ST. PAUL, MN (BRAIN)—With bike dealers starving for more service-oriented training, Park Tool is going to fill a void.
Next January’s Park Tool Tech Summit will feature two-day “technical schools” featuring hands-on classes taught by brands: Fox Racing Shox, Shimano, SRAM, Campagnolo, Hayes, Rock Shox, Avid and Park Tool.
“Individual component companies can’t cost effectively reach all the dealers they would like to,” said Bill Armas, marketing rep for Park Tool. “QBP’s seminars at Frostbike are popular as are the clinics held at Interbike, but there is too much else going on and the seminars are too short to really get into the issues. Some manufacturers put on regional training clinics, but the dealers don’t get to actually work on the bikes while they learn.”
Hayes Disc Brakes’ warranty manager Andy Paradowski agrees with Armas. “We’re just not able to this kind of in-depth training at trade shows,” Paradowski said. “The bang for your buck with something like this is enormous.”
Park Tool Tech Summit will include two separate two-day events. One will take place in Ontario, California (Jan. 12-13, 2009) and the other in Philadelphia (Jan. 26-27, 2009).
Paradowski said the timing of the event couldn’t be better. “You get it in before all the distributor open houses,” Paradowski said.
Armas said the summit will be held at a convention center or hotel where each brand will have its own meeting room. Each company will prepare a three-hour presentation with three presentations per day.
The meeting rooms will have repair stands, tools and product examples for “first hand” learning. “It’s important that these presentations remain service-oriented and not turn into a sales meeting,” Armas said.
Shimano multi-service supervisor Dave Arnauckas said the No. 1 thing IBDs are looking for is tech training. “I think this has huge potential,” he said.
Cost for dealers to attend is $175 before Nov. 1 and $195 after. The fee covers presentations, meeting space, student manual, and breakfast, lunch and snack on both days.
Click on link to register.
—Jason Norman
