The 2011 Commercial Vehicle Solutions Network’s Aftermarket Distribution Summit kicked off this week with a keynote address by Robert Ehrlich, former governor and congressman from Maryland, who talked about what he called the fluid nature of the U.S. political environment in the last decade. “There were rapid philosophical changes that lead to short-term policy changes,” Ehrlich said. “Today, communication is fast, and realignments are brief.”
He spoke about the work of the Super Committee and answered attendees’ questions about term limits, balancing the budget and corporate income tax cuts. Following Ehrlich’s remarks, Tom Stewart presented the fourth annual CVSN President’s Award to Karmak’s Richard Schien “to acknowledge a distinct level of dedication, leadership and achievement over the span of a career in the automotive-heavy duty aftermarket industry.” In speaking about Schien, Stewart said, “If you work in our industry and conduct any of your business using computer software, chances are you have Richard Schien to thank for that.”
In the first educational session of the meeting, Tom Kotenko of Nexiq Technologies, Dave Constantino of Mitchell 1 and Christopher Edd of Motor Information Systems talked about the technology available to assist in repairing vehicles. Jim Camp, developer of Coach2100 Inc., shared his experience as a coach trainer on a negotiation strategy that has worked for many of his clients, including Motorola, Texas Instruments, Merrill Lynch and IBM. Bert Mayo, vice presidentof senior loss control consultant for The Lockton Companies, gave meeting attendees an update on Compliance Safety Accountability.
