News You Can Use

RTA NEWS YOU CAN USE
February 21, 2019

RTA RECAP (pun intended)
of the 2020 TIA OTR Conference that is wrapping up tonight.

TIA OTR 2020 Conference Recap

We've been here at the 65th Annual OTR Tire Conference 2020 in Palm Springs, California, this week. The conference, sponsored by our good friends at the Tire Industry Association (TIA) is wrapping up tonight, and has been a great success, with the 2nd largest attendance in it's history.

For those of you who could not attend, we thought you'd a appreciate a brief recap of the event with some of our takeaways and insights, so here we go…

DAY 1:
Session 1 - Legendary Tom Klinge started us off with a "G'Day Mate!" and a safety tip as only Tom can deliver. Then TIA CEO Roy Littlefield gave us a presentation on the rich history of TIA and the event's 65 year history. Roy Littlefield IV and John Evankovich gave us some announcements about future events this year including:
• TIA Federal Lobby Day in Washington DC - May 6, 2020
• TIA National Environmental Summit in Washington DC - May 7, 2020
• TIA Global Tire Expo/SEMA Show in Las Vegas - November 3-6, 2020
• TIA International Industry Issues Summit in Las Vegas - November 4, 2020
• The TIA 100th Anniversary Celebration will take place at The Cosmopolitan Hotel at the beautiful Chelsea Theatre.

And lastly - TIA's announcement that next year's TIA OTR Conference will be held in Tucson, Arizona in February of 2021.

Our Takeaway: From attending these past events we can tell you that Lobby Day is a great experience, and very worth while for RTA members who want to have some input into the legislation that shapes our industry. The SEMA Show/Global Tire Expo is always exciting and this year will be a grand celebration of TIA's 100 years of service to the tire industry.

Session 2 - Once more, Tom Klinge brought a clear warning about the hazards of overuse and dependency on our cell phones, and how that can affect our safety and cut into your company's bottom line.
Ron Galyer of Klinge Tyre Management and Matt White of TIA gave a comprehensive and very detailed show and tell demonstration of OTR demount and mount training safety and methods.

Our Takeaway: This was a well thought out and very understandable presentation that gave insights to anyone, even if you were unfamiliar with the process.

Session 3: Matt Hess joined Roy and Matt to give a great breakdown of the ins and outs of wheel torque guidelines.

Our Takeaway: Again, some interesting and complicated info here, made very understandable by these seasoned pros.

DAY 2:
Session 1: TIA's Kevin Rohlwing gave an energetic and broad breakdown of the U.S. economic forecast for the next few years, with a flurry of easy to read informational charts and graphs. Kevin provided solid numbers on the housing, retail, commercial, governmental, institutional and other sectors, not shying away from explaining some genuine dips in our current and expected growth, but an overall comprehensive take of what OTR manufacturers can expect.

Our Takeaway: This was a real eye opener and Kevin's presentation was, as usual, upbeat but honest, with an eye to the future and what we may be expecting to see in construction trends, etc. and he ended with a good, positive evaluation for the OTR industry for the next few years, with a few caveats. A great presentation.

Session 2: Glenn Maidment of the Tire and Rubber Association of Canada presented us with detailed info about the state of growth and legislation that will affect the Canadian and US tire industry, both economically and following large projects in progress that are working their way through legislation in the provinces.

Our Takeaway: The Canadian parliamentary government system, being structured differently from ours here in the US, has its own hurdles to get past in order to move some of the larger Canadian oil projects forward, but progress is happening and the recap was a good intro to how our neighbor to the North will be adding to the success of OTR business in the coming year.

Session 3: Publisher Greg Smith of Modern Tire Dealer moderated a two person panel on the current needs and ways of doing business that two major OTR tire end users, Vulcan Materials Co. and Martin Marietta explained in short presentations.

Our Takeaway: The biggest eye opener for us here at RTA was that neither of these OTR end users, has a real program in place for the use of retreaded tires, or the recycling of the tires that they use. It  seems to be an opportunity missed for these companies and we hope that retreaders can help to educate them about the features and benefits they may be missing out on.

DAY 3:

Session 1: Dave Rosenberg of Locked On Leadership, brought us a great motivational and thought provoking presentation on leadership, how to bring it to your team and what his military, media and company experience has taught him, and how to share it with your employees.

Our Takeaway: This guy was a pro, and the 45 minutes he spoke went by quickly. It brought new questions to mind for myself personally about leadership through RTA, what it takes when personal responsibility is a primary factor, and new directions that could be applied to our association. Well done.

Session 2: Alex Klinge did a masterful job of leading a panel of current OTR young industry professionals on the upcoming and current trends of millennial employees, who by 2025 will comprise 755 of our workforce. Although most of the panelists considered themselves more in the Generation X age range, they offered great insight in answer to some good questions about what they are seeing, and methods for ushering in new talent

Our Takeaway: There were plenty of well-thought out questions from the audience, and the groups answers were entertaining, often light hearted and a nice break form the charts and graphs of previous presentations. Made me want to hear more from all of them.

Session 3: The keynote speakers, Jeff Barna and Bruce Besancon of Yokohama Tire Corp, brought a lively back and forth approach to sharing their outlooks on the trends they see and put into practice at Yokohama. A look forward and a hard look at the present made this a great segment.

Our Takeaway: We were happy to see rtha President of a major tire company, Jeff Barna at TIA this year and also very happy to hear of Yokohama's commitment to sustainability issues, addressing the environmental and business needs of growing out industry and for us it just spelled out more good news for the retread and repair industry in general.

Session 4: Motivational speaker Steve Gilliland came right out of the gate with his "radio voice", a funny and dynamic approach, bringing us all in immediately. Great humor and a message that still resonates.

Our Takeaway: This is the kind of motivation we all need to hear more often, especially those of us who work in smaller groups or even in solitary offices. Kudos to the speaker for bringing something fresh and interesting.

THAT'S IT - but of course I haven't touched on the many incredible breaks, lunches, dinners celebrations and tabletop mixers that TIA provided - the beautiful Palm Springs setting and an astounding array of great times and thought provoking topics.

Can we give a recommendation to any of our members to attend next year? We think you'd be crazy not to. Even if you are not an OTR retreader or have little knowledge of this part of our great industry, we believe that as many of our members as possible should JOIN TIA and get involved with some of the finest people we have ever known.

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You can always reach Jeffrey Parks at RTA by phone at 831-620-5345

or email: jeffrey@retreadtire.org

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"Learning without thought is labor lost;
Thought without learning is perilous"