Four regional trade shows for the collision repairer community and automotive industry at large will all be in-person this year, with the first in March.

The Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of New Jersey (AASP/NJ)’s NORTHEAST trade show will be held March 18-20 at Meadowlands Exposition Center, 355 Plaza Drive, in Secaucus, New Jersey.

A panel discussion called “The Continuing Tech Shortage: How Do We Fix It?” will be held Friday as well as a course called “Beyond Blueprinting to Guiding the Repair Process” and a workshop with Ford Motor Co. Paint and Body Repair Senior Engineer Gerry Bonanni called “Accessing Ford Repair Information, Collision Sectioning Procedures for Aluminum.”

On Saturday, Lee V. Rush with Sherwin-Williams will present “Managing the Customer’s Experience” and later in the day Timothy Morgan with Spanesi Americas, Inc. and Chuck Olsen with AirPro Diagnostics will present “Get it Straight to Calibrate.” There will also be two panel discussions – “Mastering the Appraisal Clause” and “Labor Rate 2022 & Beyond: How to Get What You’re Worth.”

A final panel discussion, called “The Future of ADAS,” will be held on Sunday followed by a class with Reliable Automotive Equipment’s Dave Gruskos called “OEM Certification Success: Do’s and Don’ts.” Attendees will receive a certificate that will qualify them for the renewal of their New Jersey auto body licenses. Times and more information including lists of all the panelists can be found on the NORTHEAST website.

The Midwest Collision Repair Trade Show & Conference will be held April 1-2 in Kansas City at Overland Park Convention Center, 6000 College Park Blvd. The feature presentation will be given by Mike Anderson with Collision Advice. The show will kick off with a welcome reception on the trade show floor. The event is held by South Dakota Auto Body Association Inc., Kansas Auto Body Association, Iowa Collision Repair Association, Missouri Auto Body Association, and Nebraska Auto Body Association.

More than 60 booths will be on-site during the show and classes will be offered by “world-class” speakers. There will also be product demonstrations and a Q&A session. There are a limited number of rooms available at the Sheraton Hotel, 6100 College Park Blvd.

Next up will be the Southeast Collision Conference, held by the Tennessee Collision Repairers Association (TCRA), Carolinas Collision Association (CCA), and Gulf States Collision Association (GSCA) on June 23-25 at the Gateway Conference Center in Richburg, South Carolina. It was originally scheduled for Feb. 4-5. A lanyard with a name tag, T-shirt, and admission into education classes will be given with each purchase of a conference pass. Prices differ for members and non-members and vary by type of pass. There will be a mixer and award show Thursday night with special guest speakers, presentations from Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF), Collision Industry Foundation (CIF), and Recycled Rides as well as presidential speeches by CCA, TCRA, and GSCA.

Among classes offered will be “Changing the Way You Compete As A Certified Repair Provider” with Mike Anderson and training by Assured Performance Network. CREF will hold a career fair and conference speakers will be Anderson, Dave Luehr, Richard Valenzuela, Erica Eversman, and Mark Olson. The Texas Auto Body Trade Show, held by the Auto Body Association of Texas, will be on Aug. 26-27 at The Irving Convention Center in Irving, Texas. There will be a car show, celebrity autograph session, live product demonstrations, and a competition for painters, estimators, and body technicians. Several classes and seminars will also be offered for which schedules and more information will be released soon. Registration is not yet open.

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Featured image: The floor of NORTHEAST 2019 is shown. (Provided by Thomas Greco Publishing)