3RD Annual Repair Olympics

[SGT]

I just recieved a new edition of AGRR and saw the ad for the 3RD annual repair olympics. I considered doing this last year but the timing was wrong. Hopefully I will be able to make this years event in Nov.

I know some may not enjoy this type of setting, some may not believe in the corporate driven agendas and so on, but I thought we could have our own agenda for going, it would give new and old forum members to alike a chance to put a face to the poster. Over the years we have all expressed our tooling/resin preferences on the forum and debated windshield repair techniques used and this would be a great opportunity to get together to see first hand the ideas we all have shared and see how they stack up.

I know this is not going to appeal to everyone but I think it would be a great opportunity to show your stuff and let whoever may be watching know our industry is full of independent professionals who truely care about it. Also, we could learn first hand from one another, not to mention I hear Vegas has a few things to do!

Just a thought.........

[Brent Deines]

I wish the Windshield Repair Olympics would focus a little more on the quality and speed of the repair, but as every break is different I understand why that would be difficult to judge.

What it judged is how the professionalism of the technician, inspecting and protecting the vehicle, assessing the damage and any special challenges, etc.

There are a number of our competitors that spend months preparing their representatives for the event, and those that have competed in the past obviously have a leg up on the competition, but from what I know of you Brian, I would think you would be quite competitive in all areas of the competition if you spend a bit of time gathering information about the judging and properly prepare in advance.

It would be very cool if a number of windshield repair forum members entered the competition. There are always a variety of different systems being used in the competition, but the judges do a reasonably good job of not promoting any one system as being better than another. In fact, I highly commend the judges from previous years competitions for their fairness, but I would still prefer that companies sponsoring technicians, and the suppliers of tools for the competition were not allowed to judge the competition. It just opens up the door to debates over the fairness of the judging, and no one wants that to be a factor in the competition. Personally I think the criteria should be developed by industry experts, but the judging should be done by completely impartial parties, if there is such a thing.

[starstruck]

What companies were the judges associated with? Did they all have members of their companies competing? Were the past winners sponored by one of the companies? Seems like a potential conflict of interest to me.

[Brent Deines]

I would like to reiterate that I feel the judging was fair in past competitions. I do agree however that there was a "potential" conflict of interest. If I was a judge and one of my employees, or even one of my customers won, I know some would question the validity of the competition, my integrity, and the skills of the contestant.

I will refrain from listing the names of the judges, contestants, and the companies they were associated with as I am in no way questioning their integrity. I think the winners of the last two competitions won fair and square, and all the contestants that I saw performed in a very professional manner, as did the judges.

[GlassStarz]

Not to be negative but go to vegas where there is about a kabillion things to do and spend the day watching a bunch of guys fix windshields? LOL Im sure its fun but kinda like taking a book to the dollar store I guess the networking thing would be a plus but we do that here

[starstruck]

Aw come on GlassStarz. it would be fun! We could get a cold draft beer and a ball park frank and sit in the stands and watch the excitement! We could cheer loudly for our favorite competitor and yell jeers at the judges - "you need glasses judge?!!!!!" Can't you imagine the thrills of watching these Olympians compete? LOL

[jasonsresin]

that would be awesome. what are the dates?

[SGT]

Originally Posted by jasonsresin

that would be awesome. what are the dates?

I believe Nov. 5,6,7

[starstruck]

Can I get advance spectator tickets? I want to beat the crowds. There will probably be people camping out on the sidewalk the night before just to be first in line! I can't wait! lol

[SGT]

Originally Posted by jasonsresin

that would be awesome. what are the dates?

You are right, that would be awesome if a forum member won. Our you going?