Are automotive conferences worth it anymore?

Raise your hand if you’ve attended an automotive conference focused on AI within the past few years ✋Yeah, that’s what we thought.

In this episode of Dealer Confidential, host Ilana Shabtay chats with Kayla Kody, VP of Richmond Ford Auto Group, about the relevance of automotive conferences today. Are the themes still on point, or have they become repetitive? Is it up to attendees to extract value and relevance from these experiences?

Here’s what one anonymous dealer had to say:

Dear Ilana,

While I used to find tremendous value in automotive conferences, lately it feels like the same tired topics are regurgitated year after year. All of the content is repetitive and there’s just too much of the same stuff to justify going. While I genuinely want to stay informed and inspired, the sky-high ticket prices and lack of new content make it hard to justify attending. I hope you can help push for some fresh ideas and discussions that actually move the needle.

Sincerely,

An Underwhelmed Dealer

Ilana and Kayla dive into:

• How attendees can maximize their experiences at automotive conferences.
• Reasons why current conferences may not be resonating.
• The value of panel discussions and informal conversations with peers compared to main presentations.
• Alternatives to the rising costs of automotive conference tickets.
• How to evaluate whether a conference, podcast, or any activity was worth the investment of your time and resources.

Resources mentioned:

• Ilana Shabtay
• Kayla Kody
• Richmond Ford Auto Group
• ASOTU
• NADA

Episode Transcript:

Ilana Shabtay (00:00)

Hello, welcome to Dealer Confidential, our new podcast where we take hot takes from the industry and talk about how we can make things better for automotive. I’m Ilana Shabtay, VP Marketing at Fullpath and I’m here today with guest Kayla Kody Vice President. Hello, how are you? Good. Kayla Kody, Vice President of Richmond Ford Auto Group. Thank you for joining.

Kayla Kody (00:17)

I’m doing great. How are you?

Yeah, I’m happy to be here. I think we’re going to make it pretty fun.

Ilana Shabtay (00:29)

Yeah, I think

so too. So we got a hot, today’s hot take is gonna be about automotive conferences, which I think is gonna be interesting because we all, you know, we spend time at them, resources, you know, financial resources, as well as just like human resources. So it’s an interesting topic. We got someone and I’m gonna read it,

who wrote to us. Let me pull it up here so I don’t mess up the words. It’s obviously anonymous, but I’ll bring up what they mentioned. This was from a marketing manager of a dealer group. “I don’t find any value in automotive conferences anymore. All the content is repetitive and there’s just too much of the same stuff to justify going.”

It’s a big statement. I feel like we, know, us as an industry, conferences are sort of at the heart of it, both as a vendor, but also as a marketer. I enjoy them. I love learning from them. I love learning from peers. I love understanding what dealers need. So interested in hearing specifically, Kayla, what you think about this, especially as someone who speaks and participates at conferences, ASOTU, NADA, others. So let’s just start.

Kayla Kody (01:42)

Yeah, I remember that feeling. I’m not going to lie. I remember feeling that when I first started going to conferences. And I think there’s like a couple of things we could probably dive into to help with that a little bit. My initial read though is I sympathize with that. Like I identify with that too. I remember that feeling. And I think it was kind of more about which conferences I was selecting to go to. And then the activities I did while I was there that really changed kind of how I perceived it or what I got out.

Ilana Shabtay (02:08)

Thank

Kayla Kody (02:11)

What about you?

Ilana Shabtay (02:14)

First of all, think you’re on something. I first of all think that planning is on us to make sure that we’re getting the most out of conferences. I do agree. I even find as a vendor, as a software company, as a technology, I want to make sure that when we apply to speak at conferences that we are bringing fresh content. And it is hard to kind of think about how can we wrap content differently? How can we make sure we’re bringing the best to dealers? And then the third thing that I always want to think about is how do we make our content as practical and

as possible for dealers. But if they’re feeling it, you know, I want to make our content better.

Kayla Kody (02:50)

Yeah, exactly. And I think the other thing too is it’s hard for conferences to be put on in general because you’re trying to cover such a complex topic in such a short period of time, right? So it’s also finding the either workshops or speakers that are going to speak to that very specific thing rather than broad ideas like AI, right? Like, wow, AI, how do we implement it? I mean, all of us have heard that a million times. I have a feeling if we ask this anonymous

question person that they 100 % would be like, I’m sick of hearing about it. So it’s how do you find the more, the more niche moments of, okay, yes, we know AI is here, we know we need to use it, but how, right? And what small examples can I take back to my store that are things I can utilize immediately in order to make an impact in order to make this, you know, me coming to this conference or me coming to see the speaker, me going to this workshop worth it.

Ilana Shabtay (03:23)

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that’s exactly what I’m thinking too. I’m thinking almost every presenter should have practical next steps at the end of every presentation so dealers can really understand what they can, okay, they just learned a bunch of stuff, that’s great. How can they now actually apply it for results at the dealership? Whether that’s in operations, marketing, sales, et cetera. Do you feel…

Well, first of all, have you heard this from other people? I know you said you sympathize, which I’m sure this person will appreciate.

