What a difference three years makes! It was only three years ago that I went to my first NADA Convention as Publisher & Editor (and founder) of this magazine. Going to Dallas just after our second issue (published regionally at the time), I was filled with excitement and anticipation. Sure, I had been to big conventions before, but not to conventions where I knew practically nobody. Except for our few initial advertisers, editorial contributors and a few dealers who recognized me from my publisher's notes photo (sporting a cigar as my second child had just been born), I was a stranger in a strange land.
Automobile Dealer magazine's presence at the convention consisted of me walking briskly through the exhibition aisles trying to look (and feel) like I had something important to do (I walked every aisle three to four times). Evenings were spent going to the parties, walking in backwards so the gatekeepers would think I was leaving (having never worked in the magazine, journalism or publishing business before, I didn't know my "press" badge would get me in practically anywhere).
Three years later, we have a 400 square foot booth in New Orleans with a dealer-sponsored race truck on display. We will continually have two to three of our industry expert writers at our booth (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) at scheduled times. We will have ongoing demonstrations of our Internet Directory of dealership vendors and suppliers. We will have four salespeople talking to our advertisers and prospective advertisers. We will be giving away a $2,200 3-day high performance driving school from Fast Track, as well as $1,998 worth of Exxon gas cards.
What a difference three years makes. But some things remain unchanged. We had Darrell Waltrip as our Cover Story Dealer then and we cover Retail & Racing every issue now. Jim Ziegler wrote his first piece for us then and mans our Dealer Advocate column now. We had some of the industry's top experts and consultants sharing their knowledge and expertise then, same thing now (just more of them).
So, if you see me walking briskly through the exhibition aisles, stop me to say, "Hi". I've got something important to do communicating with you America's Automobile Dealers.