Once a year, top operators in the country converge upon Fort Lauderdale or New York for the Presidents Club hosted by DrivingSales. It’s essentially a Super 20 Group with ideas flowing from the (mostly) main sessions and (a few) breakouts/workshops. Owners, General Managers and operation types were greeted with a firehose of insights and forecasting from Cox’s Economist Charles Chesbrough, hitting on the most important topics including the disruptive factors circling the industry.

A one-day event needs to add significant direction and thought in order to affect executives to change immediately after and DSPC always delivers, since the first year in New York with Seth Godin. While the hot topics were expectedly inflation, vehicle supply, fixed operations and human capital. Digital crept in more than ever before (as it’s not a ‘digital conference’ as DSES is in the fall) with two fantastic ‘Beast Mode’ presentations by William Camastro (Gold Coast Cadillac) and Gray Scott (Cardinale Auto Group).

As all dealerships are digital operations these days, it’s imperative for operators to make the appropriate investments. While many digital essentials are usually missed by senior executives, this Presidents Club seemed to grab and shake more of the attendees. Proper investment in staff, recruiting and maintaining best practices also topped the ‘high impact’ list with everyone there and especially for the Dealer Advisory Board as most of our industry continues to grapple with their most important asset: their people.

This year’s Most Valuable Insight winner was Jasen Rice of Lotpop, who will present a keynote in October at the DrivingSales Executive Summit in Las Vegas. It was also announced that DSES will be partnering with Women In Automotive at The Bellagio -based event to focus on advancing Women in the industry including Mentorship that is a significant focus for WIA’s forward-thinking plans.

The closing panel of Jared Hamilton, Dean Evans and Terry Laughridge (Cars) left the room charged, informed and a bit perplexed regarding the near- and mid-range impacts of disruption, advertising realities and franchise opportunities. The hard-hitting keynote panel addressed some of the in-our-faces aspects of what is changing automotive retail.

2022 still has a lot to bear and leveraging opportunities is more critical than ever, DrivingSales Presidents Club was definitely spot on!

 

Best Practices: Professional Insights, Powerful Results