Why NACE?

I had a customer call me this morning and ask me if I could spend a couple of days at his shop this week to help him with some Lean initiatives.  Told him I would love to but I would be at NACE.  He then asked me why I was going, that he heard not many people go to NACE anymore.  I told him that besides being the only collision repair event our industry has, there were three and a half days of classes to go to a majority of which give either AMI or I-CAR credits,  NACE is the only venue that has a long list of vendors showing their products, a car show, the list is growing daily and it is in Florida!  My question to him was, Why Not NACE?  Where else can you find a large group of people from all different parts of the industry all together in one place that you can network with?  It is great to talk to people in your local auto body association, but you are hearing about the industry from your same market area, hearing about how shop owners and managers are managing in other markets is very valuable to continued success.  I will be attending several classes but I bet I will learn just as much in the hallways between classes as I do in the classes themselves.  Going to NACE keeps me up on the current initiatives, lets me touch the latest tools and I get to see the collision industry from a different perspective.  I think the people that are joining me this year are ones that want to be successful in our industry and know what they learn, hear and see will help them move their business up a notch.  If you haven't signed up yet there is still time, hope I see you there!