The annual I-CAR Fest in Texas will move to a new location this year, but the event will still feature its usual slate of educational sessions — which now includes even more classes for Spanish-speaking technicians.
The one-day event will be held March 29 at the Fort Worth Convention Center. Classes will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., while the vendor expo will run from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Admission to the expo is free, but there is a $6 parking fee at the garage.
I-CAR Fest, which is sponsored by the Fort Worth I-CAR Volunteer Committee, was previously held in Arlington, Texas. The organization was unable to lock down a date at that city's convention center for 2008, but may return there for future events.
This year, the event includes 24 I-CAR training classes at a special rate of $75 per class. Each four-hour class equals one Gold Class Point.
"Last year we taught 498 class units in one day," says David Gauthier, the Fort Worth committee chair who organizes the event. "We had eight different insurance companies and about 76 repair facilities. We're hoping to exceed that this year."
New this year is an expanded slate of Spanish-language courses, including Refinish Equipment & VOC Regulations (REF01), Surface Preparation & Masking (REF02), Steel Unitized Structures Technologies and Repair (SPS07), and Steel Full-Frame Technologies and Repair (SPS08).
"We added those classes because of the demographics of the Fort Worth area," Gauthier says. "We have a lot of Spanish-speaking technicians doing collision repair, as well as refinish. We're trying to build on that."
There also will be at least one course offered on electric hybrid vehicles.
This year's exhibitors include CCC Information Services, LKQ, Akzo Nobel, DuPont, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Mitchell International, Hertz, 3M and the Texas Motor Speedway. There are typically around 50 exhibitors at the event, which draws attendees from the Dallas-Fort Worth region, as well as Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
For the second consecutive year, I-CAR Fest also will include a job fair to help match technicians from local technical schools with prospective employers in the collision industry. "We're working with the technical schools to promote the event for their students," Gauthier says.
So far, the job fair includes Caliber Collision Centers (which operates multiple locations in Texas and California), Craig's Collision Centers (Dallas/Fort Worth), Don Davis Body Shop (part of the Don Davis Auto Group in Arlington), Five Star Ford, Service King Collision Repair Center (Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston), and State Farm Insurance, with more companies to be added later. Texas State Technical College is also an exhibitor.
There will not be a welding certification course this year, however, because the convention center doesn't have the proper exhaust systems in place to accommodate welding. "We may bring that back next year once we get familiar with this location, or move back to Arlington," Gauthier says.
For more information, visit I-CAR's Web site at www.i-car.com, or contact Gauthier at [email protected].
