PAL Podcast – Mark Coleman – Summer Roundtable 2023
Discussing Summer Roundtable 2023 with Mark Coleman!
Discussing Summer Roundtable 2023 with Mark Coleman!
Discussing the Auto Remarketing world with Dr. Alex Yurchenko!
In this episode of the PAL Podcast, Jeremy Louisos talks with Ty Thompson from Cars on the Move. They chat about the connections and interactions that take place during Used Car Week 2022.
Jeremy Louisos: Greetings. My name is Jeremy Louisos. I’m with Preowned Auto Logistics and we’re here with another episode of the PAL Podcast. We’re here at Used Car Week 2022 in San Diego, with the famous Mr Ty Thompson, CEO of Cars on the Move. How we doing buddy?
Ty Thompson: Man, I’m so good. This has been an amazing conference. And for you?
Jeremy: This is a little bit of a trip for me right now because it’s always the other way around.
Ty: I know.
Jeremy: You’re interviewing me.
Ty: All the time.
Jeremy: And here the roles have been reversed.
Ty: I love it.
Jeremy: I have my friend up here.
Ty: I’m so excited. I mean, really, it’s exciting to be the guy that gets… Ask me questions.
Jeremy: Yeah. Well, so the first question, how’s the show going?
Ty: Whoa.
Jeremy: You’re, so, and I’ll preface this.
Ty: Yeah, yeah.
Jeremy: You’re someone who I think has unique ability and it’s rare to see someone that has the confidence, the interest, the enthusiasm to just be all over the show, talk to anybody about any topic, and genuinely listen, be impressed. Like your sense of wonder is just, it’s touching to me truly. And you’re inspiring. So that said, you’ve been running around this place doing what Ty does. What have you learned?
Ty: What I’ve learned, I think about the farmer, right? The farmer waits patiently for the fall and spring rain, or the spring and fall rain. So I think about the farmer a lot. And I think about, we’ve been coming to these conferences for probably over three years now. And to see the seeds that we’ve planted and the rain that’s here, right?
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ty: We’re starting to see something that’s grown. I’m a relationship guy. You know that. So this particular conference right here, Bill Zadite. Thank you, Bill Zadite. I always say thank you.
Jeremy: Thank you, Bill.
Ty: Thank you, Bill. It’s really, this is I think maybe our fourth one we’ve been to. We’ve known a lot of people. So last night we, the highlight, here’s the highlight. Okay. And this really melts my heart. It makes me so excited and almost teary eyed because we’re down in the lobby, Jay’s with me and Jay and I never go to these together. Very, very rare.
Jeremy: Right.
Ty: So Jay and I are together, we’re down in the lobby and we always talk about, because we’re always excited. So I’m like, “Hey, Jay, have you heard of Car Lots?” “Oh yeah.” I said, “You know Holly.” He’s like, “Oh yeah, I know Holly, but Holly would probably never talk to us. We’re just these little guys.” I’m like, “No, I know Holly. Come here.” So we’re talking to Holly. And she’s been really nice, Car Lots. Right? You know who I’m talking about?
Jeremy: Holly? Is it Valante?
Ty: Valante? Yeah.
Jeremy: Yeah. Yeah.
Ty: So we’re having this great conversation, just having fun. Bill walks up. It’s kind of like putting this stamp of approval on Ty and Jay, right? I mean, this is the father. He walks in the room.
Jeremy: Boys.
Ty: Boys. And gives us this really just the most kind gracious approval. Like the nod. Like, man, I love you. I appreciate you guys.
Jeremy: That’s awesome.
Ty: What you’re doing. And for us, I mean, we’re working at this really hard all the time. We’re trying to connect. We’re always trying to promote. We’re always trying to, I like to demonstrate, I want to show you what I’m talking, kind of educational. So to have a guy like Bill just come up and say, “Thanks guys for being here. Really appreciate you,” in front of a pretty elite crowd, for us.
Jeremy: That’s awesome. Yeah. That’s so cool. That’s so cool. Well, you earned it.
Ty: Well, we’re still earning it. We don’t stop.
Jeremy: Every day. You got to earn it every day.
Ty: That’s what ATI, Cars On The Move. We don’t stop.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ty: I mean, we don’t take anything for granted. Things are changing at a rapid pace. I mean, I was on a panel here, which I was really happy about. I think it was EV transportation and storage, right?
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ty: Which by the way, I’m not a big EV guy. I think we’ve talked about that on some previous shows. So I’m like, why am I on this panel? And I was really wondering that, like the whole time, until we got to the part about, so you guys know, so the guy hosting the panel, John Roberts, I think, JR.
So we get to the part about these things are heavy and you can haul nine on a trailer, but you can’t haul nine of these EVs. I’m like, oh, now I know I’m here. It’s my turn. And I’ve been quiet this whole time thinking, man, I don’t know if I’m going to say much because I’m not a fan.
So, yeah. You’re right, John. Let’s break this down to the guy driving the truck. Let’s really expose what we’re talking about. I just spent $350,000 for an 80-foot truck and trailer that says Peterbilt and Cottrell on it and I’m really excited about it because it can haul nine cars. So with the weight of an EV, you went from nine to six, is that fair? You’re in transportation.
Jeremy: We’re hoping it’s not, but that might be.
Ty: Might be. Right. And I mean you get paid on most of these, if I’m wrong, tell me. But it’s usually per car.
Jeremy: Per unit.
Ty: Right. So I spent $350,000 for a 80-foot Peterbilt and Cottrell trailer that can haul nine cars. Now I’m only hauling six. Okay, problem. Well, let’s talk about the driver in this. Do you guys know how the driver gets paid? Percentage of the load. Percentage of the load.
So the guy makes $100. Industry standard is $25. Start doing the math. So this driver, and as a fleet owner, I want my driver to make more money because I want him to stay here because there’s a driver’s shortage. It’s hard getting a guy that knows how to load a car. Okay. If you just took three cars off this guy’s truck, that’s not three cars off his truck, that’s three cars out of his wallet.
Jeremy: How’s that going to work?
Ty: Yeah.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ty: And the room was like, whoa. Oops.
Jeremy: And then you’re like, oh. So that’s why they asked me to be here.
Ty: Yeah.
Jeremy: Well, and that’s something that I’ve always appreciated about your show.
Ty: Oh.
Jeremy: Is advocating for the carriers, advocating for the drivers, the boots in the ground. I think we’re doing the titans of car shipping. We’re talking about those blue ribbon.
Ty: Blue chip.
Jeremy: Blue chip. Yeah.
Ty: The blue chip carrier.
Jeremy: The blue chip carrier. Right.
Ty: We stole that, by the way. That’s Marco’s term.
