The organizers of the annual NADA Show are promoting this year’s convention as possibly the biggest in the event’s 100-plus year history, especially since last year’s show was virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2022 event runs this week from March 10 through to March 13 in Las Vegas, Nevada for the second time in the last three years. This year it takes place in a newly-built convention centre and will include a sports-themed kickoff opening night in Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League, and a concert by Grammy-winning group Train.
“This is one of the biggest—if not the biggest—event that NADA has hosted to-date,” said Scott Dube, NADA Show Committee Chairman. “The grand scale of this event signifies the importance of personal connections in our industry. We are excited to bring back the sense of community that our industry has been lacking since the coronavirus pandemic began, and help bolster relationships between NADA, its members, automakers, and the vendor community.”
NADA President and CEO Mike Stanton added that: “The NADA Show has so much to offer everyone who attends, and this year in particular we wanted to combine our outstanding agenda with a landmark event that will create life-long memories for anyone who attends.”
Attendees will learn about the latest strategies and emerging trends from more than 100 workshops and education sessions. More than 550 companies will be exhibiting. The theme this year is Experience The Future, as the industry moves to electrification and artificial intelligence.
Kevin Preston, Vice President, DMS Sales for PBS Systems, a Calgary-headquartered DMS company, said going to the NADA is an opportunity to see dealers freely and out of their element. The company will showcase a new booth this year after more than five years with the old one.
“The NADA is a place to make a statement,” said Preston. “From our perspective, it’s an opportunity to showcase our wares. We’ve always created great success out of NADA and we’re looking for more of the same. Even at the virtual show we ended up getting a bunch of leads, but it’s a tough platform to navigate when you are not face-to-face.”
Preston said they tried to not let COVID slow down their business, and suspects there may be a sense of relaxation “that maybe we haven’t seen in the past, because people are going to be eager to talk to others.”
Alex Wojcik, Co-founder of Kimoby, a web-based business instant messaging platform, attended the NADA conference many times, but said this year’s will be significant because it represents a return to a sense of normalcy.
“We’re just looking forward to meeting back again with customers, seeing face to face and keep developing those relationships with great people,” he told Canadian auto dealer. “It’s really about connecting with people. I think we’re all tired of Zoom meetings all day.”
Nino Malka, National Sales Manager at SERTI, concurred about the difference between the NADA convention happening with people in attendance compared to virtually.
“Onsite NADA is much better than virtual, because it allows you to meet and exchange with several people at the same time during the event,” said Malka. “The virtual NADA experience was not bad by itself, but I think the physical contact with people makes it easier to develop better business relationships. This is part of human nature—to meet.”
He said that after the last two years of the pandemic, where face-to-face meetings were difficult, the 2022 NADA conference will be beneficial for everybody. “We have several meetings with many people and I look forward to meeting them in a more relaxed environment,” said Malka.
Daniel Stein, General Manager of Bolton Kia, which is part of the Toronto-headquartered Plaza Auto Group, will be experiencing the event for the first time and plans to soak in as much as possible.
“You have a lot of new digital aspects of the business, which has increased the amount of suppliers and people in it, so there’s just so many things this year to experience,” he said.
J.D. Power will hold its annual Auto Summit on March 10, also in Las Vegas, at the Wynn Hotel.
