Auto Glass Week 2022 Set for San Antonio as Industry Plans Post-Pandemic Return to In-Person Training

The Auto Glass Safety Council announced in late December 2021 that Auto Glass Week 2022 would return to San Antonio, Texas, with a full in-person event scheduled for September 14–16 at the Henry B. González Convention Center. The confirmation provided the industry's first firm details on the event's return after COVID-19 disrupted the traditional format in 2020 and 2021.

Auto Glass Week is the industry's premier annual gathering, combining the World Repair Olympics windshield repair competition, ADAS calibration competitions, hands-on technical training sessions, a trade exhibition floor, and networking events for shop owners, technicians, suppliers, and insurers. The event historically draws attendees from across the U.S. and internationally, making it the most concentrated professional development opportunity available to the auto glass workforce in any given year.

The decision to return to San Antonio—where the event had also been held in prior years—reflected the city's established infrastructure for industry events of this scale. The Henry B. González Convention Center provides the combination of exhibition hall space, breakout training rooms, and adjacent arena-style competition space needed to run simultaneous competitions and education programming across three days.

For shop owners and technicians, the December 2021 announcement was practically significant because it provided enough lead time to begin planning travel, budget for registration and training fees, and identify which staff members should attend which sessions. The 2022 event program was expected to place heavy emphasis on ADAS calibration training—reflecting the industry-wide skill gap documented in the Repairify and CIECA data released earlier in December.

The training and competition dimensions of Auto Glass Week also serve a workforce recruitment and retention function. Technicians who attend, compete, and earn certifications at the event develop a professional identity and peer network that tends to increase their long-term engagement with the industry. For shop owners managing high turnover—a persistent challenge in the skilled trades—supporting employee participation in Auto Glass Week is an investment in retention as well as capability.

As 2021 drew to a close, the confirmation of a full-scale Auto Glass Week for 2022 signaled that the industry was ready to accelerate its recovery from pandemic disruptions and recommit to the in-person technical education that distinguishes professional glass installation from commodity work.