Content Comparison

Date

29 Jan 2025

Chair: Don Porter

Agenda

Antitrust Statement

• This meeting is subject to the terms of our anti-trust statement shown above. In addition, this meeting will be recorded. 

• Review and approval of minutes

• CIECA Webinars 2025

• CONNEX 2025

  • Theme & Speakers

• Marketing Focus

• The antitrust was read and the minutes were approved.

• CIECA Webinars 2025:

  • It was determined by the executive committee and board that we will have six webinars in 2025, four business-focused and two technical. Rav asked if there are specific goals for the webinars regarding minimum attendance. Paul said the goal is to increase attendance and rather than having more smaller attended meetings, we decided to have fewer meetings that might have more of an impact. With November, December and the holidays, we didn’t have as many attend the webinars. The goal is to have 100-300 for each webinar. A spreadsheet was put together by Paul and shared during the last meeting looking at attendance, which was lower in the summer months. It was also harder to find speakers at the end of the year.

  • Feb. 6: State of the Industry, Greg Horn, PartsTrader, over 200 registered so far, media list has been updated with new magazine editors and new publications shared by board. Used Facebook event to invite followers to attend webinar

  • March 27: 3D printing in collision repair, Mario Dimovski, Boyd Group; Harold Sears, Auto Additive; and Gerald Poirer, Vector Squared (providing insurance perspective).

    • Rav raised concerns about the 3D panel discussion webinar attracting a large audience, not due to the speakers but whether the topic touches some aspects of the industry. Gene said he is intrigued by the 3D printing topic, especially if the Boyd Group is using it. Paul said that there is always a percentage of the audience that may not fully relate to the topic but 3D printing is a hot topic in the collision industry and there are questions around the impact if OEMs start printing tools and jigs. Gene mentioned the SEMA headquarters in Diamond Bar, CA, having three of four 3D printers and it would be interesting to reach out to see their perspective and how it is being used in the aftermarket.

    • Don suggested the speakers talk about the types of parts they are willing to print, liability issues and how they are going to get specs/CAD drawings to print.

    • Tim suggested sharing information from an insurance perspective. Gen said that Gerry Poirer might be able to share insight.

  • April: EV battery technology/safety, Tiffiany Moehring & Dan Lieber, American Battery Technology Company

    • Gene thought it would be interesting to hear about EV battery technology and safety vs. fuel tank safety. In his opinion, there are a lot more safety issues around removing a gas tank.

    • Tim asked about sharing information about recycle reuse and if there is a market to use a recycled battery in the repair process. Gene agreed and said there are a list of things to do in the state of California.

  • AI in the Customer Experience, Rav Mendiratta, Propel and SocioSquares; Bill Brower, Solera; Mark Fincher, CCC; and Abhijeet Gulati, Mitchell

• CONNEX 2025: Rather than have a separate CONNEX planning committee meeting and share repetitive information during both, we decided to discuss CONNEX during the Education/Marketing Committee meeting over the next several months. If anything is outside of education, such as food and beverage, we can hold a special meeting. We want to be respectful of everyone’s time and not ask people to attend multiple meetings with the same information.

  • Date: September 23-25

  • Location: Nashville, TN

  • Hotel: Hilton Nashville Green Hills, TN (about 10-15 minutes away from downtown)

      Double points?-Paul will confirm

      Paul said it’s a nice hotel. Brady is familiar with it. It’s well priced and a compromise between downtown hotels that are really expensive ($400/night) and staying near the airport ($200/night) that aren’t walkable with things to do nearby. This hotel is an easy short Uber ride to downtown or Music Row. It’s walking distance to the Bluebird Cafe and there are other hotels/restaurants nearby. It also has a large meeting space to accommodate our group. Gene asked about tagging on other association meetings, which we will discuss later on during the meeting.

