During the week of November 16th, 2020, Canadian Black Book and J.D. Power will once again host the TalkAuto Canada Conference.  For the ninth annual edition, plans have indeed changed.  

The event is being labeled 2020 TalkAuto@Home.  Given the current global COVID-19 pandemic, the two hosting companies have opted to provide an online virtual version of the Canadian automotive industry conference. In lieu of a one-day live conference, this new virtual venue will span across the week of Monday, November 16th from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT each day, featuring an array of speakers, keynotes, and expert panelists.

“Canada as a nation has done an excellent job curbing this spread of COVID-19 and there is much work to be done, so J.D. Power and ourselves at Canadian Black Book, want to make sure we are contributing to the solution, not the problem,” says Brian Murphy, VP Research & Analytics at Canadian Black Book. “At the same time, we feel it necessary to continue contributing to providing a forum for our industry to collaborate and help find solutions to our common current issues.”

As might be expected, the content of this year’s TalkAuto will be tailored towards trends, issues, technologies and best practices being learned in today’s COVID-19 automotive economy.

“In years past, we spent many hours debating the themes and topics to focus on for this event.  This year, given the extreme impact of COVID-19 on our industry and the global economy, there was no debate,” says JD Ney, Automotive Industry Practice Leader, Canada at J.D. Power.  “So much change has already taken place and we know there is more on the horizon.  We want to provide a platform to help shed some light on the opportunities that exist in the rapidly transforming auto sector in Canada.”

So far the organizers have confirmed an impressive line-up of speakers to present each day. In no particular order, the speakers include:

• Arianne Walker is the chief evangelist for Alexa Auto at Amazon
• Jon Sederstrom is Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives for J.D. Power’s Global Automotive division
• Jeff Schuster, President, Americas Operation and Global Vehicle Forecasting at LCM Automotive
• Brian Murphy, VP Research & Analytics at Canadian Black Book

For more information or to register, click here.