The Automotive Fleet & Leasing Association’s (AFLA) 2024 corporate fleet conference was held Sept. 15-18 at the La Cantera Resort & Spa in San Antonio. The Fleet Manager of the Year, Fleet Visionary of the Year, and Hall of Fame inductees were honored.
In addition to the education and networking events, speaker highlights included David Horsager, the Wall Street Journal best-selling author of The Trust Edge and leading futurist and author Jack Uldrich.
Over 500 of the fleet’s top professionals attended a packed schedule of noteworthy speakers and helpful panel discussions. They also took advantage of plenty of networking time to catch up with colleagues they might not have seen in the past year.
Women in Fleet Management (WIFM) Starts Things Off
While every annual conference is chockful of professional growth and fleet-specific learning opportunities, this year’s conference may have been perhaps the most active and well-attended. It included three packed days of activities. The always-popular “Women in Fleet” session, the late night “afterglows,” and the busy networking activities.
This year’s conference saw an influx of new sponsors and an increased presence of younger attendees, including corporate buyers and service providers. The number of fleet managers in attendance increased. Finally, emerging technologies capture tremendous interest.
“We’ve seen the kind of robust participation that told us this year’s conference delivered provide many meaningful opportunities for attendees to network while gaining insights they can use to improve their businesses and fleets,” said Elizabeth Schlicht, Executive Director of AFLA, which is celebrating its 55th anniversary.
PARS’ Lori Rasmussen
While several new sponsors were featured at this year’s conference, many long-time sponsors, such as PARS—the fleet transport management company—were present in force. Lori Rasmussen, president of PARS and former AFLA president, said she and her team had the opportunity to strengthen their relationships with customers and prospects alike: “AFLA is one of its most important conferences of the year.”
Fleet Management Weekly’s Janice Sutton
Janice Sutton, the founder of Fleet Management Weekly, a member of the Fleet Hall of Fame, and a long-time AFLA attendee, thought that this year’s conference compressed an impressive amount of knowledge into three days: “Expert panels, pertinent keynotes, and the many face-to-face networking opportunities ensured attendees went home with a long list of actionable ideas.”
The highlight of the conference’s awards dinner was the presentation of this year’s Edward J. Bobit Award for Professional Fleet Manager of the Year, presented to Sharon Etherington, Senior Manager of Regional Administrative Services at Roche Diagnostics. In addition, the 2024 Fleet Visionary Award was presented to Ernest Garcia, Director of Fleet and Business Systems at Gothic Landscape.
