PR & News Roll Call for TWO upcoming Events - Digital Dealer Fall '23 and ASOTU CON

[ryan.leslie]

Dealers: Where are you headed this fall? What new process, technology, or "buzzword" are you hoping to learn about?

Vendors: Where will we find you? What are you most excited to share with dealers? What solutions are you bringing to the table?

 

[ryan.leslie]

I'll start it off:

ASOTU CON

I'm attending my first ASOTU event at the end of the September. Paul, Kyle, and my friend Michael Cirillo are some of the most engaging personalities in the industry and they've assembled a veritable "Who's Who" speaker list for the event... Andrew DiFeo, Matt Lasher, Matthew Haiken who has graced RefreshFriday with his presence, Matt Raymond, Big Tom LaPointe, and @Todd Caputo too to name just a few.

Looking forward to this one!

DIGITAL DEALER

Foureyes will be at booth #1815. I'll be there talking about something other than AI and CDP, that alone should be worth the stop right? How many different vendor definitions of AI and CDP can you handle over 3 days? (SIDE NOTE: Here is a throwback post from over 10 YEARS ago when ORM was the buzzword. There is nothing new under the sun. "Reputation Management" is a junk-drawer! )

In all seriousness, we've launched a BI suite in our Unified Data Platform (UDP) that answers many of the questions I've seen posed and answered here on Refresh over the years. I won't be far from the booth for the entire show, so please stop by and say hello. It is always great to see a fellow Refresher. Foureyes has a little Happy Hour going at the Mirage for clients and friends as well. Happy to provide info if you'd like to attend.

I'm looking forward to the "speed dating" event. I heard great things about this from dealer and vendor participants. I'm glad to see the conference taking feedback and introducing fresh concepts and new ideas to maximize the value for attendees and sponsors.

 

[Greg Schafer]

I'll start it off:

ASOTU CON

I'm attending my first ASOTU event at the end of the September. Paul, Kyle, and my friend Michael Cirillo are some of the most engaging personalities in the industry and they've assembled a veritable "Who's Who" speaker list for the event... Andrew DiFeo, Matt Lasher, Matthew Haiken who has graced RefreshFriday with his presence, Matt Raymond, Big Tom LaPointe, and @Todd Caputo too to name just a few.

Looking forward to this one!

DIGITAL DEALER

Foureyes will be at booth #1815. I'll be there talking about something other than AI and CDP, that alone should be worth the stop right? How many different vendor definitions of AI and CDP can you handle over 3 days? (SIDE NOTE: Here is a throwback post from over 10 YEARS ago when ORM was the buzzword. There is nothing new under the sun. "Reputation Management" is a junk-drawer! )

In all seriousness, we've launched a BI suite in our Unified Data Platform (UDP) that answers many of the questions I've seen posed and answered here on Refresh over the years. I won't be far from the booth for the entire show, so please stop by and say hello. It is always great to see a fellow Refresher. Foureyes has a little Happy Hour going at the Mirage for clients and friends as well. Happy to provide info if you'd like to attend.

I'm looking forward to the "speed dating" event. I heard great things about this from dealer and vendor participants. I'm glad to see the conference taking feedback and introducing fresh concepts and new ideas to maximize the value for attendees and sponsors.

See you in Vegas! I put your booth number on my DD app.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I really need to attend a conference in the near future. It's been FOREVER!

 

[Ryan Everson]

Does anyone plan on attending Driving Sales Executive Summit in a couple weeks?

DSES used to be one of my absolute favorite conferences as a more advanced alternative to Digital Dealer, but I haven't heard as much from them since covid. I heard less than 100 people attended last year's?

 

[ryan.leslie]

Does anyone plan on attending Driving Sales Executive Summit in a couple weeks?

DSES used to be one of my absolute favorite conferences as a more advanced alternative to Digital Dealer, but I haven't heard as much from them since covid. I heard less than 100 people attended last year's?

The beginning of the end for DSES was the year they let Jeff and I present together. That donkey in a hard hat slide, @Jeff Kershner's multi-colored yarn jorts... we started the ball rolling down the hill.

I've heard the same thing about attendance of late @Ryan Everson, and I agree, it used to be my favorite too. I'm hopeful that they recover and recapture the "advanced" energy that they had in years past.

You share a ton of knowledge here and on LI as well. Have you considered presenting at one of the conferences?

 

[craigh]

Does anyone plan on attending Driving Sales Executive Summit in a couple weeks?

DSES used to be one of my absolute favorite conferences as a more advanced alternative to Digital Dealer, but I haven't heard as much from them since covid. I heard less than 100 people attended last year's?

