The 72nd Annual Production Engine Remanufacturers Association (PERA) convention will be held September 20-22 at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort in Clearwater Beach, FL. Registration for the convention and for the hotel are now open.
The technical seminars and tour schedule are as follows:
Wednesday, September 20th
8:00-8:30 am Working Breakfast – Welcome by President Scott Miller
8:30 am Keynote Address: “Leadership Isn’t for Cowards: How to Lead Courageously in a Turbulent Age” Mike Staver is an author, coach and speaker who specializes in leadership skills. Mike brings a whole new perspective to the concept of leadership that is refreshing and insightful.
Unlike many coaches and speakers Mike takes noisy, often complex, leadership content and makes it immediately useful, digestible and entertaining. His counterintuitive perspective and his story telling style combined with an entertaining delivery makes the often-challenging realities of work and life easier to absorb, hear and adjust to.
10:15 am Direct Injection Andrew Markel, editor of Underhood Service magazine will use his many sources from OE to manufacturers and suppliers of direct injection systems to talk about the different designs, their operation, the issues and how they may affect your remanufactured product. He’ll provide specific information regarding the 3.6L GM engine.
11:00 am The 3.6L GM Engine Family Taylor Friend, Quality Control Captain at Jasper Engine and Transmission Exchange will go through all the different variations of this engine that is a mainstay across many of GM’s platforms.
12:00 noon Lunch
1:00 pm Piston Rings – New Technology and Applications This will be a 3-part presentation anchored by moderator Dave Monyhan. Bill Whisenant of Hastings Manufacturing, Bill McKnight of Mahle Aftermarket and Pim van den Burgh of NPR of America will share what is happening with piston rings today and what we can expect coming out of the OEs in the near future. Q&A will follow their presentations to allow you to clarify any points presented.
2:30 pm Understanding the Failures of VVT & How to Reman Benjamin Baloga and Shai Dhanani of LKQ will walk us through identifying VVT failures and how you can overcome them. They’ll share what pieces you can successfully rework and which pieces must be thrown away and replaced.
3:15 pm Hiring Young People – the struggle with Millennials Hiring, keeping and motivating millennials is a universal problem today, regardless of the industry or business. Here to help you understand what it takes to overcome these issues is Travis Weathermon, SRC’s highly qualified HR manager.
4:15 pm Understanding the Medium Duty Diesel Market With the introduction of tighter EPA regulations diesel engines are undergoing big changes. Are gasoline and other alternative fuel engines displacing the diesel? Kevin Koester, Ford’s Medium Duty Truck and Super Duty Fleet Marketing Manager will update us on all the changes this market is undergoing.
6:00-7:30 pm Opening Reception hosted by AER Manufacturing.
Thursday, September 21st
7:30 am Working Breakfast & Welcome Back
7:45 am Engine Valves This topic will be broken down into 3 segments: New Valves; Remanufactured Valves; and Reclaiming Valves. Ricardo Bastoni of Osvat Engine Valves will cover valve technology, materials and causes of failures. Casey Calouette of Cal Valves will go through the process of remanufacturing valves and Harry “Skip” Hartley will cover which valves are likely candidates to be reclaimed in your shop.
9:00 am The Value of Social Media Eric Smith of Smith Advertising & Social Media comes from a family long associated with our industry so he knows who we are – both reman and supplier – and understands our needs. Eric will address this important topic that has taken the world by storm and will show you how to make it work best for you.
9:45 am Elections and Awards Elections and introductions of new directors & officers, recognize outgoing directors, other awards.
10:30 am Annual PERA Golf Tournament Belleair Country Club will host this year’s golf tournament. Talk about views- you’ll be stunned with the beauty of this 120+ year old club! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play Florida’s first golf course, one that remains one of the tops in the nation.
10:30am Mastercut Tools overview for non-golfers
11:30am Lunch for non-golfers
12:15pm Mastercut Tools plant tour
Thursday evening is a free evening to enjoy Clearwater!
Friday, September 22nd
8:00 am Working Breakfast
8:15 am What’s Happening with Engine Bearings? Much like the piston ring topic, this presentation will include Robert Taylor of ACL; Bill McKnight of Mahle & Ron Sledge of King Engine Bearings. Moderated by Doug Kaufman, editor of Engine Builder magazine.
9:30 am Exporting/Importing to and from Asia James Moore of SpeedShare is the expert you may have always been looking for when it comes to exports or imports with Asian countries. SpeedShare has been offering business development services to automotive related companies since 2010 and has a physical presence in Hong Kong. James will provide an in-depth understanding of the current state of engine remanufacturing on mainland China as well as an overview of other key Asian countries.
10:30 am Lifters David Popp of TopLine Engineering and a representative of LKQ will discuss the manufacturing of standard lifters and the reclaiming of roller lifters.
11:45 am Southern Machining Technologies tour overview
12:00 noon Closing – Dave Monyhan & Scott Miller
12:15pm Lunch Sponsored by U.S. Tool & Mfg. and Silver Seal Products
Afternoon – Tour of Southern Machining Technologies
An exciting series of tours of museums, shops and wildlife sanctuaries is planned each day for attending spouses and on Friday evening, everyone is invited to PERA’s Beach Party at the beautiful Sheraton Sand Key Resort. Bring your beach wear for a fun evening on the sand and grass where you’ll experience beach games, wine sampling, a cigar rolling demonstration and live entertainment.
Custom rolled cigars will be available for purchase throughout the evening.
Join us for drinks, dinner and fun. Come dressed for the beach and be ready for another fun evening!
Your hotel reservations are just a click or phone call away. Click on or cut and paste the following link into your search engine to reach the Sheraton Sand Key Resort reservation page.
https://www.starwoodmeeting.com/events/start.action?id=1705180876&key=2CCCC038
If you would prefer to make your reservations by phone, call 727-595-1611
and use Booking Code: P115AB.
The guaranteed rate of $179.00 will be honored until 5:00pm on August 19th. After that the PERA rate will no longer be available. This rate is available three days before and three days after the program on a space available basis only.
For more information about the convention, visit www.pera.org.
