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Written by Maxine Cheung

Wednesday, 02 May 2007

Attendees at the I-CAR Canada Conference braved the cold. I-CAR Canada has hosted its first conference since 1999. Held at the Delta Hotel in Ottawa, ON over the March 2^nd weekend, the conference was appropriately titled “Embracing the Next Evolution.” The Canadian national collision industry conference aimed to provide its 150 plus attendees with information regarding upcoming trends and the future of the collision repair industry.

Individuals from collision centres, insurance companies and paint manufacturers across Canada and the United States battled it out against Mother Nature to attend the two-day conference as they braved the snowstorm that paralyzed most of Ontario.

A welcome reception kicked-off the event Friday evening to launch the conference and to thank and honour I-CAR volunteers.

Information sessions took the form of seminars and covered topics such as, low VOC technology and waterborne paints, industry changes and the importance of training.Tracey Blouin, the Canadian regional manager for I-CAR, believes conferences like these have something to offer all industry stakeholders.

“It creates an opportunity for industry information to be disbursed,” Tracey said. “It is a unique way to bring the country together to not only share I-CAR information, but to share industry ‘hot topics’ too.”

Bruce Henderson of DuPont Performance Coatings Canada was one guest speaker at the conference. His presentation was on low VOC regulations and technology.

“We spent a lot of time talking about changes with this technology,” Bruce said. “Because it’s not just a change in how the painter paints, but it’s also a change in terms of the cleanliness of the shop, changes in how paints will be stored and so on. Training and awareness becomes significant at this point in time for everyone.”

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