Big Draw! INDUSTRY EVENT
First CCIF meeting of 2017 shatters attendance records
“T
here’s no other industry developing strategic studies for OEMs, parts that’s as flexible, that would manufacturers and aftermarket distributors. actually get together in a During his presentation, he outlined what he room like this to discuss these issues.” With saw as potential disruptors to the industry, those words, Chairman Joe Carvalho brought the latest meeting of the Canadian Collision Industry Forum (CCIF) to a close. Over 740 industry stakeholders packed Universal Event Space in Vaughan, Ontario over two days for the first CCIF meeting of 2017. The event officially started with the opening of the Cars & Technology Showcase on the evening of January 26. Patrice Marcil of Axalta served as moderator for the panel The Showcase featured some of the latest discussion on training. technological advancements in terms of both the cars themselves and the tools needed to repair them. The meeting portion of CCIF began on January 27 with opening remarks by Carvalho and Brigitte Pesant, CCIF Administrator for AIA Canada. Carvalho and Pesant also took a few moments to thank Koos Reieneking of AkzoNobel Brigitte Pesant, CCIF Administrator, and Joe Carvalho, CCIF and present him with an award for his Chairman (right) present an award to Koos Reineking of AkzoNobel for his service on the CCIF Steering Committee. service on the CCIF Steering Committee. The presentations got rolling with Annab elle C or mack of C or mack Recruitment, speaking on “Recruitment: Bumper to Bumper.” Cormack gave a brief background on her experience as a recruiter, noting that she has been heavily involved in the automotive business in the past year, working closely with stakeholders to understand the specific issues impacting recruitment for Sinh Quan and Michel Gagnon of Mitchell. automotive repair. Her presentation provided best practices sorting them into “hard” and “soft” categories. and tactics for recruitment and looked at Chief among the “hard” disruptors, in ways the industry can promote existing King’s view, is the coming era of autonomous career options. vehicles. He warned that they will lead Andrew King of DesRosiers Automotive to massive issues for both insurance and Consulting followed Cormack, providing a regulation. top-level view of the Canadian automotive “The technology is there, it can happen,” landscape. King’s presentation drew heavily he said. “When it does happen, you will see on his extensive experience researching accident rates fall. It is going to shake up the the auto industry and his current work on industry, tear it up.”
60 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com
By Mike Davey
The first panel discussion of the day followed a short networking break. Conducted by Patrice Marcil, North American Learning & Development Director for Axalta Coating Systems, the panel focused on the “Collision Industry-Education Connection” with representatives of technical colleges from across Canada serving as panelists. For more on this, please see “State of Training” on page 61. The training panel was followed by Andrew Shepherd of I-CAR Canada, who outlined some of the improvements to continuous training that are being rolled out now and in the near future. Shepherd provided an overview of the current status of Gold Class shops across Canada, noting that the program had been modified in recent years, meaning many formerly Gold Class shops needed more training to receive the designation. This training is still underway. Ontario currently has the most Gold Class shops at 17 across the province. The numbers for all provinces will likely increase in the near future. I-CAR will also be rolling out a number of shorter courses soon, according to Shepherd. “These are one and two-hour packages that will allow you, as a manager, to target gaps that you need to fill,” he said, also noting that we can expect to see more OEM specific courses as well. “We’ve released a few already and there’s about 20 more in the pipeline. You can probably expect about 10 of these every year going forward,” said Shepherd. A short lunch break was followed by a panel discussion led by Mike Anderson of Collision Advice. Anderson’s high energy levels kept the crowd’s attention focused on one of his favour topics: scanning and calibration. This is one of the biggest issues in the sector currently, and it’s fitting that it was discussed by a big panel. The discussion naturally