Speaking
Erik Nachbahr, Speaker on Dealership IT, Security and AI
Nearly 30 years of dealership-only IT work, turned into talks on AI, security, compliance, DMS moves and buy-sells.
Erik Nachbahr, founder and president of Helion Technologies and a CISSP, speaks at dealership industry events, including AICPA and NADA, about AI, cybersecurity, FTC Safeguards, DMS transitions and the IT risk inside dealership acquisitions.
Last updated: October 22, 2026
Who You’re Booking
Erik founded Helion in 1997, and the company has worked only with car and truck dealerships ever since. Nothing else. Today it supports more than 2,000 dealerships and 35,000-plus dealership employees across managed IT, cybersecurity, compliance, Tekion enablement and managed AI. That’s where the talks come from. He isn’t guessing. He’s describing what Helion’s technicians and engineers run into inside dealerships every week, with every store kept anonymous. No names, ever.
His full background, including the CISSP security credential, is on the Helion leadership page. This page is the speaking side. Talks, venues, a recording, and how to ask for a date.
Plenty of speakers talk about dealership technology. Erik’s team keeps it running in 2,000-plus stores.
Session topics
The Talks Erik Nachbahr Gives
Each topic comes out of Erik’s own presentations and out of what Helion’s teams see in dealerships, week in and week out. Some rooms want the AI story. Others don’t. A CPA audience may care more about compliance and buy-sells, so tell us who’ll be in the seats and we’ll suggest the talk that fits them. Or pick one yourself.
Read one before you pick
Scot McConnor’s AI governance guide is built on Erik’s DealersEdge webinar and carries its full transcript.
Five talks What each one covers, and who it’s for
Managed AI The Other Side of the Desk
Dealers are buying AI to sell and service faster, and their customers have the same tools, often for free. Erik’s argument, from his own presentation, is that consumer AI may cancel out the gains a store pays for. Gross has always leaned on what the store knew and the shopper didn’t, from invoice and incentives to trade values, F&I product cost and labor times, and a chat window can close that gap before the customer ever walks in. Fixed ops is next. He doesn’t stop at the warning. The close is about prices and service recommendations that hold up when an AI checks them, and about staff who are ready for the customer who’s done that homework.
Dealer principals, GMs, fixed ops.
AI governance Guardrails Before the Fun Stuff
Erik is no AI skeptic. He uses it all day, says so up front, and then asks what most AI talks skip, which is what a tool can reach once somebody connects it. In the DealersEdge webinar he put it bluntly. AI “has reach into whatever data that at the level that it’s given access, and it’s going to use it, believe me.” The rest is about control. Who signs off on a new tool? He starts there.
Owners, CFOs, compliance leads.
Compliance FTC Safeguards as a Running Program
We hear the same answer a lot when we ask a store about the FTC Safeguards Rule, and it’s usually about a binder. Erik’s question goes one step further, because what he wants to know is whether anyone is watching the systems this week and whether there’s a report to show for it. In this talk he walks the room through what the Qualified Individual, the risk assessment and the monitoring look like in a store that keeps them running all year, rather than dusting them off when the cyber insurance renewal questionnaire arrives.
CPAs, controllers, compliance officers.
Tekion and DMS New DMS, Old Habits
When we sit down with a store a few months after a DMS move, the new system can usually do a lot more than the old one did, yet the office is still printing the same reports and keying some deals in twice. Erik doesn’t think that’s a software problem. In his telling the process never got adapted and nobody came back to tune the system after the install, and this talk is about fixing both, along with the work that continues after Tekion’s own launch program.
Groups planning a move, or just past one.
Acquisitions The IT You Inherit in a Buy-Sell
A dealer who buys a store buys its IT in the same deal, whether or not anybody looked at it first, and that can include aging computers in the F&I office, a server in a closet nobody has the password to, and vendor contracts that renew on their own. Sellers don’t tend to upgrade much once they’ve decided to sell, which is understandable from their side of the table. Erik’s talk shows the buyer what to look at before signing and what to fix first once the store is theirs.
Buyers, and their CPAs.
Hear Erik Nachbahr Speak Before You Book
The easiest way to judge a speaker is to listen to one. In October 2026 Erik presented a 55-minute DealersEdge webinar on AI governance for dealerships, and he opened it with something close to a confession. “I’ve been doing IT for 30 years and this is probably one of the coolest things that’s happened in the computer world,” he told the audience, and then he spent most of the hour on what can go wrong with it. That’s the whole pitch, really. He’s not wrong.
From there he works through personal AI accounts, one login shared across a sales floor, permissions AI tools inherit, and how a governance board sets the rules. It’s quick and plain, and it’s the closest thing on file to seeing him live. Worth a listen. You can watch it from 1:25 on YouTube, or read the full transcript in the AI governance guide.
A fan of AI who’d rather you didn’t get burned by it.
26:22
The governance board and the policy, so a store decides which tools staff can use.
What the Talks Draw On
Those numbers are the source of the examples. Real ones. When Erik describes a seller who stopped upgrading computers, or a salesperson who wanted one AI login on every desk, he’s describing patterns Helion sees across that base, and the store in the story is never named.
On the record
Where Erik Has Spoken and Been Interviewed
This list sticks to what’s on file. Nothing padded. Need dates or session titles for a particular event? Ask in the request form below.
| Venue | Format | What’s on file |
|---|---|---|
| AICPA | Dealership industry sessions | Listed in Erik’s speaking bio |
| NADA | Dealership industry events | Listed in Erik’s speaking bio |
| State dealer associations and vendor conferences | Industry events | Listed in Erik’s 2026 speaking bio |
| DealersEdge | Webinar, October 2026 | AI governance for dealerships, recorded, watch from 1:25 |
| Automotive News | Interviews, 2020 and 2024 | IT upgrades and security and cybersecurity challenges in 2024 |
| WardsAuto | Interview, 2024 | Cyberattacks targeting dealerships |
| AutoSuccess and Auto Dealer Today | Bylined articles, 2019 | Data privacy and moving the dealership to the cloud |
Every interview and article is collected on the Helion press page, newest first. Reporters welcome too. The request form below reaches the same team.
For event organizers
Request Erik Nachbahr for Your Event
Use the form to tell us about the event. Details help. The message box is where they go, so add the event name, the city or a virtual format, the date you have in mind, who’ll be in the audience and the topic that interests you most. Rough details are fine.
A Helion representative follows up to talk through the fit and Erik’s availability. That’s all it takes. Prefer the phone? Call (443) 541-1500 or email marketing@heliontechnologies.com.
The more we know about the room, the better the talk.
Tell Us About Your Event
This is Helion’s main contact form, so the button mentions an assessment. Your event details still reach the right team. Privacy policy.
Common Questions
Heard a story that sounded like your store?
A complimentary IT and cybersecurity assessment shows where your own dealership’s IT and security stand.
What does Erik Nachbahr speak about?
Where has Erik spoken before?
Can we hear him before we book him?
How do we request Erik for an event?
Does he speak to CPA and accounting audiences?
Who is Erik Nachbahr?
Erik’s talks are about other people’s dealerships. The assessment is about yours.
Request a Complimentary Assessment →