Join us for an incredible experience at the upcoming 3k charity run to support a not-for-profit. Lace up your running shoes and get ready to make a difference. Feel free to run, jog or walk, Wednesday, September 20 at 7:00 a.m. as we take you through the beautiful boardwalk of Virginia Beach with incredible sights. Whether you’re an avid runner or just looking for a fun way to give back, we welcome all participants.

Come for a preview of the fantastic Auto Glass Week™ ahead. You’ll learn what’s new and what not to miss. Stay for the presentation of the industry’s highest honor—The Carl F. Tompkins Award for Service to the Auto Glass Industry.

Faculty: Mike Schenian, president of the Auto Glass Safety Council and CEO of City Auto Glass in Minnesota, and Debra Levy, chair of the Auto Glass Safety Council and publisher of AGRR™ magazine.

“By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.”
—Eliezer Yudkowsky

Imagine a world in which a driverless car is hit by a vehicle with a human driver. A first notice of loss is immediately sent to the insurance company, which photographs, assesses glass damage, and issues a damage estimate. It may even book the job directly, as TPAs are a thing of the past. And that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. AI is poised to change the automotive, glass, and insurance industries as much, if not more, than the smartphone did. Learn what is coming and where we are going from an expert entrenched in all these industries.

Faculty: Todd Ackerman, CEO of Neural Claim System, an international Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning company that provides damage verification and categorization of auto glass losses simplifying the glass claim and repair process.

What do the vehicles of the future look like? Will they be glass-enclosed snow globes or glassless pods? How will the size, shape, and thickness of glass evolve? Will there be more (or less) cameras to recalibrate? How can you prepare your company for the coming changes?

Faculty: Dean Bruce, Performance Improvement Manager at Ford Motor Company. Bruce has worked at Ford for over 31 years, most recently as Collision Marketing Manager.

Born with a Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect for which he required two open-heart operations before age one, Shaun White is regarded as one of the greatest action sports athletes of all time.

A five-time Olympian, White won gold medals in the half-pipe event in 2006, 2010, and 2018. He is one of the most decorated athletes in X Games history, becoming the first athlete to compete in both the Winter and Summer games and has won 15 gold medals, an all-time X Games record. White announced his retirement from the sport of snowboarding prior to competing in the 2022 Beijing Winter games, his fifth and final Olympics.

Born in San Diego, California, Shaun turned professional at the age of 13. At 7, White signed his first sponsorship deal with Burton Snowboards.

White has been named among Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s 100 Most Powerful and Marketable Athletes, Forbes’ Most Valuable Sports Brands and 30 Under 30, among others. He has won 11 ESPY Awards throughout his career.

White has directed the Air + Style festival of music and snowboarding since 2014, when he took ownership and moved it from Austria to Los Angeles.

White is an advocate for children battling illness and is an active supporter of St. Jude’s Children’s Research Center, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and Make-A-Wish Foundation.

In January 2022, White announced the launch of his own active lifestyle brand called Whitespace. The company celebrated the launch with 50 limited edition signed snowboards, which sold out in minutes. In October 2022, a full-range line of outerwear, snowboard hard-goods, athletic equipment and streetwear apparel were released. For more, visit www.whitespacesnow.com.

Can you imagine a day when TPAs disappeared, victims of the next best technology? Or when the insurance company tells you if the windshield can be repaired by looking at a picture? In addition to technology, insurance companies are also adapting to their changing customers. This session is an overview of where auto insurance companies are going on several levels—technological, marketing, regulatory, and more. Will glass damage still be an insured event or go the way of tire repairs? If you want your company to be prepared for the future, you won’t want to miss this session.

Faculty: Pat Sullivan, senior editor and conference co-chair at Risk Information Inc.

Ah, the roundtable—a place where learned knights would meet to solve problems, seek and receive counsel and draw motivation and strength from each other. Not much has changed since medieval times, as Auto Glass Week™ roundtables are an excellent opportunity to meet and discuss issues with others who know exactly how you feel and what you go through. Get new ideas, learn how others do things, and form lifelong relationships in these popular roundtables. There will be a topic for everyone.

Faculty: A distinguished group of industry facilitators.

