We are very excited today to launch this year's Service Dealer Conference & Awards which will focus on the most important aspect of your business - your customers.

Entitled The Customer Is King - and always will be! the daytime conference and evening awards ceremony will take place on November 17th, once again in the magnificent surroundings of the Oxford Belfry Hotel.

Following the success of last year's event, we are determined to make this year's even more essential and a thoroughly worthwhile experience for all independent dealers.

Inspired by the feedback we received from you after November's inaugral conference it became rapidly apparent that what's of primary concern to all dealers is engagement with customers. How to create them, how to satisfy them and ways of retaining their business. And that's exactly what November's Service Dealer Conference will set out to do.

We'll achieve this goal through a series of panel debates, smaller breakout sessions, a keynote address and with the help of leading industry speakers, experts and with a selection of dealers from businesses large and small from across the UK.

Particularly exciting this year I believe is the choice of breakout sessions which delegates will be offered. If there's a particular subject which you want to know more about, or indeed hold strong views on which you want to share with other dealers, get involved and get yourself heard in one of these. We'll be offering breakouts on the subjects of Social Media, Websites & Technology and Traditional Marketing Methods.

Don't worry about missing out on a valuable nugget of information from the breakouts you don't attend. The whole conference will meet up again later in the day, with each group's leader reporting back the key points to all delegates.

And once again following the conference in the evening at the Oxford Belfry we will be holding the ever-popular Dealer of the Year awards.

This year we will be slightly tweaking the format to fit in with our Customer Is King theme by inviting your customers to have their say.

Dealers can enter themselves in the competition from today, or be nominated by one of their suppliers, but once you are in the running we will want your customers to get involved by sending us their comments. We will send a customer feedback form/link once you've entered.

We will also be adding a new award this year, for the Star Of Your Dealership, be it a technician, parts, or sales person. We'll want you to let us know who shines for you. Nominations for this category, as well as for the Apprentice of the Year prize, will open at the end of June. Judging for the awards will take place during the first week of October.

There's more info about our Conference & Awards elsewhere on today's newsletter, and you'll find everything you need to know on our website. And please get in touch with Katariina or Julie at The Ad Plain if you have any questions.

I really look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in November!