ITEC 2014 to offer commercial panel

AKRON (June 23, 2014)—Commercial tire dealers looking for ideas to enhance profitability, improve customer service and hire, train and retain valued employees can hear from a group of experts in the field during the Commercial Tires Panel at this year's International Tire Exhibition & Conference (ITEC) for tire dealers and auto service professionals, Aug. 20-22, in Orlando, Fla.

Paul Dvorak, CEO of American Industrial Tire Corp. in Dallas, has organized a Best Practices panel of his peers, who will share information that all commercial tire dealers can use to improve their dealership's performance.

Panelists will speak on a variety of topics and attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions. ITEC-Tire Dealers/Auto Service is an educational conference, trade show and networking opportunity for everyone in the tire and automotive service industries. Panelists for the Commercial Tires Panel include:

• Peggy Fisher, president of TireStamp Corp. in Rochester Hills, Mich., who will speak on “Commercial Tire TPMS.” TireStamp is a tire data analytics company, which collects and analyzes relevant tire data to reduce operational costs for commercial truck fleets and passenger cars;

• Steve Burdian, tire and fleet manager of Southeastern Freight Lines, who will speak on “Fleet Expectations for Service” and “Do I Outsource Maintenance?”
• Jim Faherty, commercial tire and development with Goodyear, who will speak on “Wide Based Tires — Where Are They Going and Fuel Economy”
• Tim Worman, business development manager with Iowa Mold Tooling, a manufacturer of service vehicles and material handling systems, who will speak on “What Service Vehicles Do I Need?” and
• Pat Keating, senior manager of technical engineering with Yokohama Tire Corp., who will speak on “SmartWay Knowledge and Benefits.”

The 2014 ITEC - Tire Dealers/Auto Service show will be held at the Caribe Royal All-Suite Hotel in Orlando. It features 45 seminars, nine panel presentations and two roundtable discussions on subjects of interest to independent tire dealers and automotive service professionals.

 The conference includes a trade show and networking opportunities, including a networking cocktail reception sponsored by Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. Cost to attend the two and one-half day conference is $65.

To see the full educational program, register for the show and reserve a hotel room, visit itec-tireshow.com.