Registration now open for 2026 Repairer Driven Education at the SEMA Show

Registration is now open for the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) 2026 Repairer Driven Education (RDE) series, which will be held Nov. 3-6 alongside the SEMA Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The RDE series offers shop owners, managers, estimators, and technicians direct access to actionable, industry-specific education delivered by leading practitioners and subject-matter experts.

This year’s program features 19 sessions, beginning on Tuesday and wrapping up Thursday, covering a wide range of business, technical, and leadership topics critical to the modern collision repair environment.

The full series pass offers the best value and the greatest flexibility to move between sessions and build a personalized educational track across all three days, according to an SCRS press release.

“Each year, we work to reimagine the RDE experience based on feedback from our attendees and the evolving needs of the industry,” said Aaron Schulenburg, SCRS executive director, in the release. “The 2026 program reflects a deliberate focus on practical application, and these are sessions built to help shops make better decisions the moment they return home.”

Tuesday’s programming kicks off with three concurrent 9:30-11 a.m. sessions. These will include a live digital advertising workshop led by the Sokal team and designed specifically for collision repair businesses; a session on repair planning and revenue protection featuring data-driven insights from OEConnection; and a discussion on reclaiming technical authority and the collision shop’s fiduciary role led by Keith Manich of the Automotive Training Institute.

The afternoon continues with sessions on turning training into lasting shop performance, addressing the estimator bottleneck through modernized front-end workflows, and a session with Collision Advice’s Mike Anderson focused on intentionally capturing mechanical labor as a revenue and accuracy opportunity.

Tuesday concludes with a 2:30-4 p.m. block of sessions on repair transparency and defensible documentation, building a shop financial strategy modeled after Fortune 100 companies, and an industry panel discussion led by Steve Dawson of Hunter Engineering on bringing mechanical repairs in-house.

SCRS encourages attendees to pair Anderson’s earlier presentation with Dawson’s session.

“Anderson’s earlier session lays the groundwork for identifying and capturing mechanical labor already being performed, while Dawson’s panel picks up the conversation by exploring what it takes to bring those operations entirely in-house,” the release states. “Taken together, the two sessions offer a complete picture, from recognizing the opportunity to acting on it.”

Wednesday’s morning sessions address building bulletproof repair plans through hands-on collaboration, identifying daily shop practices that inadvertently empower insurers, and a leadership workshop on the distinction between responsibility and accountability, according to the release.

A session focused on shop practices that empower insurers will feature industry attorney Sean Preston of Coverall Law. SCRS invited Preston to bring a legal perspective to a topic often discussed only from an operational standpoint, the release states. The goal is to help attendees understand not only what to change, but why those changes matter from a negotiation and liability standpoint.

The morning’s leadership session, led by Tony Adams and Melissa Wolfe of LeadersWay, will examine the difference between responsibility and accountability. While designed to stand on its own, this session also serves as a natural part one to the duo’s afternoon session on communication.

Attendees who attend both sessions will gain a more complete arc, moving from how teams take ownership of results to how they communicate that ownership day-to-day, the release states.

In the afternoon, sessions feature Adams and Wolfe’s follow-up on communication effectiveness using the DiSC model applied directly to collision repair environments, along with a deep dive on integrating auto glass operations in-house as a revenue and compliance strategy. There will also be a financial planning workshop aimed at connecting shop budgets directly to technician production goals and profitability targets.

Wednesday will close with the IDEAS Collide Showcase from 2:30-4 p.m. IDEAS is the RDE series’ signature event featuring fast-paced, 10-minute presentations designed to challenge conventional thinking and introduce transformative ideas.

This year’s showcase presenters include:

• • Ryan Taylor, BodyShop Booster – on AI-driven shop operations that generate opportunity around the clock
  • Sean Preston, Coverall Law – on the legal distinction between a shop’s right to be paid and a customer’s right to reimbursement
  • Joel Adcock, Revv – on closing the gap between diagnostic scans and OEM-required ADAS calibrations
  • Brian Herron, OPUS IVS – on scaling a business from a small team to a large organization
  • Justin Allen, Hunter Engineering – on the long-term disruption of ADAS and how shops can position themselves ahead of the curve
  • Daniel Burkholder, BodyShop Marketing – on how AI-driven search is reshaping how customers find collision repair businesses
  • Maria Quintero, Body Builders Automotive – on connecting technician financial awareness to career development and shop performance

Thursday will feature the OEM Collision Repair Technology Summit from 12:30-4 p.m., a three-session event to bring collision repair professionals into direct conversation with innovators in automotive structural design, materials, and technology.

Session-specific topics will be revealed through “Map Your Show.” Past OEM Summits have addressed alternative fuels, ADAS safety technologies, and evolving vehicle construction and material makeup.

In addition to the RDE series, registration for the SEMA Show is now open. Due to limited space in individual sessions and with a full series pass, SCRS encourages attendees to register early to secure their preferred sessions and lock in access to the full week of programming.

Attendees can register and add RDE education sessions through the Registration Resource Center at scrs.com/sema-rde-registration.

Images

Featured image provided by SCRS