Jeremy: Marco’s. Yeah. And he seemed very comfortable with us borrowing it.
Ty: Oh, yeah. Yeah. He’s like, have it. A matter of fact, I ran into him in the hall. And that’s another thing, the people you see here, the relationships and that, we talk about that all the time. We do, the relationships.
Jeremy: All of our relationships. Yeah.
Ty: Yeah. Marco, we stole it. I Said, “Hey, I stole it.” He’s like, “Keep using it.”
Jeremy: So on our side, we’re talking about what it takes to be a blue chip carrier. More demands. We need this thing done. We need condition reports, and then we need timeliness and we need communication and all these sorts of things that are being… And we might need a different look. There might be some branded deliveries and some more complicated pickups. And now the loads are breaking down. All these sort of challenges where we’re asking a lot of these drivers and here comes another thing that is not rewarding all this hard work. It’s going the other way. I guess it begs the question to me, what was the reaction in the panel that you’re in? How do we answer for that?
Ty: Well, the part of my goal in being here at these conferences is we can’t just walk in and say what we think. With these conferences, and I love it, but there’s this political, you kind of got to be careful. I mean, you got three people sitting in a panel.
I’m one of them. I’m a super trucker. I’ve been all around the grease in the transport parking lot. And you got somebody who’s sitting there with really beautiful nails and beautiful hair and a beautiful dress who’s maybe not familiar with this, but is really pro EV, electric view, right?
Jeremy: Yeah. Yep.
Ty: How do we have a conversation without getting in a fight? I’m a transport guy and all I want to do is I’m right and let’s fight. Right? You’re wrong.
Jeremy: Passion.
Ty: Very passionate. So I don’t think, I mean, to get back what you’re saying. We’re just getting to where we’re going to get to a real conversation. Okay. I’m a long gamer. I’m planting the seed. I’m waiting for the fall and the spring rain.
Jeremy: I like it.
Ty: So if I can get on a panel, if I can be a host, if I can talk to a guy in the hallway, “Hey, I was in your meeting.” I was in one just a little while ago. It was digitization of transportation for auction, right?
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ty: I’m sitting there. I’m listening to it. That’s great guys. I love what you’re saying. And I’m not being mean, but I am saying you’re missing a really important piece to this conversation. Do you know what that is, guys? And, no. You’re missing the transport guy.
You’re talking about everything around him and he needs to be here and you need to hear what he has to say. I appreciate all your technology. That’s great. And I’m really appreciative that it kind of helps out the consignor and the auction or the shipper.
Jeremy: We’re forgetting somebody. There’s a piece, there’s a part to this dance.
Ty: Yeah. But it goes back to the relationship. It goes back to we’re not going to change the world tomorrow.
Jeremy: No.
Ty: I’m probably the hardest to carry. And everybody, I’ve talked to a lot of you guys and somewhere along the way, Ty, you represent the carriers well. Whatever that means.
Jeremy: You know what it means.
Ty: I just know that when I’m talking to a guy who hauls cars, I don’t pull any punches. If you want to own your own business, really? There’s a lot involved. Let’s talk about that. So that’s what we do. Our relationship with PAL, Preowned Auto Logistics, and what you guys do, we’re learning. We get to come to your corporate headquarters. We got to spend the day at the office.
Jeremy: PAL party. Right?
Ty: PAL party.
Jeremy: We had a good time that day.
Ty: It was beautiful.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ty: Amazing people that I get to meet.
Jeremy: I appreciate that.
Ty: Yeah. Get to interact. Okay. I know you guys. Because of our platform, we get guys that need help. I can send them to a guy like you and it’s taken care of. Thanks, buddy.
Jeremy: Ty, it’s totally mutual. We love being a part of your world as well. Let’s keep it rolling. And just the last thing I’d just say there is we need you out there advocating for the carrier.
Ty: Yeah.
Jeremy: Because it’s easy for that piece to be swallowed up. And if that voice is loud enough and keeps kind of planting those seeds, then I think, yeah, long game, I think we might get folks aligned with what has to happen because this needs to be a partnership.
Ty: Well, it does. And you know, get into the carrier world and they’re going to scream and holler about how bad everybody else is. That’s where I come in. Hold on. Let’s clean up our side of the street first. Okay, guys.
Jeremy: Well said, Ty. Well, thank you so much.
Ty: Thank you very much.
Jeremy: Thank you so much for joining us. Enjoy the rest of the show.
Ty: Absolutely.
Jeremy: I’m sure we’ll catch you up in a little bit.
All right. Well, that was Ty Thompson, always with the insights in our auto logistics space, the stuff that you need to hear.
At this interview from Used Car Week 2022, Kathryn Schifferle talks with Jeremy Louisos about Work Truck Solutions. She explains how this company helps dealers and buyers track modifications made to commercial vehicles.
Jeremy Louisos: Greetings. My name is Jeremy Louisos. I’m with Preowned Auto Logistics. And we’re here with another episode of the PAL Podcast. We’re here at Used Car Week 2022 in San Diego. Yeah, we’re going to bring up our next friend here, and actually, we’re meeting for the very first time.
Kathryn Schifferle: We are. Nice to meet you.
Jeremy: Kathryn it’s a pleasure to meet you. Please, if you would just introduce yourself for a moment, and-
Kathryn: You bet.
Jeremy: Let the folks know what you do.
Kathryn: Alrighty. Well, I’m the founder and chief vision officer now of a company called Work Truck Solutions. And I don’t know if you knew, but we actually have a problem in this commercial vehicle space, which is that the vehicles are produced by an OEM, but then they’re completed by another company for their purpose of what they’re going to be used for.
Jeremy: Gotcha. Yes. Specific, yeah. The equipment’s going to vary by subset that..
Kathryn: Very much. By the use case. And so whether it’s a box truck or whether it’s a flatbed, or whether it’s a van that’s upfitted for packages, all of that doesn’t get added to the VIN. The VIN is produced and then no one keeps track of what that vehicle becomes, which means you can’t go online and search for it.
And that’s what I discovered back in 2009. I was publishing a magazine called Ford Pros Magazine about selling commercial vehicles, and it just made me crazy because why couldn’t I go online and search for a dump truck? And so that’s how come we started Work Truck Solutions and started helping dealers being able to show customers vehicles by what they became and searchable, and have the data around the configuration.
Jeremy: And so how does that data get to the customer? Are they on your platform? Are you supplying this to their platform? What does that look like?
Kathryn: We started by providing dealerships with a plug-in to their website, which allowed their customer, first of all, to come and know that that dealer actually had any commercial inventory. And then secondly, we do these little wire frames that let you click and shop for a particular type of vehicle. And then on the vehicle detail page, we have all the configuration information. And then because dealers typically in the franchise business for sure, they are focused on retail, we realize that the commercial departments had no tools that help them be B2B and to help their customers.
