Now billed as Canada’s Automotive Summit, the 2019 CADA Summit will explore technology trends, innovation and opportunities for dealers in the evolving auto retail landscape
The Canadian automotive industry’s premier dealer-focused event is gaining momentum as keynote speakers, panelists and industry experts prepare to address dealers at the 7th annual CADA Summit on Feb. 13, 2019 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Warren Ritchie, author of Competing in the Connecting World, will be among the all-star lineup of speakers. His session will explore how connected vehicles are paving the way for new services and business models that could disrupt traditional product and service companies.
“The vehicles that are using data are becoming the basis for generating future services that are of interest to both the driver, the user or the owner of the vehicle,” said Ritchie in an interview with Canadian auto dealer. “And the metadata about how people are using vehicles is becoming increasingly of interest to the manufacturer, the dealer, and new parties outside of the traditional relationship between owner, dealer and manufacturer.”
What does this mean for the relationship between car dealers and consumers? And how will this data, and perhaps more importantly the Internet of Things (IoT) alter traditional customer service?
According to Ritchie, there will be new revenue opportunities available for OEMs and dealers to take advantage of. But there will undoubtedly be competition from companies outside of the automotive industry seeking to benefit from those same advantages.
From speaker John Possumato, Founder and CEO of DriveItAway, dealers attending the CADA Summit will learn how they can profit from new businesses opportunities being born out of the Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) market — which includes ride sharing (Uber, Lyft) and car sharing services (ZipCar, DriveNow). More importantly, dealers will be able to benefit from these developments now.
Possumato will explore how dealers can profit from the shared mobility market both directly with their own ride/car sharing offering, and indirectly through fixed operations to service fleets.
“All of these current rideshare businesses cannot operate without the dealer’s infrastructure, so by leveraging their need for new drivers and infrastructure, dealers can actually get into shared mobility,” said Possumato. “It (shared mobility) hits three criteria necessary for any dealer: it has to make money without demanding a significant amount of investment; it must be able to scale; and it has to feed the traditional side of the business — the vehicle sales and fixed operations.”
Possumato will explore how dealers can profit from the shared mobility market both directly with their own ride/car sharing offering, and indirectly through fixed operations to service fleets. He will also discuss how not taking advantage of these opportunities will impact auto retailers in the coming years.
“The dealers that get it will be in very firmly, and the dealers that don’t will be kind of left sitting there,” said Possumato.
Speaker Nik Nanos, Chairman of Nanos Research, says he will dive into Canadian anxiety — or rather, uncertainty. He says Canadians are worried a recession might be around the corner and a signed NAFTA 2.0 trade agreement has done little to assuage those concerns.
“They hear news, for example about the Oshawa GM plant closing. Even if you’re not in the auto sector and you see something like that — and you (typically) think of something like General Motors and Oshawa as being rock solid — it grabs people’s attention,” said Nanos in an interview with Canadian auto dealer.
The negativity felt by Canadians about the future is greater than in 2008, the last time there was an actual recession. That mood has a lot to do with tariffs on steel (which are still pending removal), and Nanos says the energy portion of our economy is weak.
Furthermore, even with the new USMCA deal signed, there is still uncertainty among Canadians. “It hasn’t really put things to rest,” said Nanos.
Other speakers include Brendan Shanahan, President of the Toronto Maple Leafs, a panel of prestigious dealers including Shahin Alizadeh, President and CEO Downtown Auto Group, Jim McManes, Owner, McManes Automotive Group, John Hairabedian, President, HGregoire, Andrew Coyne, National Post columnist and regular on CBC’s The National, Derek Burleton, Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist for TD Bank Group, and Robert Karwel, Senior Manager of Automotive Practice in Canada, for J.D. Power,
The CADA Summit is supported by an exclusive sponsorship from TD Auto Finance. It will once again be held in conjunction with the 2019 Canadian International AutoShow.
