How Caroline Pedder Organises the Pedders National Conference

Caroline Pedder is responsible for delivery of the Pedders National Conference each year, an event that has been held annually since the early 1980s!

The annual Pedders National Conference has been a tradition since the early 1980s and is held in high regard by many Pedders staff and franchisees – some of which have been attending for in excess of thirty years! Each year the conference moves location and changes format, but a few themes remain consistent – attendees learn, network and have a great time with their fellow Pedders People!

Each conference includes an Awards Dinner where the Pedders network comes together to celebrate the successes of stores, staff and the wider Pedders Group. The day sessions are typically a deep dive into various areas of the business to give attendees a wider understanding of the Pedders operation and allows them to learn more about the brand, the products and the future of the business. Meanwhile the evenings are a combination of networking and comradeship.

This year’s Pedders National Conference was held in Hobart as the business celebrates it’s 72nd year of operation and kicked off with the Awards Dinner hosted by Neil Crompton at the IXL Atrium.

While the bulk of attendees were from within Pedders, the business also hosted several guests such as Neil Crompton, plus guests from Erebus Motorsport, the Caravan Industry Association of Australia, Hayman Reese, Atomic Batteries and many more.

The conference requires a mammoth effort to organise and while it started as a handful of Pedders team members getting together in the 80s, there’s now over 150 guests each year. In total there are 400 flights to organise, three separate event functions to run and three days of workshops and presentations to prepare. The responsibility of pulling all of this together falls to Caroline Pedder, Chief of Brand & Culture.

The 2022 Pedders National Conference was the third conference that Caroline has delivered and a standout success. Caroline works with Deborah Clarke and Sam Wilson from partner business RBE as well as Brad Jukes from Acland Travel who helped behind the scenes to deliver an excellent conference.

“I really enjoy being responsible for delivering our most important annual event each year. The information sharing and networking opportunities provided by the conference are hugely worthwhile to store owners, store managers and head office alike,” said Caroline Pedder. Caroline also enjoys the challenge of making each conference better than the last – this year’s addition of a half-day work life balance workshop with executive coach Sue Constable was a welcome change.

Caroline’s day-today role is to have overarching responsibility for the brand, marketing, communications, people, development, and culture functions of the business. She has an in-depth knowledge of the business and a huge passion for protecting and enhancing the brand and culture of Pedders.

Caroline also enjoys being able to work alongside her husband Scott Pedder who has been Managing Director of Pedders Suspension & Brakes since 2020.

“I thoroughly enjoy working with Scott. He has an incredible passion and vision for the business that has resulted in significant growth especially over the last couple of years.  My role is to ensure our brand, our people and our great culture remain at the forefront of all business decisions because they are the strength of our brand and the reason for our 72-year old success.”

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