Over the last 10 years, we’ve built a full platform that helps a dealership manage their commercial department and help their customers. And then about halfway through, we realized that we could start helping fitters, that’s the term for the companies that build these extra bodies and these things, because they didn’t know what was still on a dealer’s lot after they sold them without getting into a car and driving there with a clipboard.
Jeremy: That sounds efficient.
Kathryn: We started telling them every night when something moved and then we aggregated inventory that was on a dealer’s lot into a central site for them to have so that a customer was brand loyal, like to Nap Hide or Redding, that they could come somewhere and shop. And then General Motors asked us to help them with that same thing, so we power the tier one sites, chevrolet.com, gmc.com, and GMfleet.com.
Somebody can go nationally and shop for an upfitted vehicle on one of those chassis or vans. And then three years ago, actually as of Monday, we launched a national marketplace called Comvoy, C-O-M-V-O-Y, which is the first marketplace that gives customers, buyers, business buyers a frictionless way to search for commercial vehicles that are specifically by their needs, so a 12 foot bed or a 16 foot box, or any of those things that are quite frankly, really important to them.
Jeremy: Yeah. From identifying this deficit in the marketplace in 2009 to what you just launched a few weeks ago, it sounds, did you say it was three weeks ago?
Kathryn: Three years ago.
Jeremy: Three years ago, the latest product.
Kathryn: That’s not the latest.
Jeremy: Okay. It gets better, but there’s more.
Kathryn: It does. If you think about this, so 80% of our US GDP depends on commercial vehicles. $170 billion in new vehicle sales, $160 billion in used commercial vehicle sales every year. But that’s only the beginning because there’s this whole ecosystem around the journey of a vehicle through ownership and et cetera, maintenance and telematics and insurance and finance.
And those are all different for commercial business owners of vehicles because they’re different, right? That’s a $1.5 trillion space. And so I get very excited about it because each time we look at what we’ve delivered, we find new ways to link the stakeholders together to make their lives more efficient, to help the end buyers, to help the fleets, all of them, have visibility and efficiency, and to have what they need and what they want.
Jeremy: Well, I also appreciate your passion in this space. Looking towards Used Car Week 2022 here in San Diego, how’s the show been going for you?
Kathryn: Well, it’s great. We’ve been primarily focused on franchise dealerships. We have about 1,000 dealerships that are primarily class one through seven franchise. But over the last six months to a year, we’ve started looking at how do we take all the information that we’ve got around used commercial vehicles, because of course, there are very few new ones.
And how do we help these end buyers who need to buy a used vehicle now when they normally maybe wouldn’t, but they need it because they get up in the morning and they have to do their job. Last year we launched what we call VAST, Vehicle Acquisition Search Tool, which helps the dealers find used inventory from sources like auctions and rental companies and finance companies, et cetera.
And because we started doing that, we went, “Well, we could help independent dealers then too, access inventory and our platform and all the tools are cool for them as well too.” I came here, I spoke, I guess it was yesterday, about how important the commercial space is and how it could be a really big, honestly, a very big opportunity for a used dealership in their community because businesses have other needs besides just commercial. They also have families and employees and owners that are looking for other cars and other vehicles. And commercial buyers are five times more loyal than retail buyers.
Jeremy: Wow. Yeah. That’s another big factor. In closing this up, are there any takeaways maybe from something that you learned during this show or something exciting that you could share that maybe you hadn’t had in your mind prior to coming to Used Car Week?
Kathryn: I think so. It’s been great. I’ve sat in on a lot of really great events and talked to some of our partners in the auction space. I’ve really learned more about how I see technology making that more, not just visible, but more efficient, including inspections for unique commercial vehicles, including how do we do things around DID-ing, how do we help that whole space move those really unique vehicles, not only through the system better, but if you match them to the right customer, there’s a significant value increase, two to $10,000 extra value that’s just sitting there ready to be enjoyed by someone.
Jeremy: Well said. If folks want to learn more, how can they find you?
Kathryn: WorkTruckSolutions.com.
Jeremy: That’s great. Well, thank you so much for taking the time. It was a pleasure for having you on here.
Kathryn: Nice meeting you.
Jeremy: Yeah, it was great.
Jay Wertzberger talks with the PAL Podcast about his experiences at Used Car Week 2022. He explains what he takes away from this event. Then, he urges listeners to check out ATI Auto Business to hear more.
Jeremy Louisos: Greetings. My name is Jeremy Louisos. I’m with Preowned Auto Logistics, and we’re here with another episode of the PAL Podcast. We’re here at Used Car Week 2022 in San Diego. All right. So unfortunately, it does not look like Dana Rogers is going to make it, but we talk to him all the time. So I think we’ll be okay. But we do have someone that I think everyone will be very excited to hear from. Please introduce yourself. See if you know this voice. I’m sure you do.
Jay Wertzberger: Hey, everybody. Jay Wertzberger, ATI Auto Business. And Jeremy, thanks for having me.
Jeremy: Oh, man, it’s a pleasure. We’ve done the inverse of this a number of times.
Jay: Yeah.
Jeremy: So how’s that feel?
Jay: It feels strange. I’m in the passenger seat, riding shotgun now. I like it.
Jeremy: Ty shared the same thought in his own words, but yeah.
Jay: Awesome.
Jeremy: A little bit of a switcheroo.
Jay: Yeah. Oh, especially for Ty.
Jeremy: Yeah. He’s always… And I just have a moment here and I want to make sure that I pass the stage off on time here. But if I could just get… You’re someone that talks to everybody, you pay close attention, you get your finger on the pulse. Any big takeaways here?
Jay: Well, Used Car Week is awesome because it’s several days, so many verticals. I just made a post outside, Everything Automotive Under the Sun, #UsedCarWeek2022. Because everything is here, there’s so much to talk about. If you want to talk to a dealer, you want to talk to an auction, you want to talk tech, you want to learn more about finance, repossession, on and on it goes.
And so that’s why I love this event. And I get to meet so many folks that could become potential guests or partners, or maybe even a customer of somebody that I’m networking with. I love it. I love this show.
Jeremy: And we love our partnership with ATI. Thank you so much, Jay. And if people are looking for more, how do they find you?
Jay: We love you, too. Go to ATI Auto Business on YouTube and let me know how I can help you. Thank you so much.
Jeremy: I love it. Well, thank you, Jay. We’re signing off here from Used Car Week. We’re going to pass it over to our friends at the-
Jay: The Auto Hub Show. AutoHubShow.com
Jeremy: Well, thank Gavin for putting this all on. We really appreciate it.
Jay: Thank you, Gavin. Yeah. Thank you.
