Vernon Crump, NACE 2003 chairman, kicked off this year's event today with the opening of the General Session. He was followed by Bill O'Reilly, host of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor. Each night, millions of viewers tune in to hear what O'Reilly has to say. His keynote address on current events and the news media was certainly the talk of the Exposition floor today.

And speaking of the Exposition, the doors opened at 10 a.m., immediately following the General Session. With over 1,700 booths and 500 exhibiting companies offering a full range of new products, equipment and technologies, this year's Exposition promises to offer something for everyone in the collision repair industry.

As an added bonus to this year's Exposition, a new Claims Process Pavilion opened today, showcasing the latest automated claims processing products, practices and technology. Demonstrations and on-site educational programs highlighted today's activities in the pavilion, which is located just off the 3600 aisle of the convention center.

Yesterday, the Congress got underway and was highlighted by a number of management, industry and technical seminars. And last night's Block Party at Universal CityWalk set the stage for a fun-filled NACE 2003, complete with an abundance of networking opportunities.

As president of ASA, I truly look forward to the next few days. The coming days promise to offer something for everybody. As this year's NACE theme states: NACE Means Collision Repair. The Online Daily guarantees to deliver the most complete up-to-date coverage of NACE 2003, and we invite you to visit this site often as it will be updated constantly throughout the show.

Again, welcome to NACE 2003.

Sincerely,