Another year has come and gone, which means another Women & Automotive: Canadian Leadership Forum is here! Having been fortunate enough to attend every event to date, I’m very excited to be hosting a panel at this year’s event.
This year’s conference, happening March 29, will focus on accountability, networking, innovation, leadership and mentorship.
I was fortunate enough to connect with one of the panelists on the “How Networking Replaced Resumes – Making Connections that Matter” discussion I will be moderating.
Alex Collins, the director of operations for ADESA Canada, had some great insights.
Logan Keirstead: How has networking changed for you in the digital age?
Alex Collins: Firstly, with tools like LinkedIn, networking has become much more accessible. Face
to-face meeting coupled with digital media has made it easier to network with more people, to stay aware of current and emerging trends and have meaningful exchanges in information.
LK: What is one valuable tip you have for making a positive first impression?
AC: One valuable tip for making a positive first impression is using your body language to project confidence, making eye contact and having a firm handshake.
LK: Do you actively participate in any networking groups online or off-line to help you build quality connections?
AC: I do actively participate in online networking groups, I have my profile on LinkedIn, which I use to expand my professional network. It is a way of sharing industry-relevant content, engaging with your colleagues and showcasing my abilities.
According to Alex, the tide has definitely turned. Online platforms and networking has outpaced the value of a resume. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have an up to date CV though; many companies still require paperwork to validate their hires.
I think we can all agree as to the value that LinkedIn and social media has brought to our everyday lives, networking and career growth. I would encourage anyone reading this article, or attending the ARC conferences, to network on LinkedIn with other attendees prior to the conference.
Introduce yourself and send them a personal message about what you’re looking forward to at the conference, or how you came across their contact information. Networking that gets started online often results in quality interactions off-line.
Alex Collins and I look forward to connecting with you online and offline at the Women & Automotive: Canadian Leadership Forum on March 29.
Logan Keirstead is the director of national sales at Accu-Trade Canada. She will moderating the “How Networking Replaced Resumes — Making Connections that Matter” panel discussion at the Women & Automotive Canadian Leadership Forum.
In this episode, Joe previews the Auto Remarketing Canada Conference with Cherokee Media Group president Bill Zadeits.
Plus, AR Canada correspondent Sarah Rubenoff chats with Jeremy Belanger of SAL Group, who will be among the speakers at the March 27-28 event in Toronto.
Check out the conversations below.
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Mark your calendars: Cherokee Media Group has announced the dates for its 2018 Auto Remarketing Canada and Women & Automotive conferences.
The Auto Remarketing Canada Conference is set for March 27-28, and Women & Automotive is March 29.
Both conferences will be held at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto.
And we’re also proud to announce that the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance is returning to the events as an industry partner, and that the Canadian Finance & Leasing Association is joining us as a partner this year, as well.
Information on submitting speaker proposal can be found at arcanada.autoremarketing.com/call-for-speakers.
Those interested in sponsorships or exhibiting should send inquiries or proposals to conference chair Bill Zadeits at [email protected].
Additionally, more details on each conference are below.
AR Canada Conference (March 27-28)
The annual Auto Remarketing Canada Conference brings together all corners of the remarketing and used-vehicle industry for two days of learning, sharing and networking.
Emerging technology and the evolving consumer and dealer mindset profoundly impact all facets of Canada’s remarketing and used-vehicle industry quicker than ever before. Top-performing dealers and executive decision-makers, hand-selected for their success and innovative ideas, share with you the strategies they’ve successfully applied to their own businesses to great effect.
In just two compact days, we’ll cover a wide array of topics, including the growing demand for certified pre-owned vehicles, automotive retail technology, forecasting trends for used supply, changing automotive finance and subprime lending, digital marketing and more.
Women & Automotive (March 29)
Women & Automotive, now in its third year, is a one-day forum for revolutionary leaders, risk takers and agents of change to share and discuss practical approaches for advancing women into leadership roles in the Canadian automotive industry. We intend to create an atmosphere promoting the dissemination of knowledge from women leaders, employers and programs supporting these leaders and women who aspire to lead the industry themselves.
The Women & Automotive Leadership Forum aims to provide women entering the automotive industry with the education, networking and career opportunities to prepare them in assuming top-tier leadership roles. Also, beyond just networking, we hope that Women & Automotive leads to connections between mentors and mentees, forging key relationships leading to successful careers.
Canadian Black Book recently announced that its 20th annual Charity Golf Tournament on Sept. 11 has been sold out.
On Monday, 144 participants will golf at Stouffville’s exclusive Granite Golf Club, where only two outside tournaments are permitted each year.
All of the tournament’s proceeds will go to Tim Horton Children’s Foundation. In two decades, the annual event has raised over $350,000 for the charity, according to Canadian Black Book.