Jeremy: Mr. 40 under 40 himself. So have a great night. We’re going to enjoy the rest of our time at Used Car Week. Thank you so much.
Jay: Peace out.
In this episode of the PAL Podcast, Jeremy Louisos talks with Ian Nethercott from The Auto Hub Show. Ian talks about attending industry events, and he outlines his takeaways from Used Car Week.
Jeremy Louisos: Greetings. My name is Jeremy Louisos. I’m with Preowned Auto Logistics and we’re here with another episode of the PAL Podcast. We’re here at Used Car Week 2022 in San Diego, chatting it up here on the podcast stage. Please introduce yourself, my friend.
Ian Nethercott: My name is Ian and I’m here from Ian and Jeff and The Auto Hub Show from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Jeremy: It’s a pleasure to have you. I think I first met your team at NADA?
Ian: Yeah.
Jeremy: In Vegas? Yeah.
Ian: We were at NADA at the Polly booth and we were also doing some of our ambush interviews around the show. It was Jeff’s first NADA, believe it or not, and it was a little bit of a learning experience for Jeff and myself, but yeah, that was when we started doing events. And then we’ve done several live events. We did Used Car Week Toronto a couple months ago, and then we did Driving Sales last month. And this is our second Used Car Week in the US and then we’re going to be doing more events as we roll into the new year.
Jeremy: That’s awesome. And so we were chatting at the beginning of this podcast stage a few days ago and I was learning about what you were doing. I was ambushed at my booth and that was a lot of fun.
Ian: Yeah.
Jeremy: In our few minutes here, I guess I’m really curious, you’ve talked to lots of folks, what are your takeaways from this event?
Ian: Well, it’s interesting when you get into the used car events, just because you tend to be talking to people that are more on the used car side of the business, which can be different from the new car side of the business, but the thing that’s most interesting about used cars right now is for the last, let’s just say 18 to 24 months, cars were actually going up in value as used cars, which I’ve never seen in my life, but also I think we’re due for a shift as we move back to normalized new car inventory. There’s a lot of concern there that dealers might have maybe spent too much money on used car inventory maybe, I don’t know. And also that the new car side, the manufacturers, are starting to say, “Well, we’re going to change that game on you.”
There’s a lot of things there, but the other thing that really surprised me specifically at this show was all the technological solutions around finance, around financing of used cars, about repo. We even met a Texas Ranger who can repo anything. But also a lot of technology solutions around appraising vehicles. There’s even a guy who does digital Monroney stickers for used cars that can be dynamically updated so the salesman can’t change the price on you. There’s just a lot of new tech, even in the used car, which I haven’t seen a huge amount.
Jeremy: I know you’ve been very busy with your podcast. Have you had the opportunity to jump into any breakout sessions?
Ian: Unfortunately, we haven’t. We do a live podcast live every week on Mondays, but during the show we’ve been doing several a day plus ambush. We’ve been pretty busy just doing those. And always when you do a live podcast, what happens is there’s new problems. We’ve had to change our gear quite a bit over the last little bit, and every time we do one, we learn something. We learn something here, but more importantly, you learn something from every single guest.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ian: The purpose of our podcast is really just to be a platform for our guests. We’re really just there for comic relief and to ask questions.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Ian: We’re really not there to promote ourselves because that’s not really what The Auto Hub Show’s always been about. It’s been about helping dealers.
Jeremy: Well, right now you have the opportunity to promote yourself. How can people find you if they’re looking for more?
Ian: If you go to AutoHubShow.com, you can definitely check out our content. You can look us up on YouTube, you can look us up on our YouTube channel. You can also get us anywhere you get your audio podcast. And we do stream on LinkedIn live, so you can find it there or on YouTube live. Now, just a caveat there, anything recorded live at the show here, the audio may not be perfect. I will be editing that audio when I get back to Vancouver and also the ambush interviews from the show will go live around the same time.
Jeremy: That’s awesome. Well, today, I appreciate you taking the time. Enjoy the rest of the show.
Ian: Sure. Thank you.
In this episode of the PAL Podcast, Jeremy Louisos talks with Elena Ciccotelli from Teleperformance. They chat about the connections and content at Used Car Week 2022.
Jeremy Louisos: Greetings, my name is Jeremy Louisos. I’m with Preowned Auto Logistics and we’re here with another episode of The PAL Podcast. We’re here at Used Car Week 2022 in San Diego. So far a really great event. Oh, and so we have a friend coming by, a special guest. A guest who needs no introduction.
Elena Ciccotelli: Oh stop.
Jeremy: I’ll allow her to introduce herself.
Elena: Yes, Elena.
Jeremy: Elena with her new gig and role at?
Elena: Yes, at Teleperformance. I probably should have put this out on a very large post-it note, but formally of Lyft of five and a half years running automotive partnerships, and now very happily with Teleperformance. I’m their Vice President of Business Development for the Automotive Practice.
Jeremy: Very exciting.
Elena: So very exciting and huge fan of Preowned Auto Logistics. I’m a huge fan of you guys, and I love what you do, and I love just everything about what you’re putting out there. So yes, happy to be here.
Jeremy: As we are of you, and I was joking with you earlier this conference that when you made that position switch, it was kind of the big news in our industry on LinkedIn. For real, your face came up everywhere. So in case you don’t know, Elena is one of the celebrities in our world.
Elena: No way. It was one of those things where… Actually I had a suggestion from a colleague and they were like, “Well, you know that you could do a job switch announcement on Automotive News, right?” I was like, “Oh, that’s a good idea.” And then all of a sudden I did the posting. I cleared it with Teleperformance, and yeah, I just posted it, and it was just this firestorm of activity that was completely unexpected, but I was like, “Oh man, feeling the love of the 15 seconds of fame there for a minute.”
Jeremy: You’ve earned that just for the record.
Elena: No, stop it. No, but in all seriousness, it was one of those things where you really have to think about, where do I want to take this automotive journey next? As you know, this industry is so large with so many different moving parts, and it’s like, where are the really interesting nooks and crannies where I can explore a little bit? That’s what got me excited about joining Teleperformance and turning the next chapter and seeing how it goes.
Jeremy: Well, congratulations. Now thinking about Used Car Week 2022 in San Diego. Lovely San Diego, beautiful day today.
Elena: Beautiful.
Jeremy: What are you seeing out there?
Elena: The sessions and the content have been phenomenal. Cherokee Media always does an amazing job curating content, and actually, I spoke with Joe Overby this morning for my podcast that’s yet to be released in December, but I was just chatting with him about, what does it actually take to put something like Used Car Week or what does it actually take to pull off an event like this?
