Industry’s most authoritative event for innovative auto dealers expands content/format; Industry-first keynotes, 20-Group meetings and more

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – June 7, 2012 – Early-bird registration is now open for the fourth annual DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES), the most authoritative profit-building event for innovative auto dealers. This year’s summit will be held Sunday, October 21^st through Tuesday, October 23^rd, 2012 at the Bellagio Las Vegas, and expands both its content and format for 2012, while adhering to the intimate, progressive, dealer-driven focus it is renowned for. Early-bird registrants receive a 25% discount.

“Each year during the fourth quarter, we gather with the most progressive auto dealers in the country to study the innovative trends that will help them write their business plans for explosive growth the following year. The past summits have all sold out and have been beyond capacity, and this year we are set to deliver the best content ever!” said DrivingSales CEO and Founder, Jared Hamilton. “We are pleased to offer “early-bird” incentives for dealers who register quickly to ensure their participation before all the spots are spoken for.”

Sneak Preview

In addition to a full slate of best-practice content chosen by the dealer community, this year’s summit offers an expanded series of high-profile keynoters, including a keynote from a world famous data-driven sports strategist; an industry-first co-presentation from two of the largest and most influential digital companies in the world; the release of proprietary research from one of the leading marketing academics on the influence of the Internet on the auto industry, and a closing keynote from one of the world’s top five digital influencers.   

The event will also feature the popular Innovation Cup and Best Idea Award competitions, along with training and collaboration sessions led by some of the top dealership operators in the industry.

The DrivingSales Executive Summit is the only automotive conference where dealers decide the agenda, not the vendor sponsors. This translates into the highest level of learning for the dealer attendees versus other events where workshops are little more than glorified sales pitches. New this year, the DSES offers opportunities for dealers/dealer groups to hold collaborative meetings before or after the conference to bookend the summit and allow for goal-setting, debriefing, and planning.

What Dealers are Saying

DSES 2011 attendee Tracy Myers of Myers Auto said: “I went to 13 automotive conferences last year either as a speaker or a dealer and if I had to choose just one, it would be the DrivingSales Executive Summit. In my opinion, it’s leaps and bounds ahead of its closest competitor in presenting not just what’s relevant in a dealer’s world right now, but also what will be relevant in the future. DSES is THE place to be if you want to learn how to be on the cutting edge and how to stay ahead of your competition.”

Ric McCoy, General Manager of Ed Martin Buick GMC concurred: “The DrivingSales Executive Summit sets the bar as the most relevant and informative three days I spend outside of the dealership each year. If you are serious about the retail automotive business, and you have yet to attend DSES, stop what you’re doing and make your reservations right now.”

About the Summit

Launched in 2009 and modeled after the best practices and information-sharing among dealers and auto industry professionals on DrivingSales.com, the DrivingSales Executive Summit is a uniquely collaborative event that has become the auto industry’s most authoritative profit-building event for innovative dealers. Each year, the summit brings together the most progressive dealers in the country, along with world-renowned speakers, all focused on pushing the auto industry’s ‘innovation boundaries’ and translating the latest trends and business realities into solid action plans for every dealership department.

The DrivingSales Executive Summit is 100% dealer driven and designed specifically for the most advanced dealer principals and dealership executives in the industry. The exclusive event has a vendor-neutral policy, meaning no vendor influence on presentation selection and adherence to a strict dealer-to-vendor ratio.

Last year's summit was standing room only, and although DSES 2012 will allow for an expanded number of registrants, it is expected to sell out quickly. To register for the event, and take advantage of early-bird registration through August 31^st, click here.

For more information about the DrivingSales Executive Summit, visit: DrivingSalesExecutiveSummit.com or contact dses@drivingsales.com. Stay tuned for DSES news as it develops on www.twitter.com/drivingsales and on facebook.com/drivingsales. Participate in the conversation with the #DSES hashtag as preparations continue throughout the year.

About DrivingSales
Founded in 2008 and dedicated to the dealer community, DrivingSales is a business intelligence and data company that delivers unbiased*, profit-building information to make automobile dealers more successful through three distinct channels: DrivingSales Data, DrivingSales University and DrivingSales Media. DrivingSales Data houses the largest database of cross-vendor, dealership performance data in the North American auto industry and provides dealerships with the most statistically accurate performance benchmarks and metrics for their marketing and technology investments. DrivingSales University is a fully interactive online university that offers advanced profit-building strategies to automotive professionals through hundreds of classes taught by world-leading experts. DrivingSales Media connects dealers to peers and information through its global media assets, including DrivingSales.com, the world’s largest automotive social network; The Dealership Innovation Guide, an industry leading quarterly publication; DrivingSales Executive Summit, the top automotive conference for progressive dealers, and DrivingSalesTV, Web TV covering everything car-dealer related. Approximately one in every three dealerships in the United States has a registered member in the DrivingSales community.

*Vendor Neutral Policy: Dedicated solely to making dealerships more profitable, while also providing benefit to automakers and the industry as a whole, DrivingSales adheres to a strict vendor neutral policy through each of its channels. This means the company only provides unbiased information, not ‘pay-to-play’ follow up services -- and never accepts payment in exchange for media coverage or lets potential advertisers dictate messaging or create bias in any of its channels.

Media contacts:

Melanie Webber (melanie@mwebbcom.com), mWEBB Communications, (424) 603-4340

Angela Jacobson (angela@mwebbcom.com), mWEBB Communications, (714) 454-8776