May 10, 2011 — A group of current and former U.S. fighter pilots from an organization called Afterburner Inc. will speak during the Society of Collision Repair Specialists’ (SCRS) Repairer Driven Education (RDE) series at this year's SEMA Show.
The group, led by former U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet instructor and TOPGUN graduate Patrick “Lips” Houlahan, will discuss how to succeed in fast-changing and sometimes hostile environments, according to a news release_notes from SCRS. The presentation is meant to inspire attendees to achieve forward-looking mission-oriented goals.
“SCRS certainly is in touch with the fact that many in our membership base are overwhelmed by the pressures our industry faces today, more than ever in the past," said SCRS Executive Director Aaron Schulenburg. “Shops today are forced to make decisions on a daily basis that impact both their shop and their market; and frankly, many of them feel the fatigue of fighting for their businesses on a daily basis. We wanted to bring in a speaker who we felt could help, could relate to that environment, and who could bring tangible guidance to the shops in a way that would both engage and entertain our audience, while giving them tools and knowledge they can implement in their business as soon as they return home from the show.”
Afterburner’s speakers have trained more than 1.5 million managers and executives from big-name companies including Verizon, ExxonMobil and H&R Block. They use a model called Flawless Execution, which teaches attendees how to plan, brief, execute and debrief to succeed.
The headline presentation is new for SCRS and planned in addition to an expanded RDE curriculum that will span all four days of SEMA Show, scheduled Nov. 1-4 in Las Vegas. Last year was the first year RDE was offered.
"The positive response we received from our attendees, speakers and SEMA Show management regarding our RDE series were very gratifying for our group," said SCRS Chairman Aaron Clark. "We were excited to have delivered what was perceived as a tremendous program for the industry in our inaugural year, and have worked hard since to harness the lessons we learned from the event to further amplify the program and offerings for 2011."
For more information on SEMA Show or SCRS, go to SEMAshow.com or SCRS.com.
