National Auto Auction Association (NAAA)
The National Auto Auction Association hosted its 74th Annual Convention at the Dallas Sheraton Hotel on Sept. 6-8, 2022, bringing together industry professionals to share best practices, socialize, and work toward unifying the auto auction industry. JDC Events was brought onboard to drive the pre-event planning process and manage all onsite teams and suppliers.
Headquartered in Frederick, Md., NAAA is a trade association for wholesale motor vehicle auctions. It represents more than 340 auction members and 140 associate members in North America, and its mission is to provide a strong voice to protect and promote the interests of both their members and the wholesale auto auction industry.
What started in 1948 as a small trade organization has grown to a membership with a reported combined sales of 7.5 million vehicles and $121 billion in wholesale revenue in 2021.
2022 marked the first time that NAAA has worked with a third-party vendor to plan, coordinate, and deliver its annual convention. JDC team members anticipated the client’s needs to put on a successful event. There was much at stake; the group’s 2021 convention had been cancelled due to the Covid pandemic, and everyone at NAAA was eager to stage a successful return to an in-person convention. The JDC team took the overall approach of remaining well-prepared and organized so we could easily accommodate any last-minute changes that might be needed.
Team JDC met weekly with the client to ensure everything was on track for the three-day convention, maintaining timely and efficient communications. We drove overall project management, event design, budget management, event technology management, venue management, speaker management, onsite labor, and post-event wrap-up.
The convention covered key issues for the automobile industry such as electric vehicles, market conditions, and advanced driver assistance systems. The association’s onsite footprint included two main conference rooms and three smaller session rooms, a trade show floor, ballrooms for multiple seated dinners, an indoor concert stage for an evening performance by country star Jake Owen, a Fun Run, and a rodeo-themed President’s Party.
