Schaeffler’s REPXPERT Conference wows delegates
Schaeffler has hailed its REPXPERT Conference ‘a 100% success’, whilst also raising around £3,500 for Ben
Schaeffler’s second edition of its REPXPERT Conference took place at the British Motor Museum in Warwickshire on Thursday 14th May, with over 300 people attending the event. Over £1500 was raised on the day from merchandise sales and donations, taking the total amount to be donated to Ben, the UK automotive industry charity, to around £3,500, when added to the amount raised from the £10 delegate registration fees.
After breakfast and an introduction to the event by Schaeffler’s Sales & Marketing Director, Matt Selby, the delegates enjoyed a morning conference with two keynote speakers, the IGA’s Jonathan Douglass, who discussed a broad range of garage related topics, followed by Car SOS and Shed & Buried star, Fuzz Townsend, who delivered an amusing mix of anecdotes and outtakes.
After a short break came the highly anticipated Garage Forum, led by host, Tom Henman, which once again proved very popular with the audience. A wide range of issues affecting independent workshops were debated, including diagnostic tooling, apprenticeships and even AI. The panel included Tim Guidotti, aka The Fleet Guy, Simon Powney from Markhams Garage, Tom Cockings from RCMR, Andy Wells from AutoworksHQ and, completing the line up, Peter Whieldon from Williams Garage, who received an emotional ovation from the audience after describing the rise, fall and rise again of his Otterbourne based Williams Garage business, after it was completely destroyed in a fire in 2015.
After a much needed hot lunch, four breakout sessions were offered; Louise Baker, Colin Denton and Eleanor Baker-Barnes discussed apprenticeship and training opportunities, Tim Guidotti spoke on the benefits of fleet work, Quentin Le Hetet provided an update on the market and how to adapt to a changing car parc, and Schaeffler’s own Alistair Mason discussed the evolving technologies heading to the aftermarket.
The TechZone exhibition provided another focus for visitors, with Ben’s Ellen Plumer and Leila Moss-Kelly selling caps and tee shirts on the merch stall, as well as stands hosted by The IGA, TechMan, Servicesure, ALLDATA, AutoCare, 1TEC Auto Hub and The IMI. Delegates also got to see the latest offerings available in the REPXPERT bonus shop, with stands featuring products from Schaeffler’s supplier partners DeWalt (power tools), Laser (hand tools and consumables) and Involution (premium workshop clothing).
Marketing Communications Manager, Jeff Earl, said: “Today has been simply fantastic, delivering on our promise of delivering a ‘bigger and better’ event than last time. The feedback from visitors is that everybody came away from the show with valuable insights and ways they can improve themselves and their businesses.
“Our goal for the REPXPERT Conference was to get everybody networking and knowledge sharing, which obviously worked, because the atmosphere was buzzing all day, showing just how empowering our industry can be.
“On behalf of Schaeffler, I’d like to thank the delegates, presenters, staff and exhibitors for making the second REPXPERT Conference a resounding success.”