Automotive Management Live 2017 – An iThink Round Up!

Today marked the second year of Automotive Management Live, a one day trade show. Attracting a bigger crowd year-on-year, this annual event moved to a new, bigger home at the Birmingham NEC.

What is Automotive Management Live?

#AM2017 is AM Online’s flagship event and features the UK’s leading professional service providers in automotive, across retail, technology, finance houses, recruitment and, of course, digital marketing. It’s mix of supplier stands, speaking sessions and roundtables.

Talks, stands and interactive games

As expected, some impressive stands were on display with some great interactive experimental games to get involved with. The best of these being two Scalextric tracks (where I finished bottom on both) and also a really cool golf simulator, hosted by the Pro Golfer @JoeMillerLDC.

Of all the sessions, GDPR dominated with the highest footfall of the day. Every event has a buzzword – “content is king”, “Robots are coming” etc. For AMLIVE2017, it was definitely GDPR.

The other talks centred around how to get more leads, conversions and how to increase performance online. Buying behaviour is changing very quickly in the automotive sector, quicker perhaps than some dealerships can adapt to online, so it’s good to see talks around this.

Mental health awareness in the automotive industry

It was great to learn more about BEN who had a stand at the event. BEN is a registered charity that exists to provide support to people that work within or surrounding the Automotive Industry.

As we move (very slowly) as a nation to more open dialogue about Mental Illness, it’s great to see a really great service like this getting more exposure. Hopefully more people will start a discussion as a result. It is definitely good to talk.

We already can’t wait for the 2018 event, with plans for next year’s Automotive Management Live are even bigger. The show is moving to another hall within the NEC to ensure enough room for more attendees and stands.