He’s like, “Look, everybody’s got their own individual jobs. We all working together as a team.” I was like, “But seriously, you guys do it really well.” They’re so organized. They’re so on top of things. Anyway, shout out to Cherokee Media. Again, another fantastic Used Car Week, but the content here is just, I think, my personal opinion is that it’s head and shoulders above what is happening in the industry. Just such good insights from a diverse cross section of the industry.
You have a panel talking about purchasing cars off the street, a PAL, fixed stops directors, so you have that, really heavy retail. And then there was actually an auto transport panel about transporting EVs. Every little facet of the industry life, I think it’s so cool because it is four days, and there’s specific tracks, and then we’ve got Navacon coming up tomorrow with all the investment, what’s going on with RANA and things of that nature, which is everyone’s holding their breath latest to see how that all goes. Anyway, I’m a huge fan of how they carefully select and curate, and I’m very appreciative of it because then I feel like I’m armed with the knowledge to go back to work and figure out, okay, where’s kind of my place in this very large ecosystem?
Jeremy: Coming to learn is a big theme. So we’re networking. Hopefully there’s some fun, but there’s so much to learn. There’s so many great conversations, so many speakers that just know vast amounts of very particular, incredibly interesting things that are, and you don’t maybe know going into it what you’re going to learn, but this is a topic that I, Hey man, I don’t know much about this one. Maybe. And you walk in and something will stick. And then if you do a few of those, a bunch of something sticks, and when you step back at the end of this thing and you’re listening, that’s going to help inform, I think, kind of the next steps we take on this Auto industry path.
Elena: Oh yeah, absolutely. There’s so much to take in and I feel like we’re at, and this might be beating the dead horse a little bit, but there’s so much disruption that’s happening now and for just everyone to see this rising tide. And also the other thing too, just to fan girl a little bit more on Cherokee Media, there’s all kinds of collaboration and partnerships that happen at Used Car Week that you just kind of don’t really typically find at other conferences. And I’m very much a fan of partnering and collaboration, and maybe if it’s not a traditional customer and vendor situation, but maybe it’s two vendors working together to form a partnership. And those conversations tend to happen here, right? Just because it’s almost, I feel like some of these, when you’re at a conference for this long, it gets to be business sleepaway camp. It’s like, where’s the bunk bed? I start to, okay, I will see you tomorrow morning. You will not see me in my pajamas, but we’re going up the same elevator, you know what I mean?
Jeremy: Yeah, everything but right from breakfast to dinner and drinks.
Elena: Exactly. And then it’s like, okay, well I’m going to see you in five hours, so get some sleep, and hopefully my eyes will not be bloodshot. But in all seriousness, that collaboration or that spirit of collaboration, even just now, the fact that you’re like, Hey, let’s do this episode that I’m very not prepared to do. But I was like, let’s just, let’s do it. That’s the spontaneity and the collaborative feel. You know? Can’t really just manufacture it in a virtual setting. You don’t get that, that people to people connection. So anyway, that was a lot of rambling.
Jeremy: No, not at all. And co-sign all that. So you need to have all the folks here. That’s not easy to do. Well done Cherokee. You need to have a healthy space for folks that are maybe fierce competitors to be comfortable to collaborate.
Elena: That’s another thing.
Jeremy: Well done. Well done Cherokee there again. And then it’s the execution. You’re well taken care of the whole time. There’s lots of interesting content. I mean, it all kind of comes together. So I don’t want to take too much of your time. I have someone else I’m going to bring up.
The final question, if I could, is for one of the things, kind in that spirit of listening and getting lots of information and learning, one of the effects that I’ve noticed at these kinds of shows is new thoughts for cause. You’re going to have this conversation and then you’re going to break off and that person’s going to talk to somebody, and that happens a thousand times over and something synthesizes out of that. So is there anything that’s bubbled up yet for you?
Elena: Yeah, I think in a lot of ways, customer experience, CX, customer journey, customer, whatever you want to call it, has been this recurring theme. I feel like throughout. And whether you’re talking about vehicle acquisition, you’re talking about transporting vehicles, it ends up being what is the conversation around CX and customer experience. And for me, that’s very exciting because that’s the business that I’m in, is customer experience and making those touchpoints happen.
And also too, when the panel I just moderated, we talked about beating the customer where they’re at. And so I had Lindsay from CarGurus shout out to Lindsay Ciavattone, who was on the panel with me this afternoon, but she was talking about there’s these other little on ramps and off ramps of the customer experience and meeting people where they need to be like, right? So you can’t make these broad based assumptions that they’re coming into the dealership to only do paperwork or they’re coming into the dealership to only do the test drive.
So it’s like, where’s the touch point? How are you integrating the technology that you’re using inside of the dealership? And then taking that and making sure that the customer is first is, I think we take for granted, especially in automotive, where people are like, it’s a significant purchase. I’m not going on Amazon to order headphones or a microphone for my podcast. It’s a significant investment. So I think meeting where, meeting the customer where they’re at, and making sure that that end-to-end experience is really addressed. And I think everybody is talking about it now, which makes my heart very happy and makes me shed a little baby tear.
Jeremy: Well, I love it. That’s a fantastic take. I’m glad that that’s a trend you’re seeing. It’s all about the customer at the end of the day, and then it’s how do you execute on those lessons that you learned. But that’s fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
Elena: Thank you, Jeremy. You’re the best. Thank you for pulling me up here. Appreciate…
Jeremy: You. Course a great rest of your show.
Elena: You.
At Used Car Week 2022, Kevin Lombardi and Jeremy Louisos discuss NASCAR simulators, logistical challenges of transporting EVs, the importance of networking, and more. Listen to their conversation now.
Jeremy Louisos: Okay, greetings. My name is Jeremy Louisos. I’m with Preowned Auto Logistics and we’re here with another episode of the PAL podcast. Today, very special episode, we are here at Used Car Week 2022 in San Diego, and we’re on day three.
The PAL team has been having a lot of fun at the NASCAR booth on the exhibit hall floor, talking to lots of interesting folks, enjoying ourselves quite a bit. We’re going to start here with our friend, Mr. Kevin Lombardi is going to come up to the stage in just a moment here and chat about what he’s seeing but so far for me, the big event and the story of the day has been with our perspective on the logistics front, just how many folks out here are talking logistics. The past year, that seems to have been a different story than in previous years where it’s like the conversation about transportation.
Hey, you’re a truck driver and you want to do what? Talk to me about moving some vehicles around. Well, the conversations changed quite a bit. There are folks really paying attention to the logistics conversation, trying to leverage that as an opportunity. Go back to Walmart, flash forward to Amazon, figuring out your logistics as an important piece of the puzzle and there are a lot of folks now really taking that as a serious consideration and trying to plan for how they will harness the power of logistics.