Please note this session will be held in the Learning Lab in Halls A-D and is open to all full and partial attendees.

Hidden fees, unfair chargebacks, and new hardware requirements are just a few reasons you fight with your credit card processor. It doesn’t have to be that way. Keith Sweeney of the 100Group will explain how to avoid conflict and get the most from your credit card processor.

Faculty: Keith Sweeney is the director of inside sales for the 100Group. Previously, he spent six years as the business development manager at Vonnage.

Please note this session will be held in the Learning Lab in Halls A-D and is open to all full and partial attendees.

This session will provide an overview of critical economic data, market indicators, and insights relevant to the auto glass industry. It will cover all aspects, including supply, demand, OEM, replacement, repair, and calibration.

Faculty: Nick St. Denis is the director of research for Key Media & Research (KMR), a leading information provider to the automotive glass and film industries. Having covered these markets for the past decade as an editor of several KMR magazines and most recently leading the research division, Nick works closely with businesses to conduct custom research projects. He holds a master’s degree in survey research and data analysis from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.

Providing calibration services involves several critical decisions, including your business model and the type of equipment you use. This panel will take you through the factors to evaluate when choosing to bring calibration services in-house or not. Then the panelists will provide an overview of the available equipment and their capabilities, followed by a question and answer section. You’ll also hear from shop owners who have chosen their strategy and equipment and the factors they used to make their choices.

Moderator: Jacques Navant, chair of the AGSC Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) Committee and technical director of Don’s Mobile Glass.

Faculty: A panel of subject-matter experts, including Josh McFarlin, president and chief operations officer at AirPro Diagnostics, Chris Chesney, vice president of training and organizational development for Repairify/asTech, Chris Sobieski, North American special projects manager at Snap-on Equipment, Peter Brown, president of Tiny and Sons and vice president of the Auto Glass Safety Council™ and representatives from Autel, Launch Tech USA, and TOPDON USA Inc.

The auto glass repair and replacement industry is in the midst of extensive change and rapid consolidation. Roll-ups and new companies with national footprints are vying for dominance. A number of the top ten companies in the U.S. didn’t exist even a few years ago. Collision repair chains have added glass as a major focus and are now firmly entrenched in the AGRR industry. This presentation will help you understand this changing dynamic –by hearing directly from the C Suite that runs them.

Most new vehicles now require recalibration after glass work; companies doing recalibration must understand the critical steps necessary to achieve an OEM-centric calibration and to ensure vehicles are repaired correctly. This presentation explains the most popular types of calibration and when and how to calibrate based on OEM procedures. Proper set-up of the calibration environment will also be discussed.

Faculty: Greg has extensive experience in strategic planning, business development, competitive market share expansion, and operations management. His experience includes working at ABRA Auto Body & Glass for more than 11 years. During his time there, he worked as a district manager, market vice president, regional vice president and vice president. He has dedicated his career to the collision repair industry, specifically focused on vehicle safety systems.

Collecting accurate payment for the work we do as auto glass companies can be the most complicated part of the process.  The more complex and involved the process becomes, the harder the administrative requirements are—and the more difficult it is to get paid.

The new claims environment has shifted. Today, multiple parties within an insurance carrier can be involved. In addition, outsourced vendors retained by insurers can complicate the process with various communication barriers. Sometimes the hardest part of any repair is just knowing where to send the final invoices and who makes the payment decisions. You must understand negotiation to ease frustration and increase your paid and closed files.

This class explores the truth about today’s claims environment and the evolving expectations of human vs. automatic processing. You’ll learn ways you can approach and steer verbal and written conversations to favorable resolutions. In addition, we’ll discuss the roles the consumer now plays in the process and the documentation tools that help them retain control. This type of learning usually costs $1,000 per person, but it is included for all Auto Glass Week™ attendees as part of your registration.