Kayla Kody (04:16)

Yeah, I’ve been hearing this a lot

recently and I do think a lot of it is because there is such a large shift in our industry right now. Like we’re really leaning into technology in many ways. And then we’re also trying to go back to basics, right? So it’s really weird at conferences right now. It’s like, hey, we need to get back to basics on the sales side, but we also need to implement all this new technology and the broad sweeping concepts that are very hard to walk away with actionable items from.

Ilana Shabtay (04:43)

Now

have you recently spoke, I know again that you have lot of experience speaking at these events. Do you feel like you’ve spoken about something recently or there was a format that worked for you that resonated with the audience or even resonated with you as a speaker that was a little bit different?

Kayla Kody (04:55)

and

Yeah, think anytime you’re on a panel, you’re able to really get a little bit deeper into that, right? Especially a panel that’s interactive, like asking the other panelists questions as you’re going down this conversation, whatever it might be on, culture, training, strategy, anything like that I love, because you’ll watch, you don’t just walk away with, wow, I just got to kind of get those panelists thoughts on this and I got to see a couple of different viewpoints. You also walk away with how do leaders dissect problems?

you just watch them do it on stage. What questions did they get to, even from each other, through kind of diving a little bit deeper and trying to find something that implements well in their individual instances?

Ilana Shabtay (05:43)

Yeah,

and also I think it’s more conversational so it feels a little bit more authentic which is probably good for anyone to hear when listening to these types of sessions. The other thing I want to ask about, the person alluded to this in their hot take so maybe we should talk about it, but cost and justifying cost to go into these events. Costs are going up for sure. Even on the dealer side, I mean I see the listings, the ticket prices.

Any advice on how, A, people working at the dealership can justify the cost to the managers and leadership, and then B, how do you sort of assess the ROI on these things? Any advice that you have there?

Kayla Kody (06:26)

Yes, for cost,

mean, there sometimes just aren’t additional funds to fund this, right? Like sometimes it’s just not going to happen no matter what, no matter how you justify it. In those instances, I really encourage people to look locally. It doesn’t have to be automotive specific. Sometimes I’ll learn something that’s just about like, you know, website building or something of that nature. And I’ll walk away with so many more actionable insights because it made me think outside of my box, right? It made me think a little bit differently.

Ilana Shabtay (06:35)

right.

Kayla Kody (06:55)

And then the other thing too is podcasts like this one great low-cost you can get so much information from podcasts LinkedIn verify, you know who is putting out a lot of that content and sometimes you have to back check it a little bit, but that’s okay. You can get a lot of great information from LinkedIn. You can find people that inspire you and see where they’re going. What conferences are they speaking at? A lot of times it’s super big popular ones like  NADA, which I love, are extraordinarily expensive to go to.

But there are things like you alluded to with ASOTU which is on the East Coast, which is not as expensive to attend. You get to get a lot more face time with individuals. So I always say, like, there’s many options out there, just keep digging for them.

Ilana Shabtay (07:37)

Yeah, that’s really good advice and I actually love what you said about locally and it does not have to be automotive focused. I feel like A, opens up a ton of opportunity for thinking outside of the box. Again, Kayla, just like you said. But B, I think a lot of the content that is brought to automotive is often, you know, this was something that was applied outside of the industry that now is coming into the industry. It can give people a huge head start on a lot of the things that come into automotive. So there’s also

Kayla Kody (07:44)

Yeah.

Okay.

Ilana Shabtay (08:07)

huge upside to potentially going locally and going outside of automotive just again to just think outside of the box a little bit. So I definitely agree with that and I think like you said if you don’t have the resources you don’t have the cost there are other things you could do. Sometimes there’s also online tickets I know it’s definitely not as fun and there’s a way less networking involved but the online tickets sometimes are cheaper so you can even like

When I do those, I’ll just work out on the treadmill and listen to a session. And hey, that’s multitasking at its best. I agree, there are some other things that you can do. I’ve also learned a ton from certain thought leaders on LinkedIn that I now follow.

Kayla Kody (08:41)

Exactly.

Ilana Shabtay (08:52)

Of course, you should verify their background. I identify kind of like the fluff versus, again, back to what we talked about, like practical tips. If I can see in a LinkedIn post that there are next actions and next practical applications that I can do for my marketing team, that’s a win for me. That’s a thought leader that I want to then follow.

Kayla Kody (08:55)

Thank

100%. And as far as measuring ROI, I have a really simple rule. If I can’t bring back three things I need to go and do, then it wasn’t worth it, right? And I think a lot of times we come back with lots of ideas and lots of thought-provoking things, but what three actionable items did I come back with? And I apply that to everything. I don’t care if it’s a podcast. I don’t care what it is. Whatever I’m spending my time doing, if I can walk away with

Ilana Shabtay (09:18)

Yes.

