Beyond the Core: Texas Auto Body Trade Show Evolves

by Alana Quartuccio

There’s been a radical shift in the collision repair space. The atmosphere is changing rapidly. One can’t navigate as easily with the same old strategies used in the past. The market slowdown, advanced technologies and total loss trends can make an auto body business owner feel like they are falling into an endless black hole.

But there are ways to steer the ship in a new direction. And it starts at ABAT’s Texas Auto Body Trade Show!

Taking place September 18 and 19 at the Marriott Dallas Allen Hotel and Convention Center for the second year in a row, this year’s event is on track to deliver even more education than ever before. It wouldn’t be a Texas Auto Body Trade Show if it didn’t naturally get bigger and better.

Speaking of big, education is one of ABAT’s biggest passions! And that is particularly why the show delivers no less than the same level of education that can be found at the national level. Some of the industry’s most recognizable speakers are making their way to the Lone Star State this September to inspire repair professionals with fresh strategies to help them drive new business to their doorsteps.

ABAT Executive Director Jill Tuggle is always enthusiastic about education at the show, and this year her excitement is at an all time high!

“Usually, it’s some of the fun aspects we bring to the show that get me really excited, but this year it’s the heavy-hitting education we have in store,” she says.  “The industry is absolutely wild right now. People are struggling and facing new issues, insurers are squeezing everyone, so when I looked at education for this year’s show, I realized we had to bring in some heavy-hitting stuff. We strive every year to provide great educational opportunities for our attendees, but this year we really mean business.”

Outside the box thinking is absolutely essential in today’s business climate. This year’s slate goes beyond the core collision repair curriculum. Every class has been designed to help collision repair professionals find new paths toward profitability and efficiency. Attendees will not only gain new insight, but considerations for alternative revenue sources. This year’s show will feature glass repair clinics, urethane certification courses (in English and Spanish!) and a full-day windshield repair session.

In fact, an ice cold beer among peers won’t be the only reason attendees head to the popular happy hour “Industry Over a Pint” segment this year. Discussion will be all about exploring alternative income streams such as glass repair, ceramic coatings, wheel restorations and then some.

Tuggle is super excited about this returning segment.

“Every shop should be here for this,” she suggests. “We’ll discuss how shops are broadening their offerings to customers and how it can bring in additional revenue. We’ll hear from the body shops who have done it, some of the providers who can offer the equipment and help shops implement, and industry experts who can weigh in their perspectives on how these alternative income streams can work for a shop. This is a really cool topic that should interest everyone.”

Kyle Bradshaw (K&M Collision; Hickory, NC) is no stranger to the ABAT show, but he will bring his “Excellence Wins: Redefining Customer Experience in Collision Repair” presentation to the Texas seminar room for the first time this year.

“When a customer has a really great experience, they tell everyone about it,” Bradshaw relays. He took inspiration from Ritz-Carlton founder Horst Schulze to elevate customer service expectations to higher levels at his shop and now he’s sharing his own success stories with fellow repair professionals.

The importance of the customer experience can be easily overlooked when one gets caught up in the chaos of the day to day. However, there are great benefits that can be achieved when one takes the time to make it a focal point.

“I’m passionate about customer service because it can really be a differentiator between your shop and the competition. Offering an excellent customer experience can really set you apart from the competition. It doesn’t matter what your shop’s business model is; great customer service is something you can adopt and improve.”

When it comes to big names in the industry, it really doesn’t get any bigger than Mike Anderson (Collision Advice), who returns to Texas once again with his excellent brand of expertise and energy that will have collision repairers jumping out of their seats.

The industry’s celebrity educator will moderate a panel discussion focused on refinishing. Representatives from the top five paint manufacturers will take part in the discussion. This is a must-attend class for everyone in the shop – not just painters – as it sets out to provide attendees with resources to help them get proper reimbursement.

“There are a lot of resources that every single paint manufacturer makes available that can help estimators during the repair planning process,” Anderson states. It can help repair planners identify paint codes for three-stage or four-stage processes. It can also help identify special types of paint products used with matte finish, which is becoming more widely used.

The panel is an opportunity to educate attendees about the various resources offered by their paint manufacturers.

“There are not-included operations a repair planner never had to think about years ago that now have to be taken into consideration.”

Anderson says not only will the discussion expose repair professionals toward ways to justify reimbursement for additional materials, but it also will educate them about paint formulas and products that may require additional labor times that are not included in standard paint labor times.

The refinish panel won’t be the only time attendees will hear from Anderson as he is preparing to deliver much more over the course of the weekend. Stay tuned for more details in next month’s issue!

Anderson is excited to return to Texas this September because the ABAT show always brings out the best. He points to the saying, “God Bless Texas. Jill does a great job organizing the show. They always have great attendance and interaction. It’s just good vibes.”

Ryan Taylor (Body Shop Booster) is looking forward to his Texas Auto Body Trade Show debut. Well known for his illuminating presentations, Taylor will be tackling the AI hemisphere with the “UnfAIr Advantage.”

Artificial intelligence is everywhere today, yet it’s only just at it’s very beginning stages. Taylor will start off with a state-of-the-industry view of the AI space and where it’s headed. “I’ll share some global things that are going to impact the industry, but more importantly I will show collision repairers how to adapt to it, what technologies are coming out and what technologies are already here they may not know about. We’ll show them key advantages that will allow them to outpace their competition.”

Taylor has identified two major areas – lead capture and estimate capture –  where shops are hemorrhaging customers. “We’ll show attendees how to fix those leaks in the bucket and then how they can crank up the volume.”

He calls the unfair advantage the great compression. “Not the Great Depression, but the great compression. Insurance companies are totalling vehicles at much lower thresholds. In the past, a $100,000 vehicle would be totalled if the damage exceeded $70,000. Today, that same $100,00 vehicle would be totalled at $50,000 or even $45,000. More repairable vehicles are disappearing. On the one side of the spectrum, we’re losing repairable vehicles to total losses. On the other side, we have customer pay. I call it the two bookends of the great compression. We’ve seen customer pay go from five percent in some markets to on average nationally up to 26 percent and climbing. The buying behavior has definitely changed. The middle where shops were comfortable has compressed and shops have to now figure out what their new normal is and how to harness it. During COVID, shops were sailing along with strong winds but now those winds have changed direction.”

Taylor will share eye-opening data points to get shops thinking about what they can do to improve capture rates. For example, 43 percent of customers abandon a shop on first contact.  He’ll share AI tools that can help offset these scary factors.

“It’s not that the work has gone away, it’s that behaviors have changed and we have to adapt to it,” he added.

The classrooms are not the only place to get an education at the Texas Auto Body Trade Show. You can learn something with every step you take! Be sure to walk the aisles and learn about the newest equipment and resources from some of the industry’s best equipment and service suppliers.

It wouldn’t be the Texas Auto Body Trade Show without the action-packed fun of the BIG SHOTS Competition which makes its return for the 2026 show. Don’t miss your chance to show off your painting, welding, estimating and glue pulling skills for a chance to win some incredible prizes! First place winners in all four categories walk away with $1,000 in cash and will be featured on the front cover of the October issue of Texas Automotive.

The fun starts extra early this year as ABAT has partnered with Kaizen Glass to host a golf tournament at The Golf Club at Twin Creeks in Allen on September 17. Be sure to get into town early and take part in this great industry networking event!

The learning, interaction and the fun just never stop! Get ready to break through the surface and rise to the shop by making plans to get to the Texas Auto Body Trade Show September 18 and 19.  Registration can be found at abat.us.

Want more? Check out the July 2026 issue of Texas Automotive!