Jan. 12, 2010, PALM SPRINGS, CALIF.—In the wake of ASRW's announcement that NACE will move to Orlando, Fla., the National Auto Body Council (NABC) voted Wednesday to follow the Collision Industry Conference's (CIC) decision to hold their fall meeting at SEMA in November.
"If CIC goes to SEMA, we'll tag along," said Chuck Sulkala, executive director of the NABC, before the CIC vote. CIC members voted Thursday to hold their meeting at SEMA rather than NACE in October. The vote was 99 for SEMA, 98 for NACE.
The NABC decision, by voice vote at its board meeting during a week of collision industry meetings in Palm Springs, Calif., came after a lively discussion among board members and industry stakeholders about the best location for attracting people to the council's board meetings. Participants expressed concern over stakeholders having to travel twice in one month if they want to attend NACE and SEMA, and how the NABC board meeting location could affect people's travel plans.
Collision industry associations typically organize their meetings to all be held during the same week in the same city, so industry stakeholders can attend several meetings on one trip. From 2004 to 2009, NACE co-located with SEMA in Las Vegas, so industry associations held their meetings during that week.
In 2010, NACE made the controversial decision to break with SEMA and hold its expo three weeks earlier in Las Vegas. Most collision repair industry associations, including NABC and CIC, the largest, held their meetings during SEMA that year. NACE's attendance was down by a quarter in 2010.
NACE announced last week that it would move to Orlando in 2011 and rotate throughout the country in following years, a strategy it followed before it started co-locating with SEMA in 2004.
"For 25 years the show rotated around the country," said Ron Pyle, president of the ASA. "We have to return to our roots."
