The Anatomy of the Most Informative and Collaborative Automotive Conference in 2017

You’ve already heard the buzzwords: digital transformation, mobility, disruption, autonomous, etc. Many automotive events can start to feel the same – a well-known speaker sprinkles in these buzzwords getting the audience geared up while you sit there and wonder how the heck this pertains to you and your company. This is where the third annual Best Practices for Automotive Conference (BP4Auto) comes in. What makes BP4Auto different? The answer is: people like yourself, who have gone through the similar challenges and opportunities, attend and present – answering the question of “how this pertains to you.”  In the words of Chet Harter of SAP “It’s Real.”

Disruptor or Disrupted?

In the past 10 years there has been more change relevant to the automotive industry than the past 100 years prior. Keeping it real, more automotive companies are on the side of the “disrupted” than the “disruptor” at this time. This means that if you find yourself being affected negatively by the tumultuous changes in the industry – you are not alone! By acknowledging this humbling fact, many Best Practices for Automotive attendees are working together to survive and thrive. Sometimes, this means starting off slow and steady – but that is better than being frozen by analysis paralysis or leaping too quickly and losing sight of today’s needs! The goal of the event is always to develop a laser focus on education, innovation insights, and inspiration, as well as peer-to-peer collaboration within the automotive industry – and this year the goal was met above and beyond. Educate yourself with BP4Auto deep-dive takeaways, set your foundation, and then suit up for the “Race for CASE.” (Connected / Autonomous / Shared / Electrified).

The “Sexy” Side of Automotive

The Race for CASE represents the recent aggressive plans to bring connected, autonomous, shared, and electrified cars out of a niche market to a mainstream one. It can be overwhelming to identify how this fits into your current business plan. Factors you may consider:

• how do I maintain my company’s self-expression?
• how do we adapt to trends & bring our customers along?
• should I make the shift to mobility as a service?
• what is the transition period like from today to driverless?

These (and many more) are all questions that were answered at the Best Practices for Automotive Conference. Attendees and presenters took the time to break down and analyze their peers’ concerns to develop the best strategy for bringing it all to fruition. After all, partnerships need to be in place for success to occur in the complex ecosystem being developed around these CASE technologies.

Luckily for you, if you missed out this year, key takeaways from the event are packaged neatly here, here, here, and below:

• A robust keynote line-up kept attendees showing up in force to learn from key industry experts that spanned across a multitude of key topics for the automotive industry
• Many relevant and innovative sessions for the automotive community across multiple lines of business were also featured
• Attendees gained the ability to provide real-time connections with key decision makers to share one on one insights around key challenges and best practices on prominent transformational topics

A huge thank you to attendees, speakers, and Eventful Conferences for planning one of the most informative, collaborative, and beneficial automotive conferences in the world.

Can you summarize your experience at the BP4Auto conference in 140 characters? Please leave a comment below – or tweet me @Miranda_LaBate

David Parrish is the Senior Global Marketing Director of Industrial Machinery & Components for SAP. Before joining SAP, David held various product and industry marketing positions with J.D. Edwards, PeopleSoft, and QAD going back to 1999. Prior to J.D. Edwards, Dave held transportation, warehouse, manufacturing, purchasing, and materials management roles in the industrial, automotive, building products, and medical device sectors. Dave has a B.S. in Advertising from the University of Illinois-Urbana, an MBA in Transportation Management from the University of Colorado-Boulder, and a Certification in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) from the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS ).

Miranda LaBate is an aspiring marketer with an affinity for technology, blogging, and social media. She currently supports social media efforts for SAP’s automotive industry business unit while finalizing her arketing and entrepreneurship degree with Drexel University. Prior, Miranda held marketing positions with SAP and Ballard Spahr LLP. Outsider of her professional life – Miranda is a Jeep aficionado, dog lover, and mental health advocate.