The CAR Digital Dealer Conference, sponsored by the Innovation Group, which will be held on the opening day of the WesBank Motoring Experience at Kyalami on Friday, 1 September, is sure to attract leading lights from all facets of the local automotive industry. The reason is that the chosen topic is very hot and set to shape the future direction of the way cars are bought and serviced in the future, as well as the role dealerships will play.
Vehicle buyers now turn increasingly to the internet and mobile devices to guide them through their purchasing decisions by way of searching for information and online reviews. This behaviour requires dealerships to adopt innovative technologies and digital strategies to maintain their competitive advantage.
The Digital Dealer Conference has a line-up of speakers well-versed in their topics, while the event also provides excellent networking opportunities for delegates.
The theme this year is: “The digital economy: How dealers need to adapt to align with consumer buying trends.” This theme will be tackled from all angles and will provide valuable lessons for the delegates.
The CAR Conference has been part of South Africa’s premier motor show since Auto Africa was staged in Johannesburg for the first time in 1996. Last year the conference was staged at the SA Festival of Motoring.
The keynote speaker will be from overseas again this year. John O’Donnell, Managing Director of the Innovation Group’s EMaC division in the United Kingdom, will talk on: “The future and trends of service plans”. He is well qualified to speak on this subject as EMaC is the UK’s leading provider of service plans and customer retention
Other speakers include Dave Duarte, CEO of Treeshake, a digital communications consultancy, who will talk on “Navigating the digital retail landscape” and Bruce Allen, the Chairman of the National Automobile Dealers’ Association (NADA), whose topic is: “The path to greater profitability via customer service”.
Dylan Kohlstadt, the CEO of Shiftone, a creative, integrated digital marketing agency, will talk about “Building a competitive advantage using powerful, owned, earned and paid digital marketing strategies” as well as “Breaking bad: Identifying poor digital habits and the tools to fix them.”
Other speakers on the programme are: Andries van Staden, Managing Director of the Innovation Group; Claire Cobbledick, Head of Core at Gumtree SA;
Crayg Hitzeroth, Managing Director of Ad Dynamo, Twitter’s partner in Africa; and Nikki Harding, Vertical Lead Automotive – Facebook Sub Saharan Africa. The latter three people will serve on a panel to discuss “Unlocking and leveraging the value of social best practice and key measurements to engage car buyers.”
“We are delighted that CAR has chosen to partner with us again as the venue of choice for its series of very worthwhile automotive conferences, which have now been held over a period of more than 20 years,” commented Konstantin von Vieregge, the CEO of SA Shows Messe Frankfurt, the organisers of the WesBank SA Motoring Experience powered by the SA Festival of Motoring.
The 2017 Wesbank SA Motoring Experience brings you the best motoring content in partnership with CAR Magazine, AutoTrader and KykNET.
For more details about the CAR Digital Dealer Conference and to make a booking contact Monique Brevis at Ramsay Media: Tel: 021-530-3116 or send an email to monique.brevis@ramsaymedia.co.za
