www . PowersportsBusiness . com

Powersports Business • December 2024 • 3

BY BRENDAN BAKER EDITOR IN CHIEF

I was all in when Dave McMahon called to invite me to the NPDA conference in Columbus . After all , it is practically in my backyard ( by about 100 miles ). So , I was looking forward to seeing what was happening with the association at its inaugural Dealer Connect event held Oct . 20−23 .

McMahon was at the helm of PSB for many years and spearheaded our Accelerate Conference ( which takes place in January in Charlotte , North Carolina , by the way ), so the familiarity was striking . Still , it also reminded me of what I love about our conference . McMahon and Tigra Tsujikawa put together a great event on very short notice . I know the idea of doing an event was floating around the association , but until McMahon joined the team with Tigra , they didn ' t have the necessary skill set in-house for such a big task .

The whole point of the event ( besides educating dealers ) was to highlight the importance of the association to members . The overarching theme was , “ We need to stick together and grow the industry together .”

While I missed the opening day , they held some bonus sessions before Garage Composites kicked things off with a new take on Ed Lemco ' s “ Update .”

I got in bright and early Monday morning to have breakfast with dealers before the day ' s meetings . You learn a lot about what ' s going on at these industry meals . And boy , did they have meals ! It was a feast at all three meals , but also an essential part of the event , as networking is often a highlight . And this one was no different . We spoke with Bob

Above : NPDA held its first dealer conference in Columbus , Ohio , October 20-22 to promote the association and provide dealer education .

Right : NPDA director , Dave McMahon ( left ) introduces Harley council member Don Meyers to talk about progress with the group .

Althoff of Dealernews and NPDA . He shared some big news with the group that morning after breakfast .

NPDA is growing quickly . They now have 52 percent of the congressional districts represented . And Althoff says that is the key to getting things done in Washington . Representation matters both locally and nationally .

Bob Key ( Destination Cycle , Texas ) is vice chairman and helped get things going with Gail Worth ( Gail ' s Powersports , Missouri ), and both are founding board members . Key and Worth reiterated how the time is now to come together ( and not just for the election ). “ Every great achievement has a long , unseen road to get there ,” Key noted .

Jayson Davis ( PowerSports of Greenville , South Carolina ) also spoke about the need to unite as an industry and as dealers for common goals . We all joked that he sounded like a politician , and with that speech , he may get a big voter turnout .

Left : Mike Murray with NPA discussed how dealers can improve their pre-owned business and better understand valuation of used machines .

Below : NPDA chairman and founder , Bob Althoff introduced Triple-B Media to announce the joint deal with Powersports World TV .

Later , Althoff announced a new joint venture with Triple-B Media to launch a new streaming channel called Powersports World TV . The new channel will ( hopefully ) be incorporated into dealer member stores on a streaming platform that can be played on TVs throughout the dealer and showroom areas . The channel will feature everything from mainstream racing events to obscure powersports-related programming . Althoff and his team hope to tap into the $ 47 billion powersports industry .

Althoff encouraged attendees to meet the board of directors and discussed how the NPDA can benefit members now . NPDA board member and Harley-Davidson council member Don Meyers spoke about how effective NPDA councils can be for dealers willing to put in the time and effort . The Harley council is working with the Motor Company H-D council to have their voices heard . As many may know , there ' s been some turmoil with Harley lately . Meyers and others on the council believe they now have an effective channel to Harley management , even though they are not an official Harley council .

Next on stage was Garage Composites ' presentation about being accountable . Jordon Schoolmeester , who was an ex-firefighter , asked the audience , “ Would you work for you ?” That is a question I would decline to answer . But it makes one think about the people who do work for you . And are you accountable to your customers ? What is your word worth ? It starts at the top , says Schoolmeester . He looked at how accountability shapes your team , the impor-

See NPDA Conference , Page 4

4 Moto Morini names South Central regional sales manager 4 Denago names national account rep 6 Piaggio celebrates grand opening of

MotoPlex Arizona

10 Putting a bow on 2024 ! 10 Instagram tips

8 PIERER Mobility looks to investors for KTM financial lifeline 8 Same store sales report 9 Harley reports sales drop in Q3

12 Celebrating 50 years of FOX 13 Consumer insights and trends for 2024 14 Innovation and marketing in the dealership

15 Sea-Doo dealers Rank highest in 2024 Boat Industry Study

16 Orlando dealer acquires third location 17 Honda reveals 2025 models

19 KTM reveals FREERIDE E 19 Yamaha pulls out of U . S . e-bike market

20 At 25 , dealer buys Harley stores 20 Max Materne joins to speak at

Accelerate Conference

24 Happy 50th to Rider Magazine 25 AMA Motorcycle HOF inducts 2024 class 25 Rider reveals 2024 Motorcycle of the

Year

26 Arctic Cat pauses production

28 Lightspeed shares aftermarket parts data 30 Hot Products