One word to describe Tire Business' expo: Free

I get a kick out of one commercial that seems to play on Sirius XM satellite radio every time I get in my car.

The voice at the beginning of the bit delivers a warning: The following announcement contains repeated uses of the F-word.

That certainly piques a listener's attention.

The commercial then starts, promoting a free offer. Cue the F-word: The announcer repeatedly uses the word free.

I think about that as I write about Tire Business' upcoming conference and expo. Yes, it is free for everyone to attend. That's one of the cool parts.

But the other unique aspect of the event, the inaugural Tire Business Educates Live Online Conference & Expo set for Sept. 25-27, is that it is completely online. That means there's no travel and no expense involved — except for your valuable time.

But you do need to register to attend.

Registered attendees will have all-day access, with two educational sessions — the first at 12:30 p.m. EDT and the second at 2 p.m. Exhibitors will be available at their booths for online conversations and/or product information from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. EDT daily.

Tire dealers and other industry personnel can pop in and out of the exhibit hall, networking lounge, the webinars and the podcasts as they please, and as time allows.

But you may want to listen to most, if not all, of the live webinars that we have lined up.

Marie Niewiroski, director of merchandising of motors parts and accessories at eBay Inc., the world's top online auction site, will conduct a session on online tire sales. Her webinar is titled, "5 Tips to Growing Your Online Tire Sales."

Every conference or industry event I attend, it seems as if dealers are talking about the same two issues: Retaining and attracting top talent, and health care.

There is a webinar that addresses each topic.

Mike Cioffi, a frequent Tire Business columnist and president of Tire Talent, will present a webinar called, "Attracting, Developing and Retaining Top Talent." With employment evels at historic highs and talented candidates at a premium, that should be of great interest.

Frank Spinelli, director, emerging markets and affinity groups-middle market for Oswald Companies, will tackle the complicated subject of health care in his webinar titled, "Can Association Health Plans Solve Your Health Care Needs?"

Perhaps you're having difficulty attracting, younger customers in your market. Well, youth is being served with a webinar by Podium Corp. Inc. on "5 Proven Tactics to Attract More Millennials to Your Shop."

George Lugo of Atturo Tire Corp., will discuss light truck tires in his webinar, "Selling Off-Road Tires to Today's Truck Owner."

Trucks and fleets will get some exposure, too.

And finally, Kyle Chen of Bridgestone Bandag will talk about retreading for fleets in his webinar, "A Profitable and Reliable Business Solution for Fleets."

For the specific days and times of these webinars, visit tirebusiness.com/onlineevent.

Still, there's more. We also will offer prerecorded question-and-answer sessions with some of the industry's top executives in another feature called "View From The Top."

In it, Tire Business Publisher and Editorial Director Dave Zielasko and I will interview several industry leaders for podcasts.

Among those who were interviewed are: Roy Bromfield, Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp. president and CEO; Peter Gibbons, CEO of TireHub L.L.C.; Anne Forristall Luke, president and CEO of the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association; Richard Smallwood, Sumitomo Rubber North America Inc. president and CEO; and Stuart Schuette, CEO of American Tire Distributors Inc.

While I can't divulge details about what they said, I can assure you they shared plenty of interesting material about their companies and the state of the industry.

The beauty of all this? You don't have to leave your dealership to participate.

And don't worry about incurring any costs, either. Remember that F-word.

It's free.

Mr. Detore is editor of Tire Business. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]; 330-865-6126; Twitter: @dondetore.