So lots of great conversations. Some really interesting takeaways so far, but a quick description of the booth while we’re waiting for some of our friends to come and join us. So the PAL team, and this is a shameless self plug here, but the PAL team came out kind of big this year. We rented a NASCAR simulator. This thing is sitting right in the exhibitor hall.
It is bouncing and moving when folks are racing down a simulation of Talladega. We have a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. Folks that are going to get a top score if you finish first place on the week, it’s going to be a $1000 gift card, second place, second lowest time will be $500, and third place will be $250. Last night during our happy hour cocktail hour, there was quite a bit of commotion. Noise would erupt either when a new first place or leaderboard racer made their way to the podium, or when someone spun out. I was not aware that the car could spin out, but that’s apparently a thing that was a lot of fun.
So a little bit of a gimmick, but we were having tons of fun just kind of bringing folks up and getting to know some new people, some new friends, hanging out with some old friends, good times all around, but getting out of the car and then taking the conversation a little further, trying to get to know people and learn as much as we can about the industry. So I want to welcome my friend Kevin Lombardi, up to the stage. Kevin Lombardi’s been with Preowned Auto Logistics for quite some time. How many years now Kevin?
Kevin Lombardi: Going on 10.
Jeremy Kevin is about the best auto logistics sales guy in the biz. Kevin, how’s the show going?
Kevin: It’s going great.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Kevin: We got a little advice early in the conference to meet everybody, and we’ve met everybody and people are just very cordial, very professional, and it’s a place where you learn. Every time we come here, we learn something new.
Jeremy: Yeah, yeah. That’s great. Who have you been especially excited to bump into? I know you have lots of friends here.
Kevin: Well, yeah, our competitors, I mean, we have a great relationship with our competitors and we really share the nuances of our industry. I think we all want to work together to make it a better experience for all our customers and we believe that there’s enough business for all of us.
Jeremy: Yeah, that’s a really interesting takeaway I would say. It’s amazing though. There can be some fierce competition. A lot of folks in this space, the group out here, they’re great people. On a personal level, I like a lot of our competitors, some really great folks and I think we’re entering an age, I hope I’m not getting too far ahead of my skis on this one, but we’re entering an age where we’re playing nice in the sandbox together. We all kind of bring something different to the space and I think the famous line is there’s enough business out there-
Kevin: For everybody.
Jeremy: For everybody and especially if we’re working in some, maybe partnership is strong in some cases, but if we’re working alongside of each other, doing the right thing, I think there was, the example that comes to mind was being on ATI a few weeks ago, the titans of the auto industry.
We had all sorts of folks that are in this space that are at this conference now come together and maybe not agree on everything, but, and the kumbaya moment is strong, but there’s a lot that we have in common. And I think we’d like to see our business be elevated, see some standardization brought in that on a few matters so I think there’s some opportunities to work together. I’m always excited to meet with those folks. So aside from our competitors who have you seen out there?
Kevin: We’ve met with a lot of digital re-marketers, auction houses. When I first came into the business, I was really a dealer guy and I don’t come from the car industry. I’ve kind of learned on the fly.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Kevin: And there’s a lot of people who are very experienced in the auto industry from the auctions, the digital remarketing campaigns to the elevation of even women in our industry. I mean, we’ve got a lot of bright minds that are now emerging as leaders in our industry, and we want to meet everybody.
Jeremy: Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. So have you had a chance to get to many breakout sessions? I know we’re kind of busy on the floor, but have you-
Kevin: Yep. I’ve been to a couple of the luncheons. I got to see some of the award ceremony and really, after the award ceremony, discuss what they did, how they got there. I’m always interested in how people become successful. You may learn something again.
Jeremy: Sure.
Kevin: Additionally, we have a NASCAR simulator in our booth.
Jeremy: I gave a little preview. What’s your take on the simulator?
Kevin: It’s really entertaining to watch people go crazy over something that doesn’t even move.
Jeremy: It does move though, right?
Kevin: It moves in your mind.
Jeremy: It’s got this sort of hydraulic-
Kevin: Hydraulics, yeah, yeah.
Jeremy: Suspension and it’s bumping up and down. You hit the wall, you’re going to feel it.
Kevin: Yeah, it moves, it does move okay.
Jeremy: Yeah. It doesn’t go forward and backwards.
Kevin: Well, my time-
Jeremy: But up and down, yeah.
Kevin: My time was so poor. It was like we didn’t move.
Jeremy: I have a confession to make. I’ve not even tried it yet. I’ve not even sat in it.
Kevin: I was the first.
Jeremy: You were, yeah. Yeah, you were. Do you have any, in case we have any race fans listening now that might jump into the simulator, would you have any advice? How do you get that top time?
Kevin: I don’t know, because I have the… I know what not to do and that’s make sure you keep your foot on the pedal, number one.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Kevin: Make sure I’m not the tallest human on the planet. Make sure if you’re not tall, you use the back rest of-
Jeremy: That back pad yeah.
Kevin: Move you up to the pedals.
Jeremy: Yep.
Kevin: Stay in the lane and be brave taking the turns.
Jeremy: Yeah. That’s awesome. So do you have any final thoughts you want to share as we kind of move throughout this conversation and-
Kevin: Yes.
Jeremy: Move throughout this event? I’m sure there’s lots.
Kevin: Yeah. I really want to promote what you are doing in the EV space. Every dialogue we have around electric vehicles, everybody’s looking for the answer and it’ll be you and your committee and your colleagues and your knowledge that will set policy and procedures and understanding of our industry because it’s something, the transportation business that we are learning literally on the fly.
Jeremy: Well, I appreciate that shout out, the work that we’re doing at the IARA and actually the introduction that was made by you. So the backstory here, so I’m involved with the Industry Advancement Committee for IARA. That committee has really been focused on EVs and has broken off into three subcommittees, one for consigners, one for auctions, and then the committee that I’m co-chairing with a friend Michelle Paraag, we are the education logistics and infrastructure EV subcommittee.
So hoping to do the things you say that we’re looking to do, really understand the space, how are EVs going to impact in particular logistics. I’ve already received a number of phenomenal takeaways from my time on that committee, such as there’s going to be some equipment concerns. We might need different gear, different trailer equipment. We might need different charging equipment, plugs, but even charging stations, both stationary and potentially mobile on trucks. There are going to be some big expectations on keeping these things charged, the EVs charged, because they don’t do, the batteries apparently do not do very well in the heat.
They do not do very well in the heat when they’re in charge in particular. So some of the onus is going to be maybe put on the logistics and the transportation space so that’s some we’re paying attention to. I think as we’re talking about liability and our responsibility to the EV product, the most expensive part of these vehicles is the battery, right? Undercarriage damage traditionally is if something is to happen and it does occasionally happen, they’re going to get some damage.
