With less than a year to go until the 28th edition of Autopromotec, the specialised international exhibition of automotive equipment and aftermarket products, taking place from 22nd to 26th May 2019 at the Bologna Exhibition Centre, organisers gathered representatives of institutions, universities and car, components and equipment manufacturers for the second edition of Autopromotec Conference – State of the Industry 2018.
The Autopromotec Conference aimed at outlining the future reality that the automotive aftermarket will have to face in light of the new needs of mobility, the evolution of online life, technology and, more generally, the irreversible paradigms of the future that will also involve the car sector, in all its facets.
“We are not going through a change but a metamorphosis,” explained the sociologist Francesco Morace, Professor of Social Innovation at the Polytechnic of Milan and President of Future Concept Lab. “This is not an era of change but a change of era,” he added.
Autopromotec Conference 2018 provided interesting insights, debunking some false myths about the impact that future mobility will have on the automotive after-sales market and restoring optimism to the world of car repair. Electric vehicles and shared mobility will change and reduce the vehicles on the roads, cars will be safer and more complex, and they will generally have fewer components due to electrification. Nonetheless, assistance will continue to exist, even if it will be very different from what it was until yesterday, creating services that were not even thought of in the recent past.
An example above all, the increasing presence of ADAS systems, which require calibration after each intervention and therefore specialised operators. These are activities that were unknown until yesterday but that will increasingly represent a great business opportunity. Various aspects to the work of the car mechanic will continue to exist, but with different rules that the market will have to adapt to. Of course, in the end it is not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the most open to change.
Here there is another recurring concept of Autopromotec Conference 2018: disruption, i.e. revolution created by digitisation. Those in the industry need to know how to break with the past, to be able to interpret the new needs of the customer, acting with much shorter response times, staying constantly updated and using the internet to bring the workshop and its services directly to the customer. The workshops will therefore have to communicate better and develop websites and effective social channels, as now demanded by consumers.
Sharing was another concept that often came up during Autopromotec Conference 2018. Beyond sharing mobility, which is taking place globally, especially among millennials, the after-sales world must share strategies and all the actors involved (institutions, schools and companies) must play as a team to create those powerful training supports necessary to educate professionals able to deal with the new market, without being overwhelmed by the change.
“The messages that we wanted to launch during the two days of Autopromotec Conference are that the future is now, and it requires sharing. This is a disruptive moment that requires quick decisions,” says Renzo Servadei, Autopromotec CEO. “We must not be afraid of the future, because while there are so many things that we will probably not do any more, there are also many new services to be offered to the customer. We must be able to create a system, explaining that humanity remains at the centre of our analysis: if we are able to do this, the value will grow,” he added.
“It is in light of what emerged during Autopromotec Conference 2018 that the trade show has been confirmed as an ideal stage for the after-sale world,” continued Renzo Servadei. “On the one hand, Autopromotec offers a unique opportunity to learn about the products and services that support the workshop during this epochal leap, while on the other it offers itself as an exclusive event for increasing knowledge and technical skills related to new trends, a chance for professionals to work together to transform the challenges that the market presents into renewed opportunities for the sector. Last but not least, the events of AutopromotecEDU, our arena for learning more about regulations, new technologies, as well as new marketing and communication tools available to the aftermarket, which with its conferences, represents the natural continuity of what was discussed at the Autopromotec Conference,” concluded Renzo.
