This year saw the return of Bodyshop LIVE! – the all-day collision repair industry event on Wednesday, 12 October 2022 – which included the Bodyshop Expo, Bodyshop magazine’s 30 Under 30: Rising Stars, and the ever-popular Bodyshop Awards.
Nominations for Bodyshop magazine’s two high-profile independent awards initiatives, which celebrated the year’s highest-achievers and rising stars across the industry, reached record levels in 2022.
The magazine once again teamed up with Vizion Network and Remit Group for the panel and paint technician and apprentice awards, and also introduced a new category open to multi-skilled MET technicians working in the advanced technologies space.
This all-new Powered by asTech – Bodyshop Thatcham Advanced Technologies Technician of the Year award was open to the UK’s best technicians holding a current qualification or accreditation at Level 3 or above in both EV and ADAS, validated through an assessed outcome and certified by a recognised awarding organisation.
The practical assessments for the Advanced Technologies Technician award were conducted at Thatcham Research in mid-July. The panel and paint apprentice and technician assessments took place in late August/early September.
Bodyshop LIVE! 2022 also saw the return of our daytime Bodyshop Expo, which showcased the products and services of our lead partners and sponsors and and took place from 09:00-15:00 before the gala dinner for 30 Under 30: Rising Stars and the Bodyshop Awards 2022. It featured multiple live equipment demos hosted by experts in their fields, and included complimentary breakfast, networking coffee breaks and lunch.
Expo tickets were free to anyone working in a bodyshop or SMART repair business, and they were competitively priced for non-bodyshop networking passes.
Bodyshop magazine was also delighted to announce the continuation of its partnership with 3M to jointly deliver the 30 Under 30: Rising Stars programme.
Simon Wait, Bodyshop’s editor, said: “The 30 Under 30 initiative, now in its sixth year, is one of our most popular awards programmes and paints a bright picture of the talent this industry has within its ranks. 3M’s dedication to developing and nurturing new and existing young talent blends perfectly with bodyshop magazine’s vision.
“And at a time of immense change and challenge within the industry, teaming up once more with forward-thinking businesses such as lead partners 3M, Axalta, Enterprise, Repairify, Solera Audatex, Vizion Network and Automechanika UK, plus our Gold and Silver partners, helped to evolve the UK industry’s oldest and most prestigious independent awards initiative to yet another level.”
