With less than three months to go before SEMA, it’s time to start getting serious about travel before all the convenient hotels and flights fill up.

But before locking in your reservations, don’t forget that the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 30, has been bolstered with three new Society of Collision Repair Specialists courses. Any of these would be useful to a shop owner or manager, and estimators and technicians might also benefit.

The sessions were added in response to industry demand for Monday training during the traditionally Tuesday-Friday SEMA Show and SCRS Repairer Driven Education series. Here’s the courses and excerpts from their descriptions:

• “Current and Future Technologies 2017 and Beyond,” with Chief’s Ken Boylan: “This course explores topics such as current and future technologies that include joining technologies, hybrid welding techniques that can join dissimilar metals effectively, friction stir and remote laser welding techniques, and what nanotechnologies will mean to the collision repair industry. Learn how some materials will be ten to one times stronger and lighter than what is being used today. What will the repair industry look like and what new skills and equipment will be required to meet these challenges?”
• “Culture, Culture, Culture – Would you work in your own shop?!,” with Sherwin-Williams’ Judy Folk: “In reality, all organizations have a company culture – whether good or bad, which directly impacts employee engagement. The key question is this: Is it a culture by default, or by design?  … To transform your culture, you must win the hearts and minds of the people you work with, and that takes both adeptness and persuasion.”
• “Severity – Why it does not matter and what to do about it!,” with AkzoNobel’s Greg Griffith and Tim Ronak: “As part of a KPI review as a shop Owner or Manager have you ever been told that YOUR ‘Severity’ is too high? Have you been told that your ‘Business Partner’ may reconsider your relationship unless you reduce ‘Severity’ to align with their purported value? Do you understand ‘Severity’ and what part, if any of it, is really under your control? Why is it that insurers treat a calculated ‘Severity’ a ceiling value?”

RDE courses are $75 in advance, $85 after the early bird deadline. Despite the Monday, Oct. 30, courses, a series pass still costs $375 in advance ($400 after the deadline), so passholders in 2017 are getting more content at the same price. (The series pass also still includes a ticket to SCRS’ Sky Villa afterparty, which is also a can’t-miss event.)

Repairer Driven Education runs Oct. 30-Nov. 3. The SEMA Show proper runs Oct. 31-Nov. 3.

SEMA Monday events

However, if you reach Vegas earlier in the day Monday or blow in Sunday night, SEMA has some events for you as well. From 8:30-9:30 a.m. Monday, Oct 30, mentalist and magician Max Majors will entertain the audience but also teach a little about body language for better communication.

“He will entertain and inform you  with a mixture of unbelievable mind reading demonstrations, paired with real world take-aways that you can put into practice immediately!” a SEMA description of the free course states.

If you feel like you still need more body language training or couldn’t make it to Majors’ class, Patti Wood of Communication Dynamics will from 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. teach about first impressions in what’s billed as a chance to “learn and laugh.”

“You are using up to 10,000 nonverbal cues in the first minute of interaction to form a SNAP impression that determines how you’ll interact with that person in that particular situation and you sending cues that determine what they think of you!” the description of the free course states.

SEMA also has many other educational events Monday, some geared specifically to its custom automotive membership and others that seem relevant to a general aftermarket business leader. Their 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. session on leveraging data on vehicles in a market might be of particular interest to shops wondering what OEM certifications would be worthwhile or simply what equipment and training to buy to keep pace with customers’ vehicles.

More information:

“Start Planning for the SEMA Show and SCRS Education!”

Society of Collision Repair Specialists, Aug. 10, 2017

SCRS Repairer Driven Education webpage

SEMA Show webpage

SEMA events webpage

Featured image: A SEMA banner hangs on the Las Vegas Convention Center on Nov. 3, 2013. (MortonPhotographic/iStock)