Kayla Kody (09:42)

three things that I feel I can make better in my stores, for my people, in my process, for my guests, you name it, then I’m on the right track. And especially if that’s one thing with two subtasks or whatever it might be, it all counts towards like, how are we just getting a little bit better every single day?

Ilana Shabtay (09:51)

Yeah.

Yeah, and I think that’s actually a great tip for people. They can even potentially pitch that, right? I’m gonna go to this conference, I don’t know what the, I don’t necessarily know how to justify the cost yet, but I know I’m gonna come out with three things from the conference that I’ve learned that I wanna implement, and if I don’t, it wasn’t worth the cost and we’ve learned and we can know for next time. So I think that’s also really smart, and I think it’s a great way to motivate people to go to conference with a real purpose, which might also be sort of like the underlying challenge in some

Kayla Kody (10:26)

and

Ilana Shabtay (10:31)

of these instances, right? Like, is it the content or is it also, you know, not planning well and not figuring out how to extract things from the content? Not sure, but there’s different sides.

Kayla Kody (10:41)

Yeah. Yeah. And also know thyself,

right? Like if you don’t get as much from just listening to someone or listening to a panel or whatever it might be, then find one that has interactive workshops. Some of the things I’ve learned the most from are those interactive workshops and it just happened to be whoever was sitting next to me. Even if they didn’t agree with me and maybe rethink what how I was problem solving something or maybe they had a great tip or whatever it might be like.

Ilana Shabtay (10:55)

Yes.

Kayla Kody (11:09)

Networking doesn’t always have to be just like chatting to people. It can also be these interactive interactive workshops, which I’m a huge fan of. It’s dedicated time to sit down and think about a problem.

Ilana Shabtay (11:20)

Yeah, for sure. I also am and I think that’s also probably why we’re fans of the panels as well because it feels a little bit more interactive than a frontal presentation. Okay, this was great stuff. Before we actually sign off and again give all of this great information to our listeners, tell me a little bit and tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into automotive just so that we can get to know you Kayla a little bit.

Kayla Kody (11:42)

Yeah, so I actually came from home building. I was working for the  largest privately held home builder prior to coming to automotive. My dad owned dealerships. I was like, I’m never going to be there. Like I’m not doing that. COVID hit. And then as you can tell, I’m in a dealership now. So that kind of changed a lot for me. Yeah. But so my dad actually came from IBM into automotive. I came from home building into automotive. You I’ve got family in the business. We all think very differently.

Ilana Shabtay (11:52)

Thank you.

I love it. I love these types of stories.

Kayla Kody (12:11)

So that’s kind of our group superpower, right? It’s just thinking a little bit differently about how we do things here and always making it a little bit better. And yeah, I love it. I love it. And I don’t think I’ll ever look back.

Ilana Shabtay (12:23)

That’s great. I love that. What’s, so it’s been almost, it’s been based five years since COVID. Wow.

Kayla Kody (12:30)

Yeah, yeah, well,

I was consulting for him prior to that. And then kind of it just kept growing and growing and growing. And I kept looking at things and going, I could fix that. I could fix that. exactly.

Ilana Shabtay (12:35)

Okay.

I love that. I think that’s awesome.

And it’s really a testament also just to how your dealership operates that they’re open-minded and there’s different, it sounds like there’s tons of different opinions, perspectives, and everyone sort of like works towards getting to the best working machine for your clients, which is awesome.

Kayla Kody (12:59)

Yeah,

we made it into the top 100 last year, which was huge for us. Yeah, which was huge because we’re all in one area too. So we cannibalized some of our stores since we’re all the same OEM. So making it into that list was awesome and a big milestone for us.

Ilana Shabtay (13:02)

Congratulations.

Right.

That’s awesome. Congratulations. How many stores?

Kayla Kody (13:17)

We have three stores. have two

mid-size stores and then one small store.

Ilana Shabtay (13:24)

Wow, that’s hard. How do you deal with the cannibalization when it comes to marketing and sharing leads?

Kayla Kody (13:31)

You’re going to laugh a little bit at this, I’m like, sell the car. Like sell the car. Yes, we use radius for all of our marketing. We do all that kind of stuff. A lot of data goes into making sure that we’re not cannibalizing too much. But if the stores get into like, hey, this customer was really ours first. I’m like, just sell the car. Like I really don’t care. And everybody carries that mentality now. Yeah, they all know the mission.

Ilana Shabtay (13:40)

Thank

Yeah, I love that.

That sounds super healthy, I love it. Well, thank you so much for joining, thanks for talking content in automotive. Sounds like you have a lot more knowledge and things that we could talk about. So if there’s another hot take where I feel like we can work it out together, feel free to come back on Dealer Confidential. Thanks again, Kayla, and for those who are listening, tune in and subscribe. Dealer Confidential, you can find us on all your favorite podcast streaming. Thank you, Kayla.

Kayla Kody (13:59)

Yeah.

Thank

Thanks for having me.