One of the most common forms of transportation damage is going to be some undercarriage damage. And well, if the undercarriage damage is no longer an oil pan, but a $20,000 battery, what is that going to do for liability? So you need some new equipment to handle heavier vehicles, you need some new sort of liability and insurance requirements to handle all this and so it’s a space that we’re watching very closely and I appreciate the shout out on that.
Kevin: Well, and one final note that I’ll leave, and this is again, a result of us being present at these conferences at the IARA conference last year, we were all invited, every attendee could go to these meetings, these focus group meetings, and we were encouraged to participate.
Jeremy: Yep.
Kevin: And I saw her an opportunity through one of the members of that particular EV group where I was not, I’m not qualified to be a part of that, but you were. I thought it was a perfect marriage and I will say that I was correct.
Jeremy: Yeah, again, I appreciate that introduction, Kevin. Oh, so that was kind of where I started this whole thing and kind of tapered off thinking about EV stuff but yeah, you made the first introduction to Venkat who was running the Technology and Industry Advancement Committee, and the rest is kind of history. They’ve really been a warm group with me, both Tony Long and Venkat and the rest of the team, they’ve really kind of welcomed me on, showed me the ropes a bit. I’m still getting my bearings a year into it but yeah, it was a great fit and I would not be a part of that if it wasn’t for you, Kevin so thank you my friend.
Kevin: You’re welcome.
Jeremy: I really appreciate that.Kevin: All right, cool. Talk to you soon.
Jeremy Louisos from Preowned Auto Logistics talks with Joe Overby from Auto Remarketing about Used Car Week 2022 in San Diego, including how this week combines five conferences in one, and what to expect from this year’s conference.
Jeremy Louisos: Hi, my name is Jeremy Louisos and I’m here today with Joe Overby, Senior Editor at Auto Remarketing, the news media for the pre-owned auto industry. Our topic today is Used Car Week 2022, an event beginning November 14th in San Diego, California, combining five different conferences uniting all corners of the used car industry. Welcome, Joe.
Joe Overby: Jeremy, it’s so good to talk with you and appreciate you having me on.
Jeremy: It’s a pleasure, yeah. We did this thing last year ahead of the event. It was our first time attending Used Car Week and you gave us a great rundown. We are very excited to have you back and pick up this conversation again. Just jumping right into it, who attends Used Car Week and why?
Joe: Yeah, so it kind of runs the spectrum of people in the auto industry. I’ve actually got an attendee list pulled up here. It’s a couple weeks old, but I mean, just looking at some of the names and companies they work in, I mean, we have dealers, we have auto auctions, companies that work with both, a lot of the tech providers, a lot of the vendors in the space, transportation companies, auto finance companies, people that work with auto auctions, the reconditioning companies, companies that do online auctions, some of the trade groups. It really spans the spectrum of retail, remarketing, the collections and recovery space.
Then one of our relatively new conferences that we’ve added to Used Car Week is the NAVIcon. That gets into the investment and VC, venture capital, portions of automotive and a lot of startups. A lot of the auto makers, a lot of the companies that have CPO programs, they’re here for the pre-owned con. So it really runs kind of a wide array of automotive companies, anybody who operates in used cars to some degree.
Jeremy: Yeah. Looking over that guest list myself, and then from my own experience last year, it really seems like there is something for everybody, and you’ve put some thought into really encapsulating that whole used car industry ecosystem. Very commendable there and I look forward to trying to soak in as much of it as I can. We’ve kind of touched on it, but what makes Used Car Week such a special event?
Joe: It’s a holistic conference made up of five niche conferences. Each of the five different conferences…the Pre-owned Con is very focused on the dealer space. Not even just the dealer space, it’s the used car dealer space within the pre-owned operations of the auto dealer. The Auto Fin Con really is about obviously the auto finance industry, but also the FinTech piece of that. The Repo Con is largely about the collections, recovery spaces, very niche area. The National Marketing Conference gets into auctions and wholesale and consigner and very much the wholesale side of things. And the NAVICon, which stands for, by the way, the National Automotive Venture & Investment Conference, that gets into the funding, the investment piece of automotive.
You have five conferences that really could, on their own, be their own conference. And for a while, that’s actually what we did. We had individual conferences that were throughout the year and probably, gosh, 12 years ago – 10-12 years ago – we combined them into one conference because we felt like there was a lot of overlap or there was a lot of ways that somebody going to the Auto Fin Con could also learn something by going to Pre-owned Con sessions. And somebody who’s at Pre-owned Con may want to stick around for the National Marketing Conference to learn a little bit about the wholesale side of the business. I think it’s a good opportunity to step outside of your specific lane in automotive and learn how it relates to other pieces of the used car industry.
Jeremy: You’d mentioned that this conference has been going on for quite some time in different configurations, and even in its current form of all these different parts of the industry brought into one. And thank you for the acronym explanation for NAVIcon. I did not know that so that’s a new piece of information for me. Having run this event for so many years, is there anything new and exciting about this year’s Used Car Week?
Joe: Yeah, absolutely. We actually are going to be back in San Diego for the first time since 2003, so almost nine years ago. We hadn’t been there in a while; just with the hotel shuffling, you plan these years in advance. And finally, we’re back on the rotation of being back in San Diego. It’s kind of like when the ACC has its basketball tournament, it kind of rotates between Greensboro and Charlotte and Atlanta and Brooklyn, and now we’re rotating back to Southern California, so we’re excited about that.
As part of that, we’re bringing back the golf outing. Years ago, I would say it’s about the last time we were in San Diego, Wednesday morning right at the halfway point of Used Car Week, we have a golf outing and we’re bringing that back this year. It’s going to be at Torrey Pines, which is kind of a big, famous PGA golf course.
And the expo hall, this year, we’re excited about. We always encourage our exhibitors to think differently and try to add something to their booth, do something different than the other exhibitors are doing to draw. One of them is doing stock car racing, that is Preowned Auto Logistics, which you know all about, and then we’ve got a golf simulator by cars.com. It’s kind of cool to see the exhibitors try something else out and add a little side entertainment to the expo hall.
Speaking of us being on a podcast right now, we are doing a Used Car Week podcast stage this year. We basically invited people in the industry who have podcasts who want to come and record episodes of their shows to do so there. It’s going to be pretty close to the main registration desk. It’s going to be in the foyer, it’s called the Palm Foyer, which is near the reg desk and in the main hub of the conference floor. The sound there won’t be projected, but it’ll be a lot of fly-by traffic where people are walking by and are able to just see behind the curtain of how a podcast is made.
