DrivingSales.com is offline - is it officially dead?

[Eric Miltsch]

Someone should SNAG that URL!

Ahhhh the good'ol days of #DSES. I agree @Ryan Everson it was one of the better conferences. Me and @ryan.leslie presented together at a few of them back in the day.

I used to follow Jarred on FB, but I don't get on much anymore.

@Jeff Kershner - That's where we originally met! I always enjoyed DSES. I believe there were 13 of them and spoke at 10 of them. Good times, and I met so many incredible industry people that I'm thankful for and still have relationships with to this day! (@Alex Snyder included!)

 

[Eric Miltsch]

Do you know any more about the new owners?

Unfortunately, no - Charlie or Gary probably can though...

 

[Jeff Kershner]

@Jeff Kershner - That's where we originally met! I always enjoyed DSES. I believe there were 13 of them and spoke at 10 of them. Good times, and I met so many incredible industry people that I'm thankful for and still have relationships with to this day! (@Alex Snyder included!)

Yes Sir!! I do remember the first time meeting in person. Hard to believe how long it's been. SO MANY relationships have been made from this dinky little forum and somehow it continues to keep chugging long.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Unfortunately, no - Charlie or Gary probably can though...

The one and ONLY Charlie Vogelheim. I KNOW at one point he had an account but I believe it was back before the forums existed and it was Blog only. The old Blog posts are searchable, however the links are in-op unless you remove "forum" from the URL.

Example:

Driving Sales Executive Summit 2013 Review with Kevin Frye – DealerRefresh

dealerrefresh.com

https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/driving-sales-executive-summit-2013-review-with-kevin-frye/

 

[Ryan Everson]

Speaking of once great conferences that have gone by the wayside, Digital Dealer is relocating its flagship fall event from Vegas to Detroit this year after apparently barely being able to break 100 dealer attendees last year.

I'm guessing someone at Emerald corporate said, where can we move this dying automotive conference that's cheaper than Vegas? Detroit.

Then someone else said, perfect it's the automotive capital of the world, so that's how we'll justify and sell the decision.

But honestly, they probably do have a decent shot at beating last year's attendance just by getting local metro Detroit dealers to show up.

 

[ryan.leslie]

I don't envy the conference promoters, serving two masters is difficult.

On one hand, if the dealers don't see value in the educational content or visiting the vendors in the hall... they don't support the event.

On the other hand, if the vendors don't see dealers in the expo hall the vendors don't see an ROI... and they don't support the event.

If they don't get both of the above just right the event probably won't make it. Lots of dealer attendees doesn't necessarily mean strong ROI for the vendors.