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2025-2-26-Education/Marketing Meeting notes

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2025-2-26-Education/Marketing Meeting notes

Owned by Stacey Phillips
Last updated: Mar 10, 2025
8 min read

 

 

 

      
   CIECA 500 Westover Dr  #11617; Sanford,  NC  27330 

Date

Feb 26, 2025

ANTITRUST STATEMENT

As participants in this meeting, we need to be mindful of the constraints of antitrust laws. There shall be no discussions of agreements or concerted actions that may restrain competition. This prohibition includes the exchange of information concerning individual prices, rates, coverages, market practices, claims settlement practices, or any other competitive aspect of an individual company’s operation. Each participant is obligated to speak up immediately for the purpose of preventing any discussion falling outside these bounds.

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

  • SCRS ad

  • CONNEX 2025

    • Speakers, Sponsors

  • CONNEX Marketing

  • The antitrust was read and the minutes were approved.

  • CIECA Webinars 2025:

    • There will be six webinars total this year, 4 business and two technical.

    • Feb. 6: Greg Horn, PartsTrader, Industry update, over 250 registered

    • March 27: Harold Sears, Auto Additive, & Gerald Poirer, Vector Squared, 3D printing in collision repair. Questions asked during CONNEX panel and feedback from last education/marketing committee compiled and sent to speakers. Harold will provide overview and then Harold and Gerry will answer questions asked by Paul. Gene reached out to contact from SEMA but we haven’t heard back yet.

    • April 16: 2025R1, Paulette Reed and Architecture Committee. Paulette said we can have the speakers from the American Battery Technology Company added to this webinar.

    • April or CONNEX: Tiffiany Moehring & Dan Lieber, American Battery Technology Company, EV battery technology/safety. Rav said that it’s an important subject to be included for CONNEX and maybe a webinar as well.

    • May or June: Rav Mendiratta, Propel & SocioSquares; Bill Brower, Solera; Mark Fincher, CCC; and Abhijeet Gulati, Mitchell

  • SCRS ad

    • Paul created rough draft ads that were shared with committee for feedback.

    • Gene said that some of the backgrounds look busy. Paul said that he put a dark overlay over some of them. Rick said that the content is nice but people don’t read every word, less is better. He likes the background colors.

  • CONNEX 2025:

    • Date: September 23-25

    • Location: Nashville, TN

    • Hotel: Hilton Nashville Green Hills, TN

    • Tour: Nissan Smryna Vehicle Assembly Plant

    • Emcee: Bill Garoutte

    • Theme: Insights to Innovation: The Future of Collision Industry Technology

    • Paul created proposed graphics that were sent out to the committee. Stacey showed the graphic that received the most votes and will be used.

    • 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

      • The Save the Date Announcement went out as well as a press release about early-bird registration. It included a call for speakers and call for sponsors.

      • Paul reached out to past sponsors and we’ve had a great response.

      • Presentations will focus on insights and innovations:

        • Insights: We have more systems and technology than ever before and generate huge amounts of data. What can we learn from the data? Find speakers from companies that are data aggregators/reporting bureaus. What are the problems we are trying to solve.

        • Innovations: What are companies doing to address issue?

            Software companies, tool & equipment, OEMs, paint and   materials, insurers, repairers

        • Customer Experience: Process Changes and Repair Process Changes

        • Paul said we want to ensure there is representation from all segments of the membership so we stay balanced and focused. We are identifying speakers who can really bring in data and analytics and then transition into what companies are doing with that data and what kinds of innovations are coming out of it.

        • Gene said to make sure we include repairers. Paul said that we will be having an MSO panel with CIOs.

        • Rick said there are body shop representatives who are building their own technology and might be able to share information. eg Michael Giarrizzo. He suggested maybe having a panel for them to share what they are doing.

        • The goal is to have 20 presentations.

        • Confirmed speakers:

          • Sean Carey, SCG Management Consultants: State of the Industry

          • Chetan Ghai, Chief Commercial Officer at Agero: Accident technology, introduced by Mark Helvenston

          • Refinish company representatives from AkzoNobel, Axalta, BASF & PPG: Paint panel re: changes taking place with paint technology for new vehicles. Gene said that mostly in Southern California, the three large counties under the South Coast Air Quality Management District have taken some of the compounds used in the primers and clear coats and they are not allowed to be used. He suggested the refinish companies share touch on this and will send information.

        • Probable speakers:

          • Jim Vecchio, head of VIN products, J.D. Powers: build data, partial/total loss, working with OEMs and insurers

          • Kyle Krumlauf, director of industry analytics: CCC Intelligent Solutions

        • In Talks With:

