MERA Hosts New Jersey Event

The weather wasn’t very cooperative, but all eyes and ears were on the instructors as MERA welcomed mobile enhancement retailers from across the northeast to the MERA-CEA Regional Workshops, featuring MECP, on April 15.

The full-day event was held at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick, N.J., while outside the spring “nor’easter” made its presence known bringing wind and cold rain. Owners and staff members from 21 retail stores – including one from as far away as Culpeper, Va. – braved the elements to attend the event.

“The attendees definitely went there to learn,” said Amy Thornburg, MERA’s director of events and operations. “Every class stayed after to ask questions – they were really engaged.”

Roy Meyer, a representative for Alpine Electronics, had strongly urged his dealers to attend. Five of his dealers seized the opportunity.

The MERA-CEA Regional Workshops, sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA®), offer a choice of three workshop schedules:

• Half-day morning program – Sales/Business Owners Track
• Half-day morning or afternoon program – Installation Track
• Full-day program – Sales/Business Owners Track followed by the Installation Track

The New Brunswick session included these workshops: “Custom Installation for Today’s Vehicles,” with Bryan Schmitt, Mobile Solutions; “Getting Connected with Today’s Technology,” led by Eric Le Clerc, Peripheral Electronics; “Staying Ahead of the Competition” by Ray Windsor, Leadership Systems; “Promote and Profit,” led by MERA’s vice president, Barry Vogel of The Ultimate Edge in Oswego, N.Y.

MERA will continue its 2007 tour of MERA-CEA Regional Workshops with an event in Dallas, Texas, on May 20. The association is also planning a fall event, most likely to be held in October in Orlando, Fla.