A well-earned beer

Great — it’s Wednesday evening again, and after the second #DCDW Event, a well-earned beer and dinner with our team, with the family of Russell Richardson, and friends and partners such as Maarten Bekkers, Rolf Westgeest and Bart Kuijpers. Two days in which you invest tens of thousands of euros in the hope that everyone who signs up actually shows up too.

Something that comes with a lot of tension. In the days beforehand I just get nervous — annoyingly so, my wife says — because organizing an event is simply very labor-intensive when you do it “on the side” — and that’s what we do. Even though the company, #DCDW, which stands for Digital Car Dealer Workshop, started 14 years ago with an event to help dealers get better at online lead follow-up — because this was important to us, back then at Nieuweautokopen.nl — it has grown into an event that genuinely tries to carry out the mission of “making online automotive better.”

A first in Brussels

This year we had a first, with a collaboration with Autotechnica in Brussels. A nice change, well executed, and the participants — more than 100 — were very enthusiastic too.

250+ in Houten — a first

The day after, in Houten — for me now, since I’m writing this today! More than 250 scanned participants, a first! In other words, we’ve never crossed the 250-participant mark before, 70% of whom are a dealer, a car dealership, an OEM or a leasing company. The real core target group!

Rolf Westgeest and a numb hand

They come, after all, for the real content, panel discussions, presentations, and also for the book presentation by Rolf Westgeest, “Voordat je gaat afprijzen.” Rolf had a numb hand today from all the signatures he got to put in his book — a fantastic sight to behold, after the more than 20 years we’ve now known each other. Proud of Rolf!

The keynote speaker: 27 years old and extraordinary

Our keynote speaker — yes! Extraordinary! 27 years old, and then, in a foreign country no less, able to captivate the audience for 90 minutes with a story that’s practically actionable, straight from real-world experience! Nice to see the students in attendance flock around him after the presentation. Students indeed — our events are free for IVA, Summa or Fontys students in the automotive sector, because it’s in all our interests that we get young people enthusiastic about automotive.

27 and 28 October — put it in your calendar

27 and 28 October is the next one, and yes, even though it’s a “free” event for participants, this one has to be sold just the same! So put it in your calendar now! And for those who don’t fall within the target group, but also don’t want to invest along with us in the ecosystem — just don’t come, then at least that’s clear too.