Recap of Fall Dinner & Program: Industry Innovations SOLD OUT

Maximum Interaction at NECA's Fall Dinner and Program

PHOTOS - click on image gallery

On Tuesday, November 12, 2019, over 80 industry professionals gathered in Woburn, MA for NECA's fall reception, dinner and program focusing on "Car Wash Industry Innovation", the latest and greatest for the car wash industry. After an extremely lively reception and delicious dinner, various members of the leadership provided State of the Association reports. The slate for our 2020 Board of Directors was presented and elected and, best of all, we presented the 2019 "You Make It Happen" award to Dave Ellard (see separate story).

Interaction was the operative word for this event. For the first time, to help our members expand their networks and hear the greatest variety of viewpoints, attendees were assigned seating for the facilitated discussions, away from others from their companies. At intervals, the speakers, not the attendees, sequentially moved to another table, guaranteeing that everyone would hear discussions and varying perspectives on every topic. A member of the NECA leadership team was at each table to ensure that the conversation focused and flowed. Thank you to table moderators Micah Smith, Matt Unger, Jeffrey Katseff, Mat Paisner, John Shalbey and Danny Paisner.
The topics discussed were as follows.

Belt conveyors vs traditional conveyors was facilitated by Steve Suedbeck of AVW Equipment Company. After providing a brief history of conveyor technology in the industry through today, he addressed questions on:

• Maintenance requirements
• How the length of the car wash tunnel or geographic location influences which conveyor system is best
• Operations Efficiency - Can you really process more cars per hour with a belt?

The evolution of chemical dispensing systems and precision dosing technology was facilitated by Chris Zona of AutoWash Technologies who graciously filled in for Anthony Antonis of Laguna Industries who had travel problems. Chris gave a brief overview of chemical dispensing pump technology and the evolution of cloud-based precision dosing in the car wash industry, and addressed issues such as:

• The difference between dispensing vs monitoring systems for chemicals
• How does chemical viscosity influence which dispensing system you choose?
• How can chemical dispensing systems affect quality and profitability of a car wash?

Vacuum equipment innovation was facilitated by Fred Grauer ofVacuTech who talked about what's new with vacuum technology and addressed questions on:

• How are vacuum systems getting smarter with their integrations with POS?
• The pros and cons of central vs individual motor vacuum systems
• Is there data to support installing new free vs not free vacuums at your car wash property?

License plate recognition technology (LPR) was facilitated by Adam Korngold of Washify Services who explained what is LPR and addressed questions on:

• What are key differences between LPR and RFID?
• What is the maintenance of LPR like?
• What impacts the accuracy of LPR ?
• Are there any privacy concerns or legal ramifications to LPR?

Damage control systems was facilitated by of Steve Vugrin of NoPileUps. He provided an overview on the evolution of damage control systems / technology in the car wash industry and addressed questions on:

• What is maintenance like on damage control systems like No Pile Ups, and how does maintenance impact accuracy?
• Are there different equipment layouts in a tunnel that can impact the accuracy of damage control systems?
• What is the future of damage control systems over next 10 years?

Remote monitoring technology of carwash systems was facilitated by Luke Merrow of Equilibrium IOT who outlined the key systems in a car wash that remote monitoring can support today and addressed questions on:

• Can you really be an absentee owner with remote monitoring technology?
• What are the alert systems offered to notify owners of issues?
• Of all the car wash systems that can be monitored remotely, which has the greatest impact on profitability?
• What types of safety benefits can monitoring provide regardless of whether you are on-site or not?

The format, even separating people from who they traditionally sit with, was so well received that we plan to offer a similar program in the year to come. We're confident that the discussions continued as attendees shared information on their rides home and at their businesses in the following days.

We would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge our sponsors who provided both financial support and their expertise: AutoWash Technologies, our reception sponsor, and DRB Systems, our dinner and program sponsor.

And, an extra thank you to Kevin McLoughlin who was the evening's overall coordinator.