2006 MERA-CEA Regional Workshops, featuring MECP

In spring of 2006, MERA began celebrating its 10th anniversary by taking its nationally recognized workshops on the road. Sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association® (CEA) and its Mobile Electronics Certified Professional (MECP) program, the MERA-CEA Regional Workshops, featuring MECP, spanned coast-to-coast, beginning first near Boston, then southern California and ending in Portland, Oregon.

The Sales/Business Owners Track workshops included “Selling What You Can’t See” and “Attracting Customers to Your Store.” The Installation Track covered “Custom Installation for Today’s Vehicles” and “Getting Connected with Today’s Technology.” The event offered repeat classes in the afternoon, enabling attendees to participate in both tracks.

With a full day of workshops, manufacturer product training and a free lunch, each MERA-CEA Regional Workshops event delivered a huge return on the attendees’ small investment.

Portland
The Portland, OR, event was held at the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel on Sunday, September 24, 2006. Even with unseasonably warm weather tempting retailers to the great outdoors, attendance was high. Overall there were 133 registered attendees, including 14 reps and 106 retailers representing 44 stores. MERA had been led to believe it would be tough to draw a crowd in the northwest – and we had in fact seen this firsthand years ago. However, the retailers saw great value in MERA's offerings and were aptly rewarded with top-notch workshops for having made the choice to attend.

Long Beach
This was MERA’s first West Coast event in more than five years. The event took place Sunday, August 20, 2006, at the Marriott Long Beach in Long Beach, CA, south of Los Angeles. With 58 retailer attendees, representing 33 stores, and 17 manufacturers representatives, the workshops were relatively well attended.

As a bonus at this event, there was a long list of prize giveaways, thanks to the efforts of The 12 Volt News and attendees enjoyed checking out the demo cars on display nearby.

Boston
The premier MERA-CEA Regional Workshops event was held on Sunday, May 21, 2006, at the Sheraton Colonial Hotel and Golf Club in Wakefield, MA, just outside of Boston. Despite the widespread flooding across the northeast at the time, MERA made the decision to move full speed ahead with its event. The decision was a definitely a good one. Nearly 100 industry professionals attended the event, including 71 retailers.

“I honestly believe it was something every retailer should attend, whether they’ve been in business one year or 30 years. Installers, owners … everyone can gain something from this type of event.”

~ Mike Clery, Wildcard Performance - Billerica, MA