ASRW News

Posted 12/12/2011

ASRW 2011: Attendance Up 18%;
Space Selling Quickly for 2012

The first multi-shop operator (MSO) symposium, held during ASRW 2011 in Orlando, attracted 130 MOSs and exceeded all expectations and attendance goals. The day-long event was held Oct. 6.

Automotive Service & Repair Week (ASRW) 2011 was held recently in Orlando, Fla., and results deem this year’s event the most successful in recent years, largely attributed to an 18 percent increase in overall attendance and strong initial sales for the 2012 event. ASRW 2012 is scheduled for Oct. 10-13 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

Ron Pyle, ASA president and chief staff executive, commented on the event’s outcome saying, “Since we’ve returned from the show, we’ve been inundated with an outpouring of positive feedback, success stories and personal testimonies of the impact of this year’s event. It’s evident a tremendous amount of business was transacted in Orlando, and we could not be happier with the upswing of ASRW 2011.”

Total attendance for the 2011 event was 19,221, of which one-third of participants were from the East Coast and another one-third were new attendees.

“By far the best NACE in our 11-year history,” says Dave Henderson of AutoWatch. “We expected we would have a good number of new shops stop at the booth and that was for sure what happened. We gathered twice as many leads as last year, and we closed three times as many sales on the floor as last year. Overall, a fantastic NACE, and we can’t wait for New Orleans.”

Visit the 2011 ASRW photo gallery.

In addition to the new location, ASRW introduced a new event – the MSO Symposium held all day Oct. 6. It attracted 130 multi-shop operators and exceeded all expectations and attendance goals.

“While many of NACE’s show features focus on the independent shop owner, we wanted to address the specialized needs of MSOs,” said Ron Nagy, AAM, 2011 NACE chairman. “Our experience with this year’s event gives us a great foundation for the 2nd annual symposium, and we’re already discussing how we can leverage its success to create an even better event in 2012.”

Additionally, advance exhibit space sales for ASRW 2012 began on site, and 20 percent of the show floor is already sold. For a complete listing of 2012 ASRW exhib­itors, visit www.NACEexpo.com or www.CARSevent.com.

Exhibitors pull in attendees
ASRW event organizers announced I-CAR and R.M. Andress as the overall winners of a new exhibitor marketing initiative launched earlier this year, which encouraged all exhibitors to send invitations to attend ASRW to their customers and prospects. A total of 51 exhibitors participated in the program called Exhibitor Invites.

Among the participating exhibitors, I-CAR sent the largest number of invitations. R.M. Andress received honors for the most attendee registrations as well as the largest number to actually attend the show. Goff’s Enterprises won the ‘’Best of Show’’ award in recognition of their early adoption of the new marketing tool.

Show management subsidized Exhibitor Invites to provide an even greater value to companies who invested in ASRW 2011 by exhibiting in the event. The online system allowed each exhibitor access to a secure website and the ability to customize and send invitations to their customer and prospect databases.

“Statistically speaking, it’s more meaningful for attendees to receive a personalized invitation to the show from an exhibitor than to register on their own, and they’re 4 percent more likely to attend,” said Lindsay Roberts, ASRW show director. “Our exhibitors really stepped up to the challenge with this new program, and their efforts were another component to the success of our 2011 event.”

ASRW will use the program for the 2012 events scheduled for Oct. 10-13 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, La.