NAPA EXPO Educates and Inspires Automotive Professionals

NAPA AUTO PARTS held its EXPO event May 5-8 in Las Vegas, attracting 18,000 vendors, employees, store owners and NAPA AutoCare Center professionals. For 2015, EXPO included a captive trade show, a long list of informative seminars, entertaining and inspiring speakers and celebrity appearances by TV show personalities and professional racing drivers.

EXPO Exhibit Floor

Dozens of aftermarket parts suppliers and tools and equipment manufacturers showed off their latest products and services on the vast EXPO exhibit floor. These included both NAPA brands – like Balkamp, Carlyle and Rayloc – as well as esteemed national brands like 3M, ExxonMobil and Ingersoll Rand.

We walked the floor daily to speak to exhibitors. Knowledgeable and proficient product representatives pitched their products and answered our demanding questions. Over the next few months, we will be sharing some of the best of the show with NAPA Know How Blog readers in a series of articles.

Beyond information, the exhibit floor also provided a direct marketplace for NAPA store owners to place orders.

Seminars

Representatives of both NAPA AUTO PARTS stores and NAPA AutoCare Centers enjoyed an opportunity to advance professional development through a series of educational seminars. Topics were wide-ranging and included titles like:

Sales and Marketing: Meet the Millennials
Technical: Misfire Fixes
Truck: Heavy-Duty Diagnostics Made Easy
Future: The Connected Car – A Game-Changer for Your Business
Collision: Process-Driven Collision Repair

Highly qualified speakers shared helpful information and strategies designed to improve the experience of NAPA customers and, in turn, advance the success of NAPA businesses. One seminar we attended, for example, explained social media strategies and showed how NAPA AutoCare Centers can leverage platforms like Instagram and Facebook to find new business and better serve existing customers.

General Sessions

Each morning at EXPO kicked off with a general session, emceed by car guy and funnyman Adam Ferrara. Part entertainment, part education and part inspiration, each general session exemplified the NAPA EXPO experience and served as a warm-up for the day’s activities.

Celebrity Appearances

NAPA Racing fans enjoyed a unique opportunity to meet Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet in NASCAR Xfinity Series racing, and Ron Capps, driver of the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger Funny Car in NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series. Also making appearances at NAPA EXPO were Adam Ferrara’s Top Gear USA co-hosts Rutledge Wood and Tanner Foust, the latter who also pilots the NAPA Chassis-sponsored VW GRC Beetle in Global Rallycross racing.

Fans also lined up to meet NASCAR Sprint Cup series drivers Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon. The popular drivers signed autographs and took photos with fans.

The 2015 NAPA EXPO marked an excellent opportunity for NAPA store and NAPA AutoCare representatives to bolster their future success by better serving customers. The Know How shared at the event is not an end in itself but rather a tool that NAPA professionals will use to lead the competition, building stronger relationships and providing the very best in parts and service.