HallCraft were delighted to support The Blend 2025 – and help raise £44,000 for motor charity Ben.
It was a few weeks ago now but we have been so busy we haven’t had time to share the results of our team ‘working’ weekend in Birmingham.
Members of the HallCraft team joined more than 500 attendees for the Garage Hive conference and networking event, the largest in the event’s six-year history.
This sold-out event welcomed 34 expert speakers and a host of trade exhibitors to host break out sessions over two floors ahead of a star-studded awards night.
Comedian Troy Hawke was the host for the climatic after party event and the HallCraft team joined fellow motor industry leaders for a celebration which went long into the night!
The Blend
The Blend was created to bring independent garage owners and their teams together to share new information, technology and insight.
It was hosted at Birmingham’s Eastside Rooms and was sold-out event, with more than 500 attendees. This was a 19% increase on last year and heard insight from 34 expert speakers and 16 trade exhibitors.
Spread across two floors and featuring 20 dynamic sessions, the event was the largest and most ambitious Blend to date, showcasing both the rapid growth of the conference and the passion of its community.
Reputation
HallCraft director James Hopcraft, said: “It was a great opportunity to involve members of the HallCraft team with industry insight so they can understand where we are going.
“HallCraft have built a solid reputation over the past 30-years, establishing ourselves as the leading independent garage in the West Midlands but we refuse to rest on our laurels.
“We are proud of our five-star customer feedback but we always wanted to do better – as that means better information and service for our customers.
“It was also a great opportunity to spend time socialising as a team. We invited five members of the HallCraft team and their partners for the evening awards with meal and drinks. It was a great weekend and shows we are always ready to learn and move forward.”
HallCraft Team
Probably the stand out from the weekend was the increasing dominance of the role AI will play for independent garages.
And Matt Wilson from Car WoW provided an inspiring presentation which left the HallCraft team fired up for 2026!
The Blend will return to the Eastside Rooms in Birmingham on 10 October 2026, with British advertising executive, behavioural economist, and author Rory Sutherland confirmed as evening host.
For more information on The Blend and to register interest for next year’s event please click here.
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