          • MSO CIO Panel with Caliber, Gerber, Crash Champions CIOs

          • Bill Brower, Solera: Touchless Claims or Sustainability presentation

            • Don said that it has been a few years and it’s probably time to cover that topic. Gene asked if we were talking about touchless claims. He mentioned carwise.com and the app where you take the VIN number and seven pictures of the car and after you submit the information, you receive a prediction of the cost. Kim said we need to define what we mean by touchless claims. She said it seems very broad. She mentioned straight-through processing and automation of the claims process with AI. Paul said there would be value in having a presentation that shows what a process looks like. Maybe it could be a hybrid where someone could talk for a half hour and then have a panel discussion talking about the pros/cons. Kim said we should focus on a specific topic. Gene said it’s a great point. Steve said straight-through processing would be a great panel for insurance companies. Kim agreed. Tim said touchless claims poses a huge liability risk. He suggested looking at how AI is being leveraged through the touchless claims process. Some individuals are knowledgeable in the AI space and could provide insight about this and talk about how AI can be a usable tool for insurers and repairers so it’s more seamless for customers. Rav sees two different segments. First, it could be about straight-through processing or touchless claims and the entire ecosystem, how it’s moving. Then, there could be a separate presentation on the technicalities and impact of AI. One could be a panel and the other could be an individual presenting. Gene said Jimmy Spears from Tractable could present. Paul said it would be valuable to include AI as a significant component of touchless claims. Maybe we could have a repairer, insurer and technology provider. Tim said that’s a fantastic idea and Don and Rav agreed. Rick asked what we were expecting from a panel discussion, the thrust of the touchless claims process or talking about the tools available in the marketing place. Tim said you can’t overcome the obstacles unless everybody understands what they are. One of the implementation tools for automatic estimating is to find things that an average estimator would find easier. Having that AI working so well that it’s capturing the easily forgotten or missed procedures. Paul likes to tell presenters to share how it was used in the past, how it is being used now and some future opportunities. Don said when there is a panel, you get different perspectives. Paul said we had a panel on this topic a few years ago and there were a lot of predictions. We could talk about what has changed.

          • 3M robotics: Stacey originally reached out to 3M after Darrell Amberson recommended the company might have information about sustainability to share during the conference. 3M mentioned the robotics they were using. Gene said ProSpot had a robotic spot welder and sander. Paul said robotics would be a good topic since the Nissan plan uses a lot of robotics and that will be interesting. Gene agreed. Stacey will reach out to ProSpot. Nissan isn’t able to send a speaker to the conference but can provide information we can share.

          • Distracted Driving rep and rep from Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT): Gene connected us with the representative from stopdistractions.org. They work with CMT and we thought they could team up and share information about the data collected during CONNEX. Gene provided an overview of how he was introduced to stopdistractions.org.

          • Microsoft cybersecurity: Ashley Denison sat on a panel with a representative from Microsoft during the MSO Symposium and she was going to try to find his contact information or another representative from Microsoft.

          • Jeff Schroder, Car-Part.com: sustainability initiatives. He was going to share how it tied back to CIECA.

          • LexisNexis: Stacey reached out to a contact to share insight. Ken said they provide claim information.

          • Rav said his company is doing a research project related to the customer experience and how they find out about shops. He said many shops rely on insurers to send new customers to them and they don’t realize that there’s a big demand from where customers are searching on the Internet and what others are saying on carwise.com, Google or Yelp. He said that he could share information about this information and Gene agreed. He would like to see information focused on Google and Yelp and AI that will attract people to the website. He said it’s a great topic for repairers.

          • Kim said at FNOL, they’re using voice AI to dispatch where the claims goes and that could be an interesting topic. She will share a contact.

          • Verisk: Stacey reached out to Odum Wu who now works at Verisk. He asked what type of speaker we would want.

          • OEMs: BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, KIA, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Stellantis, Tesla, VinFast, Volvo and Volkswagen

            • At the last CONNEX, representatives from Audi, Lucid Motors, Rivian and Subaru took part in a panel discussion so Stacey reached out to different OEMs this year.

            • Stacey asked for contacts from Honda and Hyundai. Ken shared a contact from Hyundai last year in the warranty department. Ken and Gene will check to see if they have contacts from either of those OEMs. Gene will also send an email introduction to KARMA.

          • Shared list of insurance companies we have contacts at, Ken has shared a lot of names

        • Possible presenters:

          • Michael Lastuka, State Farm: OEM/auto industry

          • Gabriel Morley, DEKRA: OEM certification/data

          • Jeff Wildman, BASF: has contacts to discuss A/V reality, 3D printing, EV batteries

          • IAA

          • Copart

          • LKQ

          • Enterprise Mobility

          • Tara Andringa, Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE)

          • John Eck, GM: digital experience app/OnStar

          • Joshua Thompson, GM Financial: telematics

          • OEM insurance

          • Solid-state batteries

          • Electrify America

          • Gene suggested sharing information in the human resources category under succession. Whether it’s a repairer or insurer, what are we going to do to prepare and who is going to fill that desk or stall? Kim said that Molly Mahoney presented in St. Louis about getting more technicians in the industry and she could share that topic at CONNEX. Stacey said both are great topics but we want to ensure they tie in to CIECA and technology.

    • Sponsors confirmed:

      • Platinum: IAA (Wednesday reception) and OEC (Wednesday lunch)

      • Gold: Car-Part.com (Wednesday breakfast) and CCC (Tuesday reception)

      • Silver: Enterprise and Safelite

      • Still available: 1 breakfast and 1 lunch: Don said that he thought URG would like to sponsor again this year.

  • CONNEX Marketing:

    • Video: We are putting together a short CONNEX video using photos from the last conference.

    • Testimonials: We can include testimonials in the video, website and other CONNEX marketing. Ken had a colleague who is very interested in attending CONNEX and asked for information he could share with his company to help him justify going.

    • Channels: Website, press releases, email campaigns, social media (board, speaker and sponsor graphics), conference letter, industry associations, committee meetings, webinars, direct email to members, industry calendar of events, podcasts, email signature)

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

Up Next

Action items

Decisions

 

Participants

  • @Stacey Phillips - Facilitator

  • @Paul Barry

  • @Paulette Reed

  • Steve Betley

  • Kim DeVallance Caron

  • Gene Lopez

  • Rick Palmer

  • Ken Eagleson

  • Greg Best

  • Don Porter

  • Kelly Lawlor

  • Stacey Simmons

  • Rav Mendiratta

  • Tim Ronak

  • Participants in the meetings are noted for your information.  If you have questions on the committee’s activities, please contact a recent attendee. Education Committee