There’s no doubt, when car dealers gather together, they like to party. At the 2018 NADA Show, the Las Vegas nightlife was filled with lanyard-wearing dealers from around the world hopping from one event to another. “Where are you going tonight?” is one of the most common phrases heard when dealers bump into one another on the show floor.
The suppliers who serve the auto retail industry recognize that dealer principals are difficult people to reach back in their home states or provinces. The marketing teams and event planners from the supplier community kick into high gear to try to create memorable events to draw dealers into a social setting to meet them, or just to thank them for their business.
For Canadian dealers, the party scene started with the kickoff of Canada Night at NADA’eh on Thursday night before the show floor opened and continued right through to Saturday night.
Some of the hottest tickets at this year’s NADA 2018 include a performance from Lenny Kravitz on Friday night, sponsored by TradeRev, who provide a vehicle appraisal and auctioning system for dealerships; an extensive tour of Wayne Newton’s Casa de Shenandoah estate, that included a live performance and photo ops with Mr. Las Vegas himself from Digital Air Strike, a provider of software and managed service platform for social media and digital marketing, a double bill featuring Cheap Trick and Poison frontman Bret Michaels, from Epsilon (Aspen Automotive) an automotive marketing firm who design and executes direct mail, digital and telephone programs; an invitation only party at Drai’s Beachclub & Nightclub from RouteOne, a provider of credit applications, eContracting, digital retail and compliance; and a performance from the Loving Mary Band, sponsored by CDK Global, a provider of IT and digital marketing solutions to the dealer industry.
These are only a handful of the more public, high-profile events, but there are countless other private functions and meetings taking place throughout the event, including events thrown by the OEMs for their dealers.
One Canadian attendee we met with had attended a BMO event, a RouteOne party, and the TradeRev event, and was happy to show us the photos from all of them.
The convention show floors were noticeably quieter on Sunday morning as dealers opted to rest and recover, while some exhibitors were a little less energetic themselves as they wrapped up the three-day event.
Next year’s NADA Show takes place in San Francisco, California, and there’s no doubt planning is already under way for how to top this year’s special events in Vegas.
