workshop talking about CDPs and first-party data activation. If you went, which sessions did you like the best?

Distractions in Vegas? Yes but.....

Impacting exhibit hall traffic levels are the distractions inherent to hosting an event in Las Vegas. I've tested hosting events in Las Vegas in the past, but I came to conclusion that I want to host events where the days are packed with dealer education. I prefer to avoid the stress of fighting the obvious draw of casinos, bars, and shows.

When companies invest in a large booth, it becomes hard to pencil the ROI when you add up shipping costs, rentals, and airfare.

I share this feedback because I have seen a growing interest by dealers in training and education to help them navigate new technologies and strategies designed to help their businesses become more efficient. I've been an advocate for dealer education and have seen first hand the benefits of connecting great content with eager learners.

Tip: Stay connected to this newsletter for updates on the Automotive Innovators Tour which will be visiting multiple cities in 2025.

Preparing For The Future

Next month at the Modern Retailing Conference (MRC) in Palm Beach, Florida, I will be hosting dealers and OEM leaders on an educational journey based on the current opportunities facing dealers including:

• First-party data management and PII compliance concerns.
• Identity resolution technologies and how to pick the best one for your business objectives.
• Data hygiene, as a service, to correct years of data mismanagement.
• Customer Data Platforms (CDP) designed to help dealers activate their first-party data.
• Third-party audiences and how to integrate high-quality external signals into marketing automation platforms and CDPs.
• The use of AI in sales and service communication workflows to reduce labor costs and increase customer satisfaction.
• Redesigning websites to decrease load times, increase engagement, and increase conversion rates.
• Rethinking digital retailing tools: if they are not buying online, how much information should dealers present online?
• The benefits and challenges of implementing GA4 using the ASC specification.

As dealers review the list of these topics, I hope they will be encouraged to send a leader to MRC. Their time out of the dealership will be productive. The agenda presents a timely collection of ideas and strategies from their peers which can be implemented when they return.

One of the other benefits of MRC is that the owners, founders, and C-suite executives from technology companies who attend can make personal connections even stronger with vendor partners.

MRC: A Different Approach

The MRC conference format is different from larger conferences that emphasize a large vendor hall with 100+ companies. We encourage all our sponsors to be engaged with all the educational sessions and learn alongside the dealers in attendance. We also limit the size of the booths to make the exhibit hall more intimate and engaging. We host our meals in the ballroom adjacent to the exhibit hall and host cocktail hours in the exhibit hall.

This year we have an outstanding collection of speakers and dealers who will be sharing their experience with the latest tools and technologies to power a modern retailing experience. I encourage dealers and OEM leaders to purchase their tickets in advance since the conference sells out each year.

Allied industry tickets have already sold out.

Since there are limited rooms left in the hotel block, dealers are encouraged to book their rooms today on the official event website: https://modernretailingconference.com/

If you have any questions on the Modern Retailing Conference, just message me here on LinkedIn.