Aftermarket February 2023

52 AFTERMARKET FEBRUARY 2023 ON THE ROAD www.aftermarketonline.net A fter three years without a live event, the IAAF Conference 2022 saw in- person presentations and face-to-face encounters come roaring back, with Chief Executive Mark Field taking to the stage at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Milton Keynes to lead the event, and set the agenda. Providing a coda for 2022 and setting the scene for 2023, in his opening remarks Mark noted: “The theme of this year’s conference is overcoming adversity. We all now live and work differently to the way did before. I think the pandemic brought the best out in the aftermarket. In the past 18 months you will have seen changes in the IAAF. It is time to go further though. The IAAF will lead the aftermarket in embracing new technologies. Our lobbying through UK AFCAR has also really intensified.” On the organisation’s major new project, Mark observed: “One of our big passion areas for the next year is the IAAF Training Academy. This will not conflict with anyone – it is open to everyone. Our vision is that there will be a programme of learning that everyone will benefit from. Our garage section is going to become much bigger going forward, and we want to bring them together. We are going to offer garages something different – greater insight, and bigger presence at Automechanika Birmingham. Finally, with much of what we do being about enhancing impressions of our trade, we are launching a member survey in March. Mark added: “I want everyone to know how widespread our industry is. It is time for the aftermarket to come out of the shadows.” Control With the preliminaries out of the way, it was time to get really stuck into the issues. First up was Aftermarket’s regular contributor Neil Pattemore, Technical Director for the IAAF and UK AFCAR, who was there to discuss the increasingly pertinent question; Who controls the aftermarket? “You all run your own businesses,” he observed, so you probably think you all do.” The answer, as he went on to explain, is more complicated, and it’s getting more tangled: “UK aftermarket has since 2002 been supported by regulations, and that has continued IAAF CONFERENCE Rounding up 2022 for the aftermarket, the IAAF Conference saw a wide range of issues covered, with speakers from across the spectrum