feature

Safety Sessions in the Spotlight
A Preview of the International Auto Glass Safety (AGRSS) Conference 2010

Looking for new ways to promote safety to customers? Or, for additional safety services you can offer in your business to let your current customers know how important their safety is to you? If so, mark your calendar for October 27-28, the dates of this year’s International Auto Glass Safety (AGRSS) Conference.

For the first time, this year, the event will be held in suburban Chicago, at the Drury Lane Conference Center in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. In addition, this year’s event is being co-located with a special AGRSS Consumer Awareness Program (CAP) event to be held on October 28 at Drury Lane as well.

“A Unique Opportunity”
“This is a unique opportunity for everyone interested in auto glass safety to attend both the conference and the CAP,” says AGRSS Council Inc. president Debra Levy. “Attendees at the conference can stay for the Consumer Awareness Program on the second day at no additional charge. They can see what’s involved with a CAP and evaluate whether or not they’d like to bring one to their community.”

The first day of the conference, October 27, will kick off with updates from the AGRSS council committee chairs, who will speak about their work since last year’s conference.

This will include updates about the Standards Committee from Bob Beranek of Auto Glass Consultants in Sun Prairie, Wis.; the Membership Committee from Jeff Bull of J. Bull Associates in Dayton, Ohio; the Insurance Committee from Nik Frye with Glass America in New Hampton, N.H.; the Education Committee from Dale Malcolm of Dow Automotive in Dayton, Ohio; the Accreditation Committee from Jean Pero of Mygrant Glass in Denver, Colo.; and the Fundraising Committee from David Rohlfing of Glass America in Chicago.

Following the updates, several renowned auto safety groups, including CellSafetyInc., KidsandCars.org, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Safe Kids USA will offer their insights into working toward total automotive safety in a variety of arenas, from child safety to texting and driving.

Education chair Malcolm will follow with an update on this year’s third-party validation reviews. He will be accompanied by Pero, along with Jeff Olive of Glasspro in Charleston, S.C., Penny Ouellette of Orion Registrar Inc. in Arvada, Colo. The four will discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses that have been discovered through the recent third-party validations and will offer some tips.

Popular automotive safety expert Ben Kelley of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington, D.C., will follow with a look at auto safety through the years, from collision fatality statistics to automotive design to a windshield’s role in the vehicle’s structural stability.

Those who expect to undergo third-party validation reviews in the future—or those who are just curious about what they really involve—won’t want to miss the next session, a panel of auto glass business owners and representatives whose companies have been in the thick of the validations. They’ll talk about what surprised them, dealing with the validators and more. The panel will include Gene Nichols from Guardian Auto Glass, which at press time had had four locations validated; Michael Paley of Freedom Glass in Richmond, Va.—one of the first companies ever to complete a validation review; and Ron Overbeck of Auto One in Brighton, Mich.

Marketing Innovations
The panel following will include representatives from some of the industry’s most innovative marketers of safety in the auto glass business. The discussion will be led by both Frye and Dan Mock of Glass Doctor. They will discuss how to promote safety to consumers and how a company can utilize its status as an AGRSS-registered company to help bring in sales.

The day will end with the AGRSS Council Inc.’s annual charity auction (see sidebar for details).

On the second day of the event, attendees will have the chance to see first-hand what goes on during an AGRSS consumer awareness program (CAP), and to decide if they want to bring one to their own cities. The CAP event is designed to bring together insurance industry executives, local officials, community members and others to learn about the importance of proper windshield installations done in accordance with the AGRSS Standard. In addition, it gives auto glass industry representatives a chance to talk with insurance agents and others and to learn from one another.

The day will start with a question-and-answer breakfast featuring Jon Fransway of Eden Prairie, Minn. Though Fransway now works as an insurance agent and often deals with customers seeking auto glass work, he also knows first-hand the importance of a proper windshield installation. He learned this in an awful way when his younger sister, Jeanne, was killed in an accident in 1999 in a vehicle in which the windshield hadn’t been replaced properly.

The next session will offer continuing education credits to insurance agents as they learn about the AGRSS Standard and why it’s important—and also will give shop owners and technicians a chance to find out what agents know already and how they can help educate agents in their own areas. Frye also will lead this session, along with Joel Timmons of Profitable Glass Solutions in Dayton, Ohio.

The AGRSS Council will debut a brand-new film it has produced that is designed to educate the insurance industry during the next session. The infamous 20/20 special that features Fransway’s sister, Jeanne, also will be discussed. In addition, Fransway will be on-hand to discuss how his own life has been impacted by a technician who didn’t take the proper steps to ensure his sister’s safety.

A lunch, giving industry representatives a chance to network with the agents, local dignitaries and legislators in attendance, will follow.

After lunch, attendees will have the opportunity to see an airbag deployment first-hand—and to see what happens in a vehicle rollover accident in a demonstration offered by the Illinois Highway Patrol.

To register for the event or to learn more, visit www.agrss.org/conference. Hotel rooms are available adjacent to the Drury Lane Conference Center at the Hilton Garden Suites, Oakbrook Terrace. When calling to reserve your room, you should advise the hotel you are with the AGRSS Conference.

AGRR
© Copyright 2010 Key Communications Inc. All rights reserved.
No reproduction of any type without expressed written permission.