We’ve also added a few different awards programs this year. We divided our 40 Under 40 program up into two different programs, one for the dealer side and then one for the industry side. It hasn’t been an awards program, so to speak, it’s just been a ranking every year of the top best-selling CPO dealers in the country. And this year we decided, “let’s recognize those dealers at a breakfast”, which we’re going to be doing on November 15th, which I believe is the Tuesday of that week. We’ve also added a Women in Collections and Recoveries, which is going to be part of a lunch, in recognition. And then we are bringing back our lifetime achievement award.
Lot of different, kind of new, but also bringing back things that we’ve done in the past. Yeah, and then just being in San Diego, I mean, it’s such a cool place and it’ll be nice to go there November, where we’re on the East Coast here, it’s going to be quite chilly probably in two weeks, so it’ll be nice to be in sunny California.
Jeremy: That’s a fantastic highlight reel. This new and exciting stuff ends up being some of the pieces of the conference that I’m most looking forward to. I’ve never been to San Diego before. I’m always excited when the weather’s cold in New England to branch out to the lovely southern places of the United States. Awesome job selecting that location. I just heard a lot of enthusiasm around San Diego and not going back to Vegas for those who are kind of traveling in that circle pretty routinely. Nothing against Vegas, love Vegas, but just to mix it up in that way I think was a really cool move.
And thank you for mentioning the NASCAR simulator. That’s obviously something we’re excited to be a part of, and I can’t wait to check out that golf simulator thing; sounds pretty cool as well.
I also want to thank you for inviting us to be part of that podcast stage. This’ll be an interesting iteration for what we’re doing here, and we’re excited to see what that’s all about and do our thing in front of a larger audience. Those are some of the things that we were pretty excited about. We have some honorees for the 40 Under 40 and Women Remarketing and appreciate those honors as well. That’s what I’m looking forward to. But Joe Overby, what specifically are you excited about and looking forward to?
Joe: Yeah. I’m most excited, perhaps self-serving…one of my favorite things to do at these conferences is being able to moderate panels. And I’m getting to do, I think, about six of them this year, a couple each day. And so that’s a lot of fun. I mean, I love being up on the stage and just chatting with these people who are so well versed in their specific segments of automotive, and that’s something I look forward to. It’s a challenge and it’s a process, putting those panels together and figuring out who’s available and who can make it and what the topics will be, and just all the logistics that come with it. But it’s a lot of fun once we get on site and talking with those people. And it’s really a way to make what Nick Zulovich and I cover every day kind of come to life in person and being able to take something that we write about and really explored in depth in a 30 minute panel.
We had Used Car Week last year and it was great to finally be back in person. And after two years of mostly not having conferences, it still feels fresh to get back and see people in person. I’ve heard several people just bring this up over the years, but the best part about being at a conference is just those collisions you make. You might be just going down to the Starbucks at the hotel to get a coffee, and you run into somebody that you hadn’t seen in two years that works at some company in your industry, and you have a five minute conversation. And that’s kind of the cool moments that I always enjoy about work travel in general, but really these automotive conferences and Used Car Week in particular.
Jeremy: Yeah, that’s fantastic. I have had those collisions myself and find that a lot of the stuff…I mean at the event I’ve watched you and Nick up on stage and can vouch for your talents, probing questions. I always love watching any sessions the two of you are hosting and moderating. But the stuff that happens outside of those rooms sometimes or even outside of the hours, you’re in this place with all these folks in the industry, and you’re going to bump into people, maybe it’s someone you don’t know, but you say, “Hey, I just saw you up on stage a couple hours ago and you mentioned something about whatever it was.” And there you go, you’re off and you’ve made a new connection, new contact, potentially new friend.
Joe: And a lot of that, it does happen spontaneously. But by design, we’ve built in a lot of networking time. I mean, between each group of workshops or group of panel discussions, we have the 15 minute networking breaks where even if you’re going out to grab a snack or a cup of coffee, you have a chance to chit chat with somebody for a minute. And then at the end of each day, we have a reception. And a lot of times the ones that are sponsored, we’ll have different themes to them.
The opening day, obviously Monday, we’re going to have sort of a football themed one with kind of taking advantage of it being in the middle of football season. And I think having those events, both planned and spontaneous, just creates a lot of opportunity to make new friends and professional, new colleagues and that sort of thing, but also just new friends and have some interesting conversations.
Jeremy: Yeah, I think of, actually, the last time we bumped into each other at a reception, some great conversations that actually ended up in a game of corn hole. I thought I’d make a quick mention, we are bringing our boards down. I know you’re going to be a very busy guy, but if we could steal you for a game, we’d love to play.
Joe: Oh nice, very cool, yes, absolutely. Yeah, I’ll be over there for it.
Jeremy: Awesome, awesome. And we always love to close with this question. What advice would you give to attendees looking to get the most out of this experience?
Joe: I think whether you are an exhibitor, whether you’re an attendee, just kind of learning your specific piece of automotive, whether you’re there for meetings, to borrow from the old, I think it was an IBM slogan, “Think Different”. Go do something different that you maybe didn’t come to Used Car Week for. Maybe you came for the Pre-owned Con and you were just going to go to those sessions all week. Step out and go to Auto Fin Con sessions or go to the NRC sessions. If you’re in the expo hall, if you’re an exhibitor, try something different like Preowned Auto Logistics, and even if it’s not a NASCAR simulator, try something different in your booth to spark a conversation.
Go out to dinner with somebody you haven’t gotten to sit down and break bread with. Just do something different. Try new experiences each day that you’re there, because there’s plenty of opportunities to do it.
And I would say, also, just wear comfortable shoes, because with the amount of walking that’s done, by the end of it, your dogs will be barking.
Jeremy: From experience, that is a real pro tip from a real pro. Joe, this has been great. Thank you so much for bringing us through this. Joe, where can people connect with you, Auto Remarketing and Used Car Week?
Joe: Sure. Well, our website, autoremarketing.com. And then usedcarweek.biz. And then on LinkedIn. I’m on LinkedIn. Just look for Joe Overby. And also, if you follow our Cherokee Media group on LinkedIn, we’re always posting conference information. And we’re also using the #usedcarweek22 on LinkedIn and Twitter and other social media, so look for those tags, and you’ll see all the members of our team and people on our conference squad are always posting things. And so you’ll find the latest information, some updates and pictures and that sort of thing.
And that reminds me, during Used Car Week, we’ll be sending out photos from the event on our Flickr account, and we’ll include those in our Auto Remarketing e-newsletters. If you’re on site at Used Car Week and want to check those out, just stay tuned to autoremarketing.com and our e-newsletters.
Jeremy: Will do. Thanks again, Joe. It’s always a pleasure to speak with you. You can catch PAL and the rest of the team at Used Car Week manning the NASCAR simulator booth, as Joe mentioned, and anytime at preownedautologistics.com. Thanks for listening.
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