For entertainment following the day of golf, Canadian Black Book has called on Dave Hemstad, a three-time Canadian Comedy Award nominee to perform to close the event.
“This has all the makings of a very memorable day,” Canadian Black Book president Brad Rome said in a news release. “To have the chance to play a course as esteemed as this and come back into the dining hall and have a performer as funny as Dave Hemstad, make us all cry laughing, sounds like a lot of fun. I personally can’t wait,” he continued.
This year, the tournament’s partner sponsors include Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank and TD Canada Trust.
Updated on Sept. 8 to correct number of participants.
Kijiji has lined up entrepreneur and bestselling author Gary Vaynerchuk as its keynote speaker for its fifth annual Toronto DealerTalkx conference on Nov. 16.
Vaynerchuk will share his expertise on digital media and discuss entrepreneurship and leadership in a way that embodies this year’s conference theme, “Dealership of the Future,” according to Kijiji.
“DealerTalk is designed to inspire and educate Canadian automotive professionals, and offer insights on the latest sales and marketing trends,” Kijiji head of autos Leanne Kripp said in a news release. “With Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the world’s leading marketing experts, as our keynote — sharing his expertise on digital media, entrepreneurship and leadership with our industry partners — we’re confident this year’s conference will embody our forward-thinking theme and be the must-attend event.”
Additionally, a DealerTalk Advisory Board made up of a select group of Canada’s top automotive professionals has been established this year.
The board is led by Kripp and Niel Hiscox, president of Universus Media Group, who serves as the executive chairman of the board.
“I am honored to be leading the new DealerTalk Advisory Board,” Hiscox said. “Having a group of industry leaders guide the conference is a testament to Kijiji’s ongoing commitment in supporting the advancement of Canada’s dealers.”
The board is responsible for providing guidance and leading key elements of the conference in an effort to enhance the learning experience for all attendees, Kijiji said.
Additional speakers and conference details are set to be announced in the coming weeks.
For more information on the DealerTalkx conference, visit www.dealertalk.ca.
As of early afternoon on Wednesday, there were more than 100 people from 74 different dealerships registered for the Auto Remarketing Canada Conference, which will be held April 3-4 at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto.
And the list has been growing steadily each day, say conference organizers.
If you’d like to connect with these folks, make sure you register for the conference today.
Friday (March 10) is the final day of early registration and your chance to save money.
The list of registered dealers so far, which continues to climb, is below:
89 Auto Sales Inc
Audi Kitchener-Waterloo | Crosby Volkswagen
Auto 8000 Wholesaler & Service Inc
Auto Nation Car Sales
Automall Credit Center
AUTORAMA
Brampton Mitsubishi
Burlington Hyundai
CANADIAN REMARKETING GROUP INC
Cars on Credit Financial Inc
City Auto and Recreation
Crosby Auto Group
Digital Finance Institute
Dilawri Group of Companies
Dilawri Real Estate Group Inc
Downsview Place Auto Group
Drive Auto Group
DriveTime Auto
Eckert, Eckert Auto Sales
Fast & Furious Motors
Formula Honda
Foss National Leasing/LeasePlan Canada
Fusion Auto Sales
Gemini Motors
Gold Fleet Subaru
Groupe Park Avenue
Gus Brown Buick GMC
Harvard Auto Sales
Havakar Auto Group
Hyundai Pembroke
Infiniti Downtown
Kia of Brockville
Kingston Toyota
KS Car Sales & Service
Laplante Cadillac Chev Buick GMC
Laplante Chev Buick GMC
Laplante Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram
Lexus Downtown
Lexus of Edmonton
Lexus of Saint John
Lockwood Kia
Metro Autos
Mike Fair Chevrolet Buick GMC Cadillac Ltd.
Mississauga Toyota
Moncton Chrysler Jeep Dodge
Nazcar
Oke's Auto
Ontario Greenlight Motors
Ontario Limites O/A
Ontario Motor Sales
Parkway Honda
Pembroke Mitsubishi
Peterborough VW
Platinum Car.CA
Platinum Cars
RepoDepo
Richstone Fine Cars Inc
Saint John Toyota
Scott Drummond Motors Ltd
SHIFT Motors Inc
Stouffville Toyota
Stratford Hyundai
Street Xtreme Automotive
Tip Top Auto
Toronto Auto Gallery
Toyota on Front
Trillium FSB Inc
VOS Motors
Walkerton Toyota
Woodbridge Toyota
Woodstock & Streetsville Hyundai
A recognized thought leader in the world of brand leadership, innovation and social influence marketing, Sean Moffitt, managing director of Wikibrands, has been involved with digital marketing for the past 15 years. He co-authored the best-selling book Wikibrands with Mike Dover and helped turn it into a living, breathing customer engagement hub and consultancy.
