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Finance/HR Symposium Recap | Wednesday, June 30

Today was the final day of AED’s 2021 Finance/HR Symposium. Although we hate that the conference is coming to an end, we are so pleased that over 50 attendees decided to join us in beautiful Napa Valley, California. Financial participants completed their 9 CPE credit hours sponsored by K•Coe Isom, LLC through K·Coe Isom University. HR professionals earned 9.5 PDCs for the SHRM- CPSM or SHRM-SCPSM. Attendees enjoyed breakfast together before heading off to their respective sessions of the day.  

Finance Sessions:  

After breakfast, the first session of the day kicked off with Lou Quinto, titled “Change According to the Great Masters (Finance).” In this session, Quinto discussed how finance managers could aid their organization as it navigates change. Quinto reviewed common mistakes that happen when organizations try to implement change and provided insight on how attendees can avoid these mistakes at their dealerships.  

After a short break, the second session of the day was a panel on “War Stories from 2020” moderated by Jason Blake of AED. Panelists included Anthony Evans of Bobcat Enterprises, Inc., Larry Rutz of 4 Rivers Equipment and Steve Seminack of Modern Group. In this panel session, they discussed how their companies handled the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and what attendees could take from these experiences to prepare for the future. 

The day’s final financial session was on M&A Activity & Trends, hosted by Torre Hammer of Moss Adams and Andrew Suen of Hexagon Capital. The group discussed how to best prepare for sales or acquisitions and provided the audience with updated information on mergers and acquisitions within the industry. 

HR Sessions:  

The day’s first HR session was a panel discussion on Apprenticeship Programs for the Equipment Industry, moderated by Sean Fitzgerrel of AED. Participants included Will Barnett of Brandeis Machinery and Amanda Dawson of RDO Equipment Company. Barnett and Dawson spoke on their experience with apprenticeship programs within their organizations. They answered questions on the benefits and challenges of developing an apprenticeship program at a dealership.  

Attendees took a quick break before heading to Change According to the Great Masters (HR) with Lou Quinto. Quinto focused on change within dealerships and how HR managers can help communicate and create the ideal vision of what change at their dealership looks like.  

The HR sessions concluded with Managing a Remote Workforce hosted by Marcy Brajkovic of Chatfield Global. Brajkovic’s session gave attendees insight into dealing with challenges when managing a remote workforce and what skills managers need to build their virtual teams successfully.  

The sessions concluded just before lunchtime at noon, leaving attendees with plenty of time in their day to appreciate all that Napa has to offer before heading home. We hope attendees enjoyed the Financial/HR Symposium and look forward to seeing everyone in Orlando in August for Leadership Conference! 

View our event recap below!