For the team here at FenderBender, 2021 has been a year full of successes and defeats, similar, I’m sure, to how it’s been for many of you. We’ve had some aspects of what we do hampered or diminished due to the pandemic and its continued trail of challenges that falls in its wake. Other items, though, have been given new life, like the FenderBender Management Conference. For the first time since 2019, we were able to hold FBMC, and I can’t begin to explain how rewarding and fulfilling that was.
Hopefully many of you reading have attended our event in the past, but for those of you who haven’t, we like to think of FBMC as our magazine brought to life—we try to pool together the top leaders and operational minds in the industry to share with our attendees exactly how they do what they do, and how those attending can do it, too. Every aspect of content is designed for tangible, actionable takeaways that you can implement Day 1 upon returning to your business. And those speakers are attendees as well, sitting in each other’s sessions, there to learn just as much as teach. It’s a networking and peer-learning experience that we couldn’t be more proud to stamp our name on, particularly this year.
I was blown away by the energy in the room during those two-and-a-half days. Everyone was just so grateful to be there, to be in person, to be with their peers, to share those successes and defeats of the past year. Even in the lead-up to the show, there was an air of camaraderie that I was touched to witness. When columnist Jason Boggs’ community was hit by a rare tornado and he was forced to stay home to oversee rebuilding efforts, fellow columnist Kevin Rains stepped up to take his place during a session. The last 19 months have been challenging for everyone; no one was immune to it. And we all need support. What FBMC did was remind me of what this industry does best: help each other. And that support extends to beyond the 200 shop owners at FBMC; it includes you at home, as well. We’re all still here, and we’re all in this together.
