While both events will maintain their individual identities, the combined event is now being referred to as Automotive Service & Repair Week (ASRW).  Pyle said that much as NACE has opened its format in recent years to accommodate other collision industry groups, the broader format of ASRW offers the repair industry, collision and mechanical, a venue that may eventually be joined by other industry groups and segments to create a more all-encompassing event. 

 
"We really hope to design this to be friendly to repairers of all kinds," Pyle said.  "We've got room for them, and they can continue to own their own events."

While CARS attendees will benefit from a larger and more modern venue, Pyle said he believes that it will probably be the collision repairers that will gain the most initially.  "I think the NACE attendees will probably benefit the most," he said.  "There are many collision repair shops that are doing more mechanical repair and working with more electronics than ever before.
"I think that many of them will gravitate to the CARS exhibit area to look at scanners and other tools that will be on display there," he said.

Pyle said the two shows will be adjacent but will each have separate entrances and will have unique signage and color schemes to differentiate them.  Once on the show floors, he said, attendees will be easily able to cross between the two exhibit areas.  He said the number of exhibits at NACE appears to be on par with recent years, while CARS exhibits will grow because they have had limited space for the last several years.

While the fact is not being heavily promoted, he said, attendees who purchase a congress package for either event will be welcome at the training classes of the other.  For instance, he said, a collision repair technician might see a benefit in attending one of the computerized diagnostics classes offered at CARS. 

Pyle said NACE will offer more than 55 training sessions, while CARS will offer more than 35.  Registration and training information for NACE is available at www.NACEexpo.com, and information for CARS is available at www.CARSevent.com.

The two events will also share an Opening General Session, which will this year feature All-American quarterback and NFL MVP Archie Manning, whose sons, Peyton and Eli, now lead NFL teams.  Pyle said that while NACE attendees have enjoyed speakers of Manning's caliber for many years, it will be a new benefit for CARS attendees.

The CARS event draws about 1,000 people to its receptions and about 600 to its training, Pyle said, while NACE attracts more than 20,000 attendees each year.

The NACE show has gradually contracted from a peak of around 40,000 in the late '90s to 22,000 to 24,000 over the last couple of years, Pyle said.  "What we have noticed, however, is that the people who are coming are buyers -- they're quality shops," he said.  "This is still very much a show where people are selling right off of the floor."

Pyle said he believes that the attendance is very much a reflection of the consolidation that has occurred in the industry over the past decade.  "It's a direct relationship to the number of players who are healthy and active," he said.  "It's really a very good cross-section of the industry.  I wouldn't say that we are satisfied -- we would always like the show to be bigger -- but we are realistic."

Pyle said he believes the current state of the economy and the industry is exactly why people should be attending NACE and CARS this year.

"People who are struggling with their business model need to come to NACE or CARS and consider their options and take advantage of all of this training," he said.

Among the topics that NACE attendees are expected to focus on this years are lean processes, waterborne paint, and new federal regulations, especially the new "National Paint Rule."

Pyle said ASA has been working with Mitchell 1 to develop a new member benefit for mechanical repair shops that will be launched at CARS.  It is a program that uses aggregated data that Mitchell 1 has been collecting for years to create a market snapshot of a shop owner's local area that he can then compare his own numbers to as a way to measure his shop's performance.

The feature will be free to ASA members and will give them the option of purchasing more information or analysis.  "I think it's going to be one of the highlights of the CARS event," he said.