More than 1,000 technicians, managers, and shop owners participated in the 41 technical and five management courses during the event, said ASA-MO/KAN Executive Director Sheri Hamilton. On Friday evening and Saturday, they and other attendees were also able to view the offerings of 102 companies in the trade show, which covered more than 45,000 square feet of trade show space.
On Saturday morning, hundreds of attendees gathered for breakfast and to hear Keynote Speaker John Foppe, who was born with no arms, discuss the importance of overcoming adversity.
"There really are no unsolvable problems," Foppe said. "There are only problems that haven't been solved yet."
Foppe said that as a child with no arms growing up in a large family in a small town, he learned how to manipulate other people into doing things for him, which resulted in his not learning to be self-sufficient. "I had the ultimate excuse," he said. "Whatever I didn't want to do, I got someone else to do, and they didn't ask any questions."
That stopped at the age of 10 when his parents realized that if he did not learn to be self-sufficient, he would never have a full life of his own, and they ordered his brothers not to help him with even basic tasks, such as putting on his clothes.
Foppe impressed the crowd with all that he had been able to teach himself since, from learning to dress himself to being able to open a can of soda, pour it into a glass, and drink it, using only his feet. He said he is also able to drive a car using one foot to steer and the other to work the pedals.
"You have to learn to adapt to adversity to move through life," Foppe said. "That's what life is all about."
While his own challenges were clear enough, Foppe said they illustrate the challenges faced by everyone every day. "You may have a perception that your job is overwhelming," he said, noting that such a perception can put you on a path to believing that you can't do things and you can't change.
Foppe said the truly great thing about human beings is their ability to overcome adversity. "You have to ask yourself if you care enough about yourself to change," he said. "In order to change, we have to look at things that we don't want to look at and talk about things that we don't want to talk about. It takes a commitment to be the person that you want to be."
On the way out of the hall where the keynote was held, we heard a number of people talking about how Foppe focused them on the importance of the training they were about to receive. "That was quite a talk," one attendee said. "They don't have to kick us in the ass after that. We'll do it ourselves."
On Saturday evening, ASA-MO/KAN recognized five of its member shops as Green Star Service Facilities. Shops receiving the award incorporate environmentally friendly practices, such as storing antifreeze, oil, and other fluids in environmentally sound containers and having them disposed of properly; recycling scrap metal and other materials; ensuring that oil filters are drained, drilled, or crushed to remove excess oil; and otherwise behaving in an environmentally responsible manner.
Nineteen shops have been recognized by ASA in the past, and this year's honorees were All Star Automotive in Columbia, Mo., Copeland's Automotive in Boonville, Mo., Bret's Autoworks in Olathe, Kan., Hart's Auto Repair in Liberty, Mo., and Graham Automotive in Springfield, Mo.
All Star was also recognized as ASA-MO/KAN's Facility of the Year.
Four students enrolled in local vocational technical programs or colleges with the intention of working in the
automotive repair industry were awarded $750 scholarships. The students were Christopher Miller, Keith Carswell, Tam Nguyen, and Jonathan Tuttle.
The Saturday evening awards dinner was followed by a casino night, where attendees had a chance to win numerous prizes.
Bill Haas, ASA vice president of Education and Training, was the Saturday morning keynote speaker and discussed what is next for vehicle technology. He noted that the ultra-exclusive Mercedes SLR Coupe has 230 control modules. "Instruments and technology used in these types of cars normally trickle down to regular passenger cars."
Another car that being built that features cutting-edge technology is a Bugatti that features an air brake. At speeds above 120 MPH, when the vehicle brakes, the rear air spoiler snaps to a 70-degree angle, which helps the car brake from 250 MPH to zero in 10 seconds.
Even standard passenger cars being built today have advanced features such as electronic stability control, parking assist, and adaptive cruise control, Hass said.
"The cars that you are working on in your shops today, approximately 15 percent of the systems are electronically controlled," Haas said. "The cars that are being built today are 40 to 50 percent electronically controlled."
Haas went on to describe a range of technologies that are being presented in concept vehicles, including hydrogen power, advanced hybrid technology, clean diesel engines, alcohol-detection systems, and many others.
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