Remarketers from around the country will be attending the upcoming International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (IARA) Remarketing Roundtable, which will be held July 23-25, 2003, at the Marriott Chicago Downtown.

On the morning of July 24, the IARA will host three roundtable discussions between panelists and attendees on topics affecting the present and future of the remarketing industry. The first discussion will be Problems as an Industry with CarFax and AutoCheck, with representatives from both companies on-hand to moderate the discussion. Representing CarFax will be Jeff Peterson, manager, business alliances.

This will be followed by a session on the Further Education and Certification of New Remarketers. This panel will feature Scott Kolb of ABC; Matt Marks, IARA executive director; and Mike Antich, editor of Automotive Fleet.

Before lunch, the final roundtable will deal with Getting Vehicle Valuations Sold on the Internet into the Guidebooks. Participating in this discussion will be Pat Key, regional sales manager – data services for Black Book; and Charlie Vogelheim, executive editor of Kelley Blue Book.

After lunch there will be two forums: Remarketing Benchmarks and Upstream Internet Selling.

The panel discussion on Remarketing Benchmarks will feature:

Steve Houston of WFS Financial; Dave Langley of Honda Financial Services; Jim Chapman of Credit Acceptance; Jay Fahrendorff of ABC Minneapolis; and Stuart Angert or Craig Carrow of Remarketing Services of America. The moderator will be Dick Dennis of RM Dennis & Associates.

The Upstream Internet Selling panel discussion will include:

Jo Obloy of VW Credit; Kent Pace of Toyota Financial Services; David Louchs of Daimler-Chrysler; John Manchin of Subaru; and Dave Langley of Honda Financial Services. The moderator will be Mark Jensen of AutoTradeCenter.

In addition, attendees to the IARA Remarketing Roundtable meeting will have an opportunity to take a guided tour of the Harley-Davidson plant in Milwaukee, WI, on July 25, 2003, the closing day of meeting. Attendees choosing to participate in the tour will have the chance to rent a motorcycle from a nearby Harley-Davidson dealer and ride to the assembly plant, or they can be shuttled with other attendees. The tour will be on a reservation-based visit only.

On the opening day, July 23, attendees are invited to attend an opening cocktail reception.

The meeting is open to members and non-members. The cost is $295 for members and $345 for non-members. For more information, or for questions regarding IARA educational events, contact Pam Richards, IARA Conference/Membership Services, at pam@iaraonline.org or call (310) 545-5227.