Going to Dallas? That must mean you’re heading to the automotive industry’s premiere event, NADA, January 26-29, 2023. You’ve likely registered for your badge, booked your flight, and secured your hotel room, but may not be sure how to make the most of your time at the show. Fortunately, you’re in luck. The team at STELLA has some great tips for this year’s attendees.
Downlaod the NADA Mobile App.
With over 80 educational workshop sessions, five keynote sessions and more than five hundred exhibitors, you’re going to need the mobile app to help you keep track of it all. You can bookmark workshops that you’d like to attend, and even reach out to partners, like STELLA, that you’d like to meet with while you’re there. It’s free and easy to download!
Block out time for the NADA 2023 keynote sessions. NADA has a great variety of main stage speakers and distinguished speaker series leaders this year- from Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders to former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. The first two days of the NADA Expo, Friday and Saturday, each have their main stage session in the afternoon, from 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm CST. Since Sunday is a shorter day for the conference and expo, the main stage speaker’s inspirational session is from 9:00am - 10:00am CST. You won’t want to miss any of these speakers, so be sure to schedule appointments around them in your mobile app.
Pre-schedule your meetings with exhibitors. Whether it’s grabbing a cup of coffee, stopping by a booth on the show floor, or grabbing a meal, every meeting at NADA is easier when it’s prescheduled. The show is a marathon, not a sprint, and, unless you enjoy waiting in lines for four days nonstop, you’ll want to make sure you set up specific times for any company you’d like to meet. This goes for OEMs, vendors, or even the National Automobile Dealers Association staff! During the expo hours, this not only helps exhibitors honor your time, but also to adjust booth staffing needs accordingly. Several of the OEMs have booths on site this year. It’s easy to schedule NADA exhibitor appointments directly in the mobile app or on the exhibitor’s website.
Wear comfortable shoes and keep your appointments. This goes hand in hand with #3. As mentioned previously, the show is a marathon with exhibitors spread over 600,000 square feet of the Kay Hutchinson Bailey Convention Center. It’s going to take some time to get from Hall A to Hall F, so plan accordingly. It might help to take a look at the NADA Expo Floor Plan in advance and see if you can schedule appointments in the same hall back to back. While it’s great to get your 20,000+ steps in each day during NADA, it wastes a lot of your time constantly going back and forth between the various halls. Be sure to find out where your OEMs are prior to attending the show in person, as they’re spread out across the entire convention center. Ford Motor Company, for example, is in Hall A, while Stellantis is in Hall F. Knowing this ahead of time will help keep frustration to a minimum on site. Give yourself some grace time to get from one meeting to the next so that you can better honor the times you’ve set with them. If you do need to reschedule a meeting, be sure you have a cell phone number to call to do so. You’ll find that most, if not all, exhibitors will be very understanding if you should need to reschedule- especially when given a heads up.
Have Fun! NADA is a fantastic time to network and learn from other dealers and technology partners. Take advantage of the lunches, dinners, happy hours, and parties to make new connections in the automotive industry. There’s just as much business done off the show floor as on it at NADA.
Whether you’re going to NADA’s opening night Roundup at Gilley’s, or stopping by Booth# 6047 for a glass of Stella Artois beer from STELLA, take some time to have fun!
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