    Tour: Nissan Smyrna Assembly Plant in Smyrna, TN, which is 27 miles from downtown Nashville. The plant can accommodate two tours of 60 people each so we reach out to the board,l alternates, education and marketing committee members to ask everyone’s opinion on the days/times we should hold the tours. The most popular was on Tuesday and Thursday at 1 pm. This would mimic how we typically hold a day and a half conference and then a tour in the afternoon but we would be adding an additional tour the day before the conference.

  • Agenda:

    • Monday, September 22: NABC Golf Tournament & Gifting

    • Tuesday, September 23: CIECA board meeting in am, first Nissan tour at 1 pm, evening reception

    • Wednesday, September 24: Full day conference and evening reception

    • Thursday, September 25: Half day conference and second Nissan tour at 1 pm

    • Friday, September 26 & Saturday, September 27: TN Collision Repairers Association Conference planned by Josh Kent

    • Gene said the agenda looks good.

    • The Save the Date Announcement is going to be going out with this information.

    • Bill Garoutte has graciously offered to emcee the event.

  • Theme: In the past, we’ve picked a theme that ties in to our tour and/or area where the conference was.

    • Prior Themes:

      2024: The Intersection of Data & Mobility - when we toured the American Center for Mobility

      2023: Connected Car, Connected Industry - when we toured Rivian

      2022: CIECA Next Gen - when we were beginning to create CAPIS

      2021: Racing to the Future - when we toured Hendrick Motorsports

    • Bryce shared some theme ideas for 2025 he had shared after using ChatGPT

      • "Driving Innovation: The Future of Collision Repair"
        Focusing on new technologies, materials, and techniques in the repair process, as well as the integration of AI, automation, and 3D printing.

      • "Rebuilding with Precision: Advancements in Collision Technology"
        Highlighting precision repair methods, quality control, and the role of advanced tools and equipment.

      • "Collision Resilience: Navigating Challenges in a Changing Industry"
        Discussing issues such as supply chain disruptions, insurance practices, and regulatory changes.

      • "Sustainability in Collision Repair: Green Practices for a Cleaner Future"
        Exploring eco-friendly solutions, sustainable materials, and environmentally conscious repair methods. Stacey mentioned that there is a lot more focus on sustainability, especially in Europe.

      • "From Impact to Recovery: Redefining Customer Experience in Collision Repair"
        Focused on customer service, trust-building, and improving communication between shops and clients.

      • "Connected Collision: How Technology is Shaping the Future of Auto Repair"
        Exploring the rise of digital platforms, telematics, and connectivity in the collision repair process.

      • "Safety First: The Evolution of Repair Standards and Vehicle Safety"
        Diving into safety standards, the role of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and repair protocols for modern vehicles.

    • Steve mentioned Nashville where we are holding the event and was thinking of incorporating the word “round up” in the theme, maybe technology round up.

    • Darrell asked if there is specific information that could be presented on each of these topics so if any of the suggestions becomes the theme, do we have ideas on how to implement through the program. In the past, we’ve talked about what we want as a theme and general topics. Maybe we start with the topics we want to cover and that will help with the theme. Darrell said all of the topics are relevant but some of them don’t have anything necessarily new going on right now. In regard to redefining the customer experience and collision repair, Darrell said as an industry in recent years we've gotten worse instead of better in terms of what we put the customer through delays, supplements and low response times. Nationally, cycle time is worse than it used to be.

    • Kelly said it’s like the chicken or the egg—do we pick the topic and drive all of the presentations in that direction or do we see which presenters we can get and which topics they specialize in. She said all of the themes sounded like cool ideas. She would hate if we picked one and were not able to live up to it. If we picked one now, maybe have something slightly more vague that could be applied to a few things, like the future is now or the way forward.

    • Paul said we like to have the theme early on because it helps us build our marketing strategy and graphic. However, if it is too specific, it can box you in. He liked the theme around communication. Darrell raised the fact about customer service, and that cycle times have not improved despite the fact that there's been a lot of technology brought in. He suggested focused on using technology to improve the customer experience, we can look at supply chain, claims processes, repair procedures, and OEM involvement because OEMs are playing a much bigger role in the process than they ever did. I’d love to have an OEM group talk about that.

