SARASOTA, Fla. — The education committee for The Leedom Group’s 15th Annual Buy-Here, Pay-Here National Convention unveiled its lineup of speakers, workshops and panels for the three-day event, which will be held Oct. 12-14 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

The theme of this year’s convention is, “It’s a New Automotive World: Understand, Adapt and Succeed,” and is designed to empower dealers with the knowledge and understanding of what has become a very unfamiliar automotive retail landscape.

“Our goal this year was to create a well-balanced workshop schedule that dealers can use to adjust their business models as economic conditions dictate, and to keep them abreast of what real-world methods have worked for real dealers,” said Chris Leedom, the convention’s chairman. “By far and away, this is one of our most intense programs to date.”

The convention will include speeches from keynote speaker and futurist David Houle, who will share with attendees what they should expect in terms of coming social, political, economic and technological changes, and Leedom and Chuck Bonanno, who will provide insight into what dealers have done to remain in business during this recession and what they will have to do to remain viable enterprises into the future.

The convention will also have a legal and regulatory panel with some attorneys from Hudson Cook LLP and Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel P.C.; several regulatory compliance panel discussions and an accounting panel with CPAs from Katz, Sapper & Miller. There will also be a detailed examination of the lease here-pay here business model; sessions on finding the right wholesale inventory for retail sales both at traditional auctions and online, lead generation, electronic payments and ACH. In addition, there will be a workshop by nationally recognized sales trainer George Dans.

“Each year we are astounded by not only what we learn during these workshops and panel discussions, but by what is shared among our hundreds of attendees,” Leedom said. “Just one idea shared during our cocktail reception or a chance comment during breakfast or one of the breaks can result in tens of thousands of dollars in improved net profit. We know this is a fact because we’ve seen it first hand, and our dealerships have directly benefited from just such a tip.”

In addition to the workshops and panels, dozens of vendors will be on hand for the convention’s Grand Expo.

Registrations for the convention are up 7 percent over 2008, and hundreds of dealers have pre-registered for this year’s event. “There’s renewed enthusiasm among dealers across the country,” said Leedom. “We see it in our dealer Twenty Groups, on the front lines at our dealerships in Florida and Georgia and with the numbers we see rolling in for dealer registrations and vendor participation.

For complete details on the event, visit www.newautomotiveworld.com, or to register, call 800-966-8733.