MRAA beefs up sessions at Vegas conference
Dealers will get to hear and question CEOs of leading companies at final-day ‘Industry Giants’ panel
By Beth Rosenberg / Staff Writer
b.rosenberg@tradeonlytoday.com
An expanded number of sessions with
industry experts is scheduled for this
year’s Marine Dealer Conference & Expo,
which organizers say is designed to give
attendees the tools they need for success.
“[Attendees] wanted to have more stuff
they could use as takeaways,” says Phil
Keeter, president of the Marine Retailers
Association of America. “I think, all in all,
what they are going to have is quite a bit
in the way of educational opportunities.”
The event, which runs Nov. 17-19 at
the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas,
features 10 sessions on topics ranging
from “keys to small business success”
to “value-based selling” to “service
department best practices.”
An “Industry Giants” forum on the
final day of the conference features such
notable marine industry leaders as Dus-
tan McCoy from Brunswick, Irwin Jacobs from Genmar, MasterCraft’s John
Dorton, Roch Lambert from BRP, Yamaha’s Phil Dyskow, Kevin Riem of Crownline and Paxon St. Clair of Cobalt.
There will be a dealer solutions panel
discussion, which will be an in-depth
best-practices session, according to organizers, in addition to a “Learning to
Thrive” session featuring tips from dealers in the “Top 100” dealer program
sponsored by Boating Industry magazine.
“We’ve made a sincere effort to give
[attendees] as much [of an] educational
component as we can possibly give
them, because we know how tough
times are, we know how difficult it is
for them to stay afloat,” Keeter says.
“This isn’t just fluff, we’re not just having a bunch of motivational people.
We’re trying to have some really serious discussion here.”
Last year, about 400 people attended
the conference, and Keeter is hopeful
that number will stay the same or grow
this year. He adds there are some companies that are bringing large numbers
of their sales staff and holding their
own company meetings in addition to
attending the conference.
“We expect a better turnout. We
have more people involved in the planning of the conference, and they’re
working very hard at getting the word
out,” says Robert Soucy, chairman of
the MRAA.
“We’re trying to have
some really serious
discussion here.”
— Phil Keeter, president of the Marine
Retailers Association of America.
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“This is where they need to go to get
the information they need to survive.
That’s the theme of our conference this
year, and all of the topics are going to be
focused around issues that will help dealers do better [at] what they do,” he says.
In addition to the educational sessions, there is space for 55 to 60 tabletop exhibits by industry providers to
network with dealers.
Also, awards such as the Darlene
Briggs Marine Woman of the Year will
be handed out, in addition to cocktail
receptions and a Top 100 Dealers Gala,
which is an invitation-only event.
Here is a list of scheduled educational
sessions:
• Karin Iwata, E-Myth Worldwide:
“Keys to Small Business Success.”
• John Spader, Spader Business Management: “Survival Mode.”
• Liz Walz, Boating Industry magazine:
“Learning to Thrive.”
• Bob Williams, Five Star Solutions:
“Service Department Best Practices.”
• John Lane, JL Solutions: “Value-Based
Selling.”
• Steven Ramel, GE Capital Solutions:
“Economic Landscape.”
• David Parker, Parker Business Planning: “Strategic Profit Planning.”
• Wanda Kenton Smith, Marine Marketers of America: “Today’s Top Marketing Strategies.”
For information, or to register, visit
www.MRAA.com. n
