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Pick Up The Beat: Nashville, 2003

PFW Password - Winter 2002/03 PFW's biannual Dealership Management Conference is scheduled for March 12-15, 2003 in Nashville, Tennessee at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. March's conference focuses on the increasing pace of change in the equipment distribution industry and how PFW is providing products and services to help dealerships "Pick Up the Beat" of business at their dealerships.

With an appropriately balanced blend of education and entertainment, the conference offers something for everyone: more session choices than ever before, the launch of the "next generation" of the PFW Dealership Management System, a fantastic motivational keynote speaker, and plenty of time to network with representatives from many different dealerships. This is the one conference you just can't miss!

Conference Overview
If you've never attended a PFW conference before, you may want to know why PFW has continued to hold our Dealership Management Conferences every two years. To us, the answer is as simple as restating one of PFW's founding mottos: The PFW Dealership Management System is "designed for dealers, by dealers." This statement, which has served as our guide for developing software for the equipment distribution industry since our incorporation in 1981 means just this: Our software was, and continues to be, designed by the people who use it every day.

Through workshops that PFW holds throughout the year as well as through customized on-site training and, ultimately, through the Dealership Management Conference, PFW continues its commitment to the design and delivery of software and services our customers need. For PFW and our customers, the Dealership Management Conference presents the best opportunity to bring PFW system users and other industry contacts together to preview new software products, as well as to help shape the products that are still in the "concept" stage of development. Indeed, in Nashville, PFW will be launching the Financial Management and Customer Care modules of our new IntelliDealer software, and will be showcasing updates to various other products. Dealership presentations on existing PFW software will allow conference attendees to see how other dealerships are implementing some of PFW's most popular solutions, such as Management Central and eServices. And, as always, the conference also provides the perfect opportunity to brainstorm for entirely new solutions - ultimately helping PFW continue to deliver dealership solutions that our customers want - and need - for the future.

As well as discussing new and "concept" products, the conference also allows us to focus on the core PFW Dealership Management System as it is today and how our customers can continue to leverage their existing investment. With this in mind, the session called "Ten Underutilized, Timesaving and Moneymaking System Features" is planned as a fun, interactive training session to help attendees learn about and exploit some of the system features they may not be using (or even know about) - but should be. Through one-on-one discussion with PFW staff and with other PFW system users, attendees also will have opportunities thoughout the conference to share their unique business perspectives and procedures, talk about features they use in the system and address any enhancement issues.

The Opryland Hotel
Voted the "Best Hotel in Nashville," the Opryland Hotel is the world's largest hotel-convention center under one roof, and, with over 2,800 rooms, is recognized around the world for its extraordinary service, luxurious accommodations and first-class entertainment. More than just a superb hotel, however, the Opryland Hotel is also a large IBM iSeries 400-installed site that is using LANSA-based software and wireless technology throughout the hotel to expedite the visitor registration process. Attendees at the PFW conference who attend the "Opryland Hotel: IBM iSeries 400 Site" session will get a full "behind-the-scenes" account directly from the hotel's IT staff as they discuss their strategy of "Using Technology To Improve the Customer Experience" - an issue that every dealership also addresses as they try to determine their own technology strategies.

Track Sessions - Something New
Unlike previous conferences, PFW has planned two "tracks" of class sessions and will allow attendees at the 2003 conference to select which sessions best suit their interest. As sessions run concurrently, only three of the six sessions can be attended by a single attendee, however. Because of this, PFW encourages dealerships to send more than one person to the conference to cover all sessions. To help with the cost, a 10% discount on all registrations (after the first attendee has registered at full price) is offered.

Don't wait to register!
Fax back the registration form you received in the mail as part of the Conference Registration package to (519) 474-3949.