Faculty: Kristen Felder’s incredible passion for the collision repair industry has deep roots. She grew up in the family body shop performing repairs, painting and managing the shop before her senior year of high school. She accepted a position with State Farm Insurance Companies, beginning a 14-year career in the insurance industry. Her career in insurance took her from the corporate office as a consultant to leading field operations for national catastrophe teams responding to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Every day, her insights and experiences help her to ease the relationships between varying segments of the Collision Repair Industry. Collision Hub grew out of that desire to build relationships and interact across disciplines and encourage all parties in the industry. She is an honors graduate of Arkansas State University with a B.S. in Public Relations and an emphasis in Crisis Communications.

This three-hour class and review session will prepare you to take the AGSC Technician Certification Test. In fact, all attendees in this class get a coupon to take the test free of charge as part of their attendance. This session is an excellent overview and review, whether you decide to take the test or not. Please note that you will receive a free coupon to take the test online, which must be completed by November 30.

Faculty: Noted trainer Bob Beranek is the president of Auto Glass University and chair of the Auto Glass Replacement Safety Standard (AGRSS) Committee of the AGSC. He is the author of the Complete Guide to Auto Glass Installation textbook.

This session will be in Breakout Session Room #3: Meeting Suite 3C. It is open to all registrants, full and partial.

Hear it from someone in the field who has years under their belt. Avoid making mistakes you don’t have to, and learn from someone who has seen and learned a lot and can spare you costly errors and headaches.

Faculty: James Chapman is a master-certified auto glass technician for Richardson Glass. He is a previous bronze medalist in the Auto Glass Technician Competition and is certified by AGSC, DuPont, and Sika. He is a member of several AGSC committees and an instructor for Auto Glass University.

The best CSRs can turn a potential customer into an actual one. This two-part session will first allow you to hear some of the best customer service reps compete for the title of world’s best. You’ll listen to how they greet and assess the customer and how they ask for the order. You’ll learn how they deal with demanding customers and difficult situations—all while competing for the title.

Moderator: Holly Biller, president of Key Media & Research, which produces AGRR™ magazine and glassBYTEs™ e-newsletters.

This session will be held in Breakout Session Room #1: Meeting Suite 4C

Legislation is ever-changing. Maryland had a new auto glass safety law passed on May 8; Florida passed a bill on April 18, making sweeping changes to the business environment and overhauling auto glass laws. Are you up-to-date with what has recently passed, or more importantly, what’s being brought to the floor? What starts in one state often moves to others. Hear from a panel of experts who have their thumb on the pulse of what bills are out there and what they could mean to your business.

Faculty: AGSC president Mike Schenian, chair of the AGSC public affairs committee and Seth Maiman, public affairs director of the Auto Glass Safety Council.

Repair can be a viable, profitable business with excellent profit margins and growth potential. This session will provide an overview of the characteristics of a successful repair operation, integrating the repair function into auto glass replacement companies or even collision repair companies. You’ll learn what to do and not do to grow your business.

Faculty: Shiloh Spoo is the president of GlasWeld, a large provider of windshield repair equipment. He has been in the windshield repair business for more than 20 years.

You heard many practical examples in part one of this session; now you’ll learn some practical methods to deliver top customer service and to book the job every time.

Faculty: Joel Timmons is the owner and president of Profitable Glass Solutions in Dayton, Ohio, a company that specializes in providing training in customer service for the auto glass industry.

This session will be held in Breakout Session Room #1: Meeting Suite 4C

Ah, the roundtable—a place where learned knights would meet to solve problems, seek and receive counsel and draw motivation and strength from each other. Not much has changed since medieval times, as Auto Glass Week™ roundtables are an excellent opportunity to meet and discuss issues with others who know exactly how you feel and what you go through. Get new ideas, learn how others do things, and form lifelong relationships in these popular roundtables. There will be a topic for everyone.

Faculty: A distinguished group of industry facilitators.

Please note this session will be held in the Learning Lab in Halls A-D and is open to all full and partial attendees.

One of the easiest ways to get ready for and take the National Windshield Repair Division’s (NWRD’s) certification test for glass repair. This three-hour class includes topics such as setting customers’ expectations, doing a proper repair, and what not to repair. Please note that you will receive a coupon that will allow you to take the test online by November 30 at no charge.

Faculty: Korey Gobin, is the sales manager of Delta Kits, Inc. He is a certified National Windshield Repair Division technician and has taught countless repair technicians how to repair properly.