We sure did.. until they postponed it.

DSES 2022 | The Top Training Event for Dealers

Experience the highest quality training event for progressive dealers Oct 8-10, 2022 -- Happening in Las Vegas! The DSES agenda covers progressive topics in all areas of dealership operations.

www.drivingsales.com

 

[Ryan Everson]

The beginning of the end for DSES was the year they let Jeff and I present together. That donkey in a hard hat slide, @Jeff Kershner's multi-colored yarn jorts... we started the ball rolling down the hill.

I've heard the same thing about attendance of late @Ryan Everson, and I agree, it used to be my favorite too. I'm hopeful that they recover and recapture the "advanced" energy that they had in years past.

Welp, this news came out today regarding DSES.

I hope they can bring it back better than ever, even for just one last hoorah. It's like when they cancel your favorite tv show without giving it a proper ending.

You share a ton of knowledge here and on LI as well. Have you considered presenting at one of the conferences?

Thanks Ryan, I love giving back where I can and help spreading knowledge! Most of my posts originate as email replies I send and then I quickly repurpose them for use on here or LinkedIn when I think others could get value out of it.

Speaking at conferences is a little more difficult, because they do require a significant time investment and preparation to create an hour-long session that will hold attendee's attention while providing value and actionable insights.

For vendors it makes sense because they can get business out of it. For some dealership employees it makes sense because they can parlay that into a new job. For me, I'm happy where I'm at, don't have a product to sell, and also have to be careful to not give away all of our secret sauce to competitors.

(Although for the most part it's not about having the secret sauce, it's about execution. You can have wonderful ideas, but it doesn't matter unless you actually execute.)

It's also a balancing act of being respectful to my company's time to not spend countless hours preparing a presentation to help other dealers, when I could be using that time to knockout on one of the countless projects on my plate.

I do hope that I can eventually make the time to present at one conference a year to help educate fellow dealers. Hearing from a dealer instead of a vendor has a different impact on attendees. What @kevinfrye does at every Digital Dealer is remarkable and the size of his audience demonstrates that's what attendees crave.

It might be hard to believe this, but in a past life, I used to travel around the country on a tour bus sponsored by the US Chamber of Commerce speaking at colleges on the topic of entrepreneurship and was later recognized at the White House and President Obama for my efforts promoting youth entrepreneurship. Was an awesome experience!

 

[ryan.leslie]

It might be hard to believe this, but ...

Nope. Not hard to believe... at all.

Speaking at conferences is a little more difficult, because they do require a significant time investment and preparation to create an hour-long session that will hold attendee's attention while providing value and actionable insights.

For vendors it makes sense because they can get business out of it. For some dealership employees it makes sense because they can parlay that into a new job. For me, I'm happy where I'm at, don't have a product to sell, and also have to be careful to not give away all of our secret sauce to competitors.

I have some thoughts on this... the first one is that you'd make a heck of a panelist. You've put in the hours to be knowledgeable about a wide range of subject matter. Sitting on a panel would require very little prep time for you and provide a lot of value to attendees. Most of the truly meaningful conversation and connection happens in the hallway after a session. I'm sure that any number of your vendors would love to "pick your brain in public" if you were open to it.

On "vendors presenting to get business"...

I feel strongly about this. There is nothing worse than a catchy title followed by a straight out, full on, product pitch. It's just lazy, and I'd bet that it annoys other vendor presenters even more than it does the dealers.

Yes, everybody knows that there is an investment being made by the company and presenter of their time, energy, marketing budget etc. and they have to find a return, but that is far from license to overtly pitch your wares. For a vendor presenting, that ROI expectation should come over months not minutes.

When I started presenting on the conference circuit I reached out to a guy that I'd seen present that I respected immensely for advice. He challenged me to make sure that MOST of my content would provide value whether the dealers in the audience used my products or not, and never present a problem that ONLY my product could solve. That was really good advice from a guy that has become a great friend over the years. The presentations that I've been the most proud of had little to do with a product that I was representing.

One man's opinion, but the adage of "give (without expectation) in order to get" should be the guiding principle in preparation.

(Although for the most part it's not about having the secret sauce, it's about execution. You can have wonderful ideas, but it doesn't matter unless you actually execute.)

Well said!

 

[Matthew Davis]

There is nothing worse than a catchy title followed by a straight out, full on, product pitch. It's just lazy, and I'd bet that it annoys other vendor presenters even more than it does the dealers.

100%. When the conference organizers explicitly say "no pitches", then just about every vendor's presentation is a pitch, it's not only frustrating, but even worse for the audience, the content is just plain bad.