Pedler: From Goat Rodeo to Game Plan: What Actually Happens at Auto Care Connect Week

It's time, friends. You are being summoned to Atlanta, Georgia, from May 11 to May 14 for Auto Care Connect Week.

If your world revolves around aftermarket content and data, this is your Super Bowl, Daytona 500, and World Cup rolled into one. (And the Masters, the U.S. Open, the Kentucky Derby, and the World Series. I don't know what you're into.) The ACPN (Aftermarket Content Professionals Network) Council has spent the last 11 months planning ACPN programming for Connect Week.

To help you decide which sessions to attend, here's a handy guide.

If you feel crushing disappointment that colleagues keep using the word "pies" in your presence and then never have any actual pie: Introduction to ACES® and PIES®

If you are attending Connect Week for the first time and want to make 100 new lifelong best friends who are also attending Connect for the first time: ACPN First-Time Attendee Happy Hour

If you attended the ACPN First-Time Attendee Happy Hour and would like to stretch both the Happy and the Hour, OR you just want to be as happy as the first-time attendees: Auto Care Connect Welcome Reception

If two Happy Hours in one day seems wildly inadequate: ACPN Community Monday Night Social

If you want some data and reassurance about the pace of change and the future of work delivered by someone who isn't full of you-know-what: ACPN Featured Speaker Heather McGowan

If you're conflicted about whether retailers are trying to drive you to an early grave: Customer Success Story With Advance Auto Parts

If you've ever thought "why am I doing this again?": Content That Drives Decisions: How Independent Repair Uses Information to Choose and Sell Products

If you are ready to party with your content besties and/or want to see phone pictures of people's dogs: ACPN Community Exclusive Chair's Dinner

If you want to know more about ACES® but you have the attention span of a toddler and need to be entertained while you learn: ACES® Beyond the Basics: Datapocalypse Now – Everything's on Fire, But in ACES Format (I admit that I am biased about this session because I'm presenting it for the sixth year in a row, and the worst criticism I could possibly receive is that it's boring and unfunny.)

If the many systems and strategies for digital transformation seem like mystical wizardry and you missed this class at Hogwarts: Making Digital Transformation Work — A Practical Guide to Getting It Right

If cars and light trucks are for losers and heavy-duty trucks are where it's at and you will die on this hill: What to Fix, What to Ignore: A Decision-First Playbook for Heavy-Duty Content & Data

If you harbor a secret affinity for program groups (who doesn't?) and you love a good mystery: Life Outside of Retail: What Is a Program Group, Anyway?

If you have a recurring dream where you're being chased by something that means you harm but your legs won't move and you're frantically looking around for a weapon, this session is the weapon: PIES® Beyond the Basics: Are You Ready for PIES® 8.0?

If your plan for handling Brazil and Mexico data is "we'll figure it out later," and later has arrived: The Brazil-Mexico Connectivity: Navigating VIO Complexity and Cataloging Standards in 2026

If you got hungry, AGAIN: Wednesday's Connect Networking Lunch

If you'd like to see what everyone in our industry is building, selling, fixing, and occasionally overcomplicating; plus you're already there for lunch, so you may as well wander around for a bit: Trade Show

If you want to incorporate AI into more of your workflows or you've been to AI101 and AI201 and can't break your streak or your life's work goes down in flames: AI 301: From Tools to Transformation — Integrating AI into Your Aftermarket Business

If you're wondering whether you're focused on the right career skills and need a slap in the face and/or a hug (both metaphorical, probably): Am I a Dinosaur? Expanding Your Content Skills to Keep You From Going Extinct

If you're looking for that one special API that will be your forever soulmate and make your life complete: Unlocking the Power of Auto Care Association's API

If you want to know how you came to be attending a conference for content nerds and you have to know what happens next: From Foundation to Future: A Conversation With Our Industry Stewards Panel

If you know how hard this job is and want to see it officially acknowledged for once: ACP Graduation

If you don't need a reason: ACPN Community Wednesday Social

If you want to know what changed, what broke, what got fixed, and what's about to break next: State of the Standards

If all you do is win, win, win, no matter what: ACPN Content Excellence Awards and Recognitions

If you want to witness problem-solving, creativity, and courage in real time: Pitch Competition

If you want to see, among other things, an unapologetically emotional person (me) pass the ACPN Chair baton to ACPN's very capable Vice-Chair: ACPN Thursday Remarks

If, like mine, your life revolves around meals (also content, but mostly meals): Thursday Connect Networking Lunch

Finally, if you also have crippling FOMO: Attend Connect Week. And come find me. We'll start our own support group.