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2020 AED Leadership Conference
Spread the Knowledge, Not the Virus. AED's Leadership Conference is Now Virtual!

Your leadership skills matter now more than ever. AED is setting the example of learning to lead through the crisis by addressing member concerns with our new virtual Leadership Conference taking place August 19-20. Embrace this opportunity to strengthen your and your team's leadership skills by registering for this highly regarded event.

Less Risk – More Reward  

As a way to accommodate our members' needs, the event will now be taking place from the comfort of your desk. This two-day event will feature the same quality key industry speakers, dealer education sessions, an interactive workshop, and dedicated time for collaboration.  

One Price- Unlimited Access  

Did you know you and your entire team can have full accecss to two days of professional leadership development for a flat rate of $300? With this new virtual platform, companies will now pay one set price for everyone in your dealership. You read that right, one price for your entire team.

View the event agenda below and register today!


DAY 1 - WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19

TIME (CST) SESSION
10:00 am - 11:15 am Creating a Pivot Point: Leading Through Crisis and Change
Shawn Rhodes

In the new world of remote teams, global pandemics and economic swings, one thing stays the same: the best plans never work out as planned. To address the constant challenge of managing change and ensuring our teams continue to achieve results, TEDx speaker and nationally-syndicated columnist Shawn Rhodes will share how the best leaders and teams across industries are:

  • Planning for their plans to change without sacrificing performance and profit
  • Leveraging change when it occurs in their plans as a key differentiator
  • Ensuring everyone is on the same page and executing the same mission
Sponsored by:

11:25 am - 12:25 pm Rental Strategy, Business Models, and Operations: Common Dealer Practices
Dick Stewart

The success of the people leading the rental operations of the business need a strong strategy. Do they have a strategy? Do they know what the rest of the industry is doing? In this session, we’re not talking anecdotes, we’re are revealing hard research on common practices currently utilized by Dealers in their rental strategies, business models, and operation and their correlation to rental profitability.

This session addresses the findings of AED’s first rental study. It is a A broad review of strategic choices for rentals and business model elections for both rent-to-sell and rent-to-rent models that can be made. The emphasis of this session is on the common practices of operating a rental line of business and includes key operating roles, inbound and outbound processes, and management of utilization.

From this session, attendees can expect to gather information that will enable them to benchmark their rental business to common practices revealed through the array of one-on-one Dealer interviews that were conducted during this research so rental leaders can gain the confidence they need to know how the rest of the industry is navigating the growing world of rental.

Sponsored by:


12:25 pm - 1:00 pm Lunch/Break
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm The Calling of Leadership During Unprecedented Uncertainty - Part 1 (Workshop)
Dirk Beveridge

During uncertain times leaders have a choice.  You can either hunker down and feel the fear, reacting to every change as it comes. Or you can lead.

Unprecedented times call for unprecedented leadership.  During this full-day workshop industry consultant and AED friend, Dirk Beveridge will provide his unique blend of inspiration and workable ideas that are specifically relevant to leaders in the equipment industry during uncertainty. 

He will provide a series of tools and frameworks that attendees will immediately use to center themselves and the organization to secure the present and walk through processes to identify opportunities to innovate for tomorrow.

Learning objectives include:

  • The importance of leaning into your core values
  • Understanding the needs of your people in times of uncertainty
  • How to develop clarity when all seems uncertain
  • The importance of a possibilities mindset and playing to win
  • Strategic communications strategies
Sponsored by:



DAY 2 - THURSDAY, AUGUST 20

TIME (CST) SESSION
10:00 am - 11:15 am The Brave New World of Selling
Troy Harrison

Professional selling has been changing rapidly for the last decade due to differing buying habits, technology, and other influences.  Then Covid-19 came along and put those changes on fast forward, as well as adding some new ones.  As we go forward into selling, we need to embrace new trends while combining them with time-tested fundamentals to create a strategy for future growth.  Make no mistake – winning sales, and growing, is possible coming out of Covid-19 – IF you do it right.  Right now is the time, this session will give you a four-point system for reevaluating your sales program.

Topics covered include:

  • Your processes – do your processes support the numbers you’re trying to achieve?
  • Your tech – are you using the right tech resources, in the right way?
  • Your people – do your people have the right skills and attitudes?
  • Your information – sales in today’s world is a battle of information. Are you capturing and using the right information?
And more!

Sponsored by:


11:25 am - 12:25 pm Managing Conflict
Alexis Gladstone

Conflict occurs at every level of the business. It can arise because of differences over ideas, work methods, clashes in communication styles, or competing job duties. Conflict affects employees at every level of the dealership org chart. While most people don’t like conflict, if it’s addressed constructively it doesn’t need to be seen as negative.  This session will help people understand how to work with conflict to be more successful in their day-to-day, and enable them to lead through the conflict they or their team experience.

Sponsored by:

12:25 pm - 1:00 pm Lunch/Break
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm The Calling of Leadership During Unprecedented Uncertainty - Part 2 (Workshop)
Dirk Beveridge

3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
NEW! Member Reception
Choose from three different reception rooms with three different featured topics. Meet your fellow attendees and come and go from rooms as you please!

Topic 1: Employee Engagement During COVID
Come discuss the innovative ways you've kept your employees connected to and invested in the business during challenging times.

Topic 2: Wanderlust
What's the best vacation you've ever been on? What is the first place you're going to travel to when you can travel again? Join this room and share your best travel stories.

Topic 3: Sales Success Stories/Horror Stories
Come ready to discuss how you won your biggest sale, including the challenges you faced, the tactics you used, and the reason why you finally closed the deal. Or, talk about a time when you had to fire a customer.

 *please note schedule is subject to change

Summary
Availability: Retired
Cost: Member: $300.00
Non-Member: $600.00
Contains: 7 Courses
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