#BE2018 hailed a huge success

The bodyshop Event and Awards has been celebrated as a triumph at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole, where more than 600 industry leaders and colleagues met to pay homage to the successes of the past year.

This was the 22^nd staging of the event, and confirmed its position as the industry’s most-respected awards ceremony, with the winners selected by an independent panel of judges comprising industry peers.

The two-day event – a welcome dinner on Thursday followed by a day of seminars and networking before the gala dinner and awards ceremony this evening – provided a fantastic opportunity for the industry to come together, share learnings and gain invaluable insights from all corners of the market.

Of course, it also served to bring our unique industry closer together, to make new friends and reconnect with old ones.

Following on the from the success of last year, #BE2018 again included morning and afternoon sessions of live technical walk-arounds of vehicles supplied by Bentley, Volvo and Volkswagen.

These took place in the main hall, alongside a wide range of exhibitors, while separate breakout rooms featured a panel debate and seminars from Steve Young, managing director of ICDP, who discussed the development of the collision repair market, and Timandra Harkness, who delivered a compelling talk on the future of mobility.

All the team here at #BE2018 were delighted to be your hosts for the past two days and would like to extend a warm thank you to everyone for coming and helping to make the event so special.

Our thanks also go to our partners, whose support has made it all possible. They are headline partners AkzoNobel and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, as well as sponsors Audatex, Autoflow, CAPS, Car-O-Liner, Ezi Methods, Fix Auto, IBIS, Industry Insights, Mirka, NBRA, NIBS, S&B Automotive Academy, Sikkens, Symach, Thatcham Research, the IAEA and Vizion.