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Since DR is the only forum NOT sponsoring a conference this fall...

How Many Conferences Do you/Can you Attend Each Year?

  • 1

    Votes: 13 41.9%
  • 2

    Votes: 8 25.8%
  • 3

    Votes: 6 19.4%
  • 4+

    Votes: 4 12.9%

  • Total voters
    31
Eley, stop picking on Ralph. Ralph already thinks I don't like him. Lol

But, he should run a contest challenging AutoCon participants to tweet, retweet, like, post, share, checkin, re-checkin, pin, re-post, tumble, re-re-post, re-pin, buff, and plus about the conference more than he and potentially win your registration and travel to the next AutoCon at no charge.

I know you were joking with your quote Jeff, but I had to chuckle as it actually happened just last night. I follow Ralph on Twitter. Notice the times and subjects of all of these posts that ran in order, just different links of where the pics were posted from, and all advertising the same webinar.

Ralph1.jpgRalph2.jpg
 
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Eley, stop picking on Ralph. Ralph already thinks I don't like him. Lol

But, he should run a contest challenging AutoCon participants to tweet, retweet, like, post, share, checkin, re-checkin, pin, re-post, tumble, re-re-post, re-pin, buff, and plus about the conference more than he and potentially win your registration and travel to the next AutoCon at no charge.

He needs to hold his phone a little further away or I hope he has a good optometrist, cause it looks as he's going cross-eyed!
 
I would like the chance to meet some of these refresh folks even some with purple ties. By the way Blake, what color is that tie? Like you, I get enough pitches at the dealership.

I would like to talk to Jeff about hooklogic, and Jerry with Phone Ninjas and Ed but I am already familiar with vAuto. I have used Dealer.com but would like to meet Alex and John.
 
This is a great forum topic. I consider myself relatively "in the know" but I don't attend any of these conferences, primarily because I don't have the time. I just started going to NADA on a semi-regular basis. Not only does time have a lot to do with how many of these things people attend, but geography does as well. If I could drive to more of them, I would probably attend more. Since most are in Vegas, I don't go. Especially since I can read the recap blog posts/live tweeting, etc. With that out there, what am I really missing, the parties? If I was a vendor that had a truly valuable product (if part of a good process) I would focus on hosting smaller regional events and maybe try to partner with other vendors (non-competitors). Taking a day out of the office is not a big deal. A two day conference that I have to fly to turns into four days because of travel time.
 
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Uncle Joe Rule #67

The best benefit to attending conventions is networking after hours. Get out and find where people are and mingle with vendors and dealers. Trade stories and business cards. Be sure to chat about your most frustrating challenges, people like to help, be prepared to get help.

The vendor booths and workshops aT the convention are added value ;-)
 
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✨ AI Highlights

Automotive industry professionals debate the proliferation of fall 2012 conferences (Digital Dealer, DrivingSales, AutoCon, JD Power, and others), with vendors complaining about escalating costs for exhibiting and speaking at multiple events while questioning whether the industry can sustain so many competing conferences. The discussion reveals concerns that increased choice is diluting content quality and dealer attendance rather than growing the market, with some participants suggesting a DealerRefresh conference could offer a more authentic alternative focused on genuine discussion rather than vendor self-promotion. The key insight is that conference fragmentation may ultimately harm both vendors and dealers: vendors face unsustainable expenses trying to exhibit everywhere, while dealers struggle to choose which events offer genuine value versus marketing-driven content.

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