    • Rav suggested Insights to Innovation or Past Lessons and Future Visions. Paul liked From Insights to Innovations and have speakers share industry insights, such as someone from CCC or JD Power. We could have some of the first presenters providing industry insights and then maybe bringing in people to talk more in depth about the innovations coming. Rav suggested From Insights to Innovation: Shaping the future of the collision industry

  • Speakers: The goal is to have 20 speakers and rotate them so we don’t have the same ones every year. We also want to focus on technology.

    • Sean Carey, SCG Management Consultants, keynote; we reached out to Sean to find out if he is available

    • Chetan Ghai, Chief Commercial Officer, Agero, to discuss accident technology for OEMs, insurers, service providers and repair facilities; Mark Helvenston shared contacted. We met with Chetan and he is available to present. Steve said it was a nice addition.

    • Gene enjoyed listening to Greg Horn during last year’s conference and he said it reminded him of Susanna Gotsch’s presentations giving a state of the industry perspective.

    • Paul said that Mark Fincher brought up the name of a speaker from CCC, Kyle Krumlauf.

    • Michael Lastuka, State Farm, OEM/auto industry

    • Gabriel Morley, DEKRA re: OEM certification, data

    • Jeff Wildman, BASF re: 3D printing, AR/VR, EV battery

    • Ashley Denison suggested having a CIO Roundtable with representatives from Caliber, Gerber, Crash Champions, etc. re: technology issues in industry

    • Speakers from IAA, Copart, LKQ, Enterprise Mobility

    • Tara Andringa, Executive Director of PAVE (Partners for Automated Vehicle Education) re: autonomous vehicles, eg Waymo. Tara was already booked last year.

    • John Eck from GM re: latest project.

    • Joshua Thomson from GM Financial re: telematics

    • Bill Brower suggested having a speaker discuss claims / claims process redesign to bring in AI, data or automation.

    • Darrell said a lot of insurers were reliant on new technologies to help them through COVID and allowed their staff to shrink and it didn't work. He said cycle times in terms of handling the claims got worse. He said John Eck could talk about this in regard to the project he is working on and include information about OEM certification and how OEMs are handling this. He also said we could include FNOL relevant to the same topic and customer experience. Paul agreed.

    • Tim suggested having some OEMs talk about new safety standards like the new AEB and full autonomous braking and how they are going to achieve that and what it might do to the industry.

    • Gene suggested having someone talk about distracted driving and the impact. Darrell said it would be interesting to have some experts speak on distracted driving because there are new forms of it now other than texting such as automation. He brought up Cambridge Mobile Telematics and Paul said they spoke two years ago and it might be interesting to have them back to speak.

    • Paul suggested having some of the paint manufacturer representatives talk about how paint is evolving with the new sensors and materials used in vehicles.

    • Darrell asked Bill if there was something taking place at Solera international that might be of relevance. Bill said yes, the message on sustainability. Stacey mentioned that sustainability was a key theme at Automechanika. Bill has presented on the topic in Europe and Canada and would be happy to do that at CONNEX.

    • Darrell said it might be up and coming if it’s happening internationally. He met with 3M and his paint company recently and they implied they were looking at some sustainability initiatives relevant to collision repair. Darrell is going to share his 3M contact.

    • When the group was asked about addressing data privacy/cybersecurity, Darrell said it’s relevant but dry. Paul said he was thinking the same.

    • Paul mentioned having a technical track this year since we are releasing a lot of
      

• Marketing Initiatives for 2025:

  • Stacey is going to focus on LinkedIn newsletter feature, growing YouTube channel and continue to grow CRM.

?? Great meeting everyone. Thank you for your participation. Have a great week!

Up Next

• Antitrust Agreement and Meeting minutes acceptance

Action items

Decisions