AkzoNobel event focuses on profitability, human resource efforts, four-day workweek and more
Story by ALLISON ROGERS
AkzoNobel hosted approximately 400 industry attendees at its Collision Industry Experts Event (CIEE) in late April. The crowd of North American collision repair leaders gathered in sunny Orange Country, California to focus on topics of the future centering around human resources topics, finding your profitable edge and navigating complexity of modern repairs. “We had AkzoNobel collision centres and non-AkzoNobel facilities in attendance,” Flavio Battilana, network key account manager for AkzoNobel told Collision Repair. “There was nearly one billion dollars in industry repairs represented.”
Canadian representatives from LKQ Canada, CSN Collision Centres, Certified Collision Group and Color Compass were in attendance.
“What really stood out about this year’s event was the threshold of our ‘industry expert speakers,’” explained Sue Jaszkowski, marketing communications rep for AkzoNobel.
“Only four of our event speakers were not AkzoNobel employees.” Battilana confirmed that plenty of attendees grasped immense value from the event. “That’s the feedback I received from collision centres. That, in every presentation, there’s always a takeaway for the business owners.” He also said this year’s event stresses AkzoNobel’s position as more than a paint provider.
“Yes, we supply paint, but we’re more than that. We are your business partner. We’re a community that focuses on various areas of the business to help our partners achieve the utmost future benefits.” Next year’s AkzoNobel CIEE will take place Spring 2025 in Texas.