The Trillium Automobile Dealers Association (TADA) — which also is one of the industry partners for both the Auto Remarketing Canada Conference and the accompanying event, Women & Automotive — is bringing Moffitt to Ontario. In a prelude to his appearance as keynote speaker during TADA’s Auto Dealers Innovation Series on March 22 and 23 in Ottawa and Toronto, the association asked Moffitt about how Wikibrands came about, how businesses can use it effectively as a marketing strategy and thoughts about speaking to an automotive dealer audience.
Here’s what he had to say:
TADA: Can you tell us a little about what Wikibrands actually means from a business perspective?
Sean Moffitt: The literal definition of Wikibrands is from Wiki (which in Hawaiian means quick or to hurry) and brands in what we refer to as the trademark owned by a company. It’s essentially a call to action to make sure that brands, companies and marketers become much more engaged with their customers.
TADA: What are some of the key fundamentals you feel businesses need to understand when it comes to effectively engaging with their customers in today's hyper connected world?
SM: I certainly think that the climate has changed in the last 15 years, certainly if you have worked within the marketing sphere. It has become awash in digital platforms and certainly with social media blowing up 10 years ago—you know that to be an effective marketer today you have to be a little bit more flexible in how you position your brands.
Recognizing cultural change is one thing, but the other side is that there really is a lot of sweat equity involved in terms of being able to do it right and effectively engage with your audience. It’s easy to invent concepts, but it takes a longer period of time, to develop a real conversation and level of engagement.
TADA: With so many different social media and connectivity platforms available, how can a business effectively decide which approach to take —for example is there a danger of trying to do too much and be in too many places at once?
SM: My belief is that as a company, you should, if you can, try to do one or two things really, really well. It can be far more effective than trying to plug all of your fingers in the dam at once. The other part of that question is that becoming too attached to a particular social platform is also a recipe for failure. Through analysis every five years, I’ve looked at the core audience of social media and what their top brands were. Pretty much at every five-year stage of this journey, the top five brands change quite rapidly. The danger of getting married to one social platform is that it can be here one year and gone the next. Experience shows that many social medial platforms are like nightclubs—they tend to have two or three-year cycles.
TADA: Can you share with us a couple of examples of successful Wiki marketing strategies and perhaps how and why they were so effective?
SM: When Mike and I originally wrote the book, we took a pragmatic view and said let’s go to 100 companies we think are doing a really good job and see what they have done. We interviewed across 20 different industries at companies that were different sizes—private, public, not for profit—it didn’t matter who they were—we just wanted to understand what they were doing. We came up with the 12 principles that helped establish the road map to being receptive Wikibrands.
One example that stands out is Dollar Shave Club. This was a venture that was created six years ago principally on the back of really good engagement, really authentic storytelling and mastery of video and video sharing platforms. They got the message out and it was very effective. They took this idea on paper and transformed into millions of dollars in sales. Last July; Dollar Shave Club was purchased by Unilever for $1 billion in cash.
TADA: What are some of the key messages you're looking to broadcast to an automotive retailing audience, since the car business is still a unique model in terms of the emotional and cost factors involved when purchasing a vehicle?
SM: The automotive dealer is probably more important now than they have ever been. In general, retailers have developed a heightened presence in the last 10 years because they own that part of the brand experience. From my perspective, there is a maturity level in the automotive space that is beyond other industries—so my objective is to reach out and to get to that next stage of engagement. Where that’s concerned I think it comes down to three different objectives.
Firstly, as an effective marketing organization at the dealership—what are the key things you need to be doing?
Secondly, how do you get there? My goal is to provide some pragmatic tips on ‘here’s how to do it’— not just in theory but real step-by-step processes you can take back to your office and actually apply.
Thirdly, because things are changes so quickly, I will probably share tidbits of what is going to be happening right around the corner, especially if you want to be the first person within your specific world to take it to the next level and be at the forefront of discussions on everybody’s lips 12 months from now.
TADA: How and what should businesses do to ensure that engagement and sales actually correlate—a lot of the time we've seen successful engagement strategies that have not been properly translated into actual sales?
SM: I would say there are three effective approaches to make it work: One is a bit controversial but always works — essentially the moment you realize a competitor across the street is gaining because of their digital engagement strategy, your CEOs and executives become very interested in it themselves. It’s probably not the best place to start from but it is a very human reaction.
Additionally there are two other, more organic approaches. I call what we’re in today the sixth evolution of digital or the ‘Impact Age.’ We’ve had about 15 years of maturing digital business driven growth and there are enough case studies and in-market success to demonstrate that people who have done this have really put themselves further ahead than people that don’t. I think people that are open to receiving this type of information will open themselves up to this world of digital whether they come from it or not.
