The International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (IARA) has announced the first in what is to be a series of grassroots-level roundtable discussions for the management of the vehicle remarketing industry. The inaugural IARA Remarketing Roundtable Series is scheduled for July 24-25 in Denver at the Hilton Denver Tech. The conference will focus on three topics: vehicle inspections, reconditioning, and the marketing of a sale. According to IARA President Dave Langley, who is also the national manager, vehicle remarketing, for American Honda Finance Corp., “Within our membership, as well as within the remarketing community at large, we have tremendous intellectual capital to take on challenges shared by all remarketers. The roundtable series is designed to be a powerful and collaborative format for remarketers to target and prioritize industry goals for maximum remarketing performance.” The Roundtable Series breaks away from traditional speaker/Q&A to face-to-face dialogue between remarketing professionals. Each participant is part of a group, and each group rotates from one topic to the next throughout the sessions. Moderators will guide the discussions, affording all attendees the opportunity to discuss the topics in-depth in a workshop setting. These groups will encompass a balanced cross-section of industry expertise including senior-level management from auctions, manufacturers, financial institutions, fleet/lease and rental companies, trade publications, and remarketing service providers. “Our objective is for each participant to walk away from the discussions with a broader understanding of the industry and a clear strategy for addressing priority issues in their specific remarketing arena,” said Doug Richards, IARA treasurer and chairman of the education and conference committee, who is also the assistant vice president for Triad Financial Corp. in Huntington Beach, CA.