The third piece is that the great thing about digital is that you can invent things as you go. Obviously people have great ideas — as much as I can tell you your competitor is doing it or that strategically there is a way for it to work, then it makes sense to do it. The other part is that we can dream and build something big. We can do it together and produce massive amounts of success if it’s done right. At the end of the day it should be part of any business decision. If great digital engagement works for a small cookie cutter company then there’s no reason why it can’t work for your dealership.
For more details about TADA’s upcoming Auto Dealers Innovation Series that will feature presentations from high profile industry leaders that are experts in innovation, go to this website.
LGM Financial Services announced Thursday that the Auto Dealers Against Distracted Driving Campaign — its 3rd annual corporate initiative — will launch on Mar. 1.
The initiative aims to educate Canadian dealers' staffs and customers about positive driving habits and asks them to take a formal pledge against distracted driving.
Roughly 4,000 pledges against distracted driving were collected last year after more than 700 dealers Canada-wide participated.
“One of the most exciting things about this initiative is the amount of control individual dealerships have over the campaign’s roll out and activities,” said LGM vice president of sales for the Quebec region, Marc-André Lefebvre in a news release. “We supply them with both hard copy and digital campaign material to support their efforts and help kick start conversations with customers, but for the most part, the campaign is what they make of it.”
This year, LGM says, many dealers have already signed on to lead their own local campaigns, in-store and online.
Each year distracted driving is a factor in an estimated four million vehicle collisions in North America, according to the Canadian Automobile Association.
“Something as simple as sending a quick text or engaging with a chatty passenger has proven to have a devastating impact on road safety,” said Nathalie Sarault, a LGM dealer development manager. “As a customer prepares to drive off the lot in their new car, there’s a valuable opportunity to reinforce the perils of driver inattention to a captive audience.”
LGM incepted the Auto Dealers Against Distracted Driving Campaign in 2015.
Supporters of the initiative include The Lowe-Martin Group, Canadian AutoWorld and Autosphere.ca.
The BC Auto Industry Conference is kicking off today at the Sun Peaks Resort in British Columbia, and part of the two-day event will include what organizers have dubbed the “Auto Remarketing Panel.”
The panel, set for Friday afternoon, will include
- Mark Rousseau, president of CARPROOF
- Darren Graham of Applewood Auto Group
- Mark Edmonds of Ferrari Maserati of Vancouver
- John MacDonald of ADESA
The panel is slated to touch on such topics as technology in the sales process, understanding the customer, vehicle export, valuation and much more.
The BC Auto Industry Conference starts Thursday with an optional “Amazing Race Adventure Challenge” in the afternoon, followed by registration and a welcome reception in the evening.
Just a few of the speakers featured on Friday are Michael Hatch (chief economist at the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association), Ron Henson (global brand ambassador at DrivingSales) and Maria Soklis (president of Cox Automotive Canada).
For the full schedule and more information, visit bcautoconference.ca.
The 2016 BC Auto Industry Conference is set for Oct. 13-14 at the Sun Peaks Grand Hotel & Conference Centre in Sun Peaks, British Columbia.
The conference, presented by the New Car Dealers Association of BC in partnership with Auto Remarketing Canada, brings together dealers from around the province, top industry experts from throughout the country, influential businesspeople and key government leaders.
The event includes a panel of used car and remarketing executives with concentrations in wholesale acquisition, retail strategies and emerging technologies. Panelists include Mark Rousseau, president of CarProof and John MacDonald, general manager of ADESA Auctions Richmond, BC.
Other speakers include:
—Kevin Baumgart, vice president of business development for Hireology
—Erik Berg, partner with KPMG
—Michael Hatch, chief economist with the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA)
—Ron Henson, global brand ambassador for DrivingSales
—Roderick McCloy, lawyer with Shapiro Hankinson & Knutson Law Corp.
—Eric Rae, senior manager at KPMG
—Maria Soklis, president of Cox Automotive Canada
—the Hon. Todd Stone, MLA for Kamloops – South Thompson, and minister of transportation and infrastructure & minister responsible for emergency management BC, government of British Columbia
—Mike Weiler, lawyer with Mike Weiler Employment + Labour Law.
The conference includes optional participation in an Amazing Race team challenge on Oct. 13. This activity is suitable for all fitness levels, and participants may enter as individuals or as a team of five. There is no fee for dealer members; registration is $125 for associates and suppliers. Spouses/guests are invited to participate.
Conference registration is open until Sept. 26, or until sold out. Group rates at the Sun Peaks Grand Hotel are available through Sept. 22.
Click here to register. Contact Christie Morning-Smith at [email protected] with any questions.
Additional conference details may be found by clicking here.
