Breakfast, Bumblebee and Sushi

From Aurora Felty ‘09…

We have been so busy here at the Chicago Auto Show. Our days start at 6:30 a.m. and end at 10 p.m. Afternoons are spent going to and from news conferences and creating media capsules for the manufacturers we saw. Evenings are filled with social networking events.

I covered the Midwest Automotive Media Association (MAMA) breakfast, Bridgestone and Mazda on Wednesday. The MAMA breakfast featured an uplifting speech from John Krafcik, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor America. Krafcik issued a call-to-action aimed at automotive executives to fix the negative perception of the auto industry. At Bridgestone’s lunch and news conference, we witnessed the launching of a new tire, the Ecopia EP100, and new safety program, “Think Before You Drive.” Mazda’s news conference was the most fun because of the ambience. Mazda’s booth was full of upbeat music and sushi. The 20th anniversary of the Mazda Miata is this month. To celebrate, the 2009 Mazda Miata MX5 was recharged with a new rear and front exterior, new interior and a more fuel-efficient engine.

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to see Bumblebee - a character from Transformers - being constructed for the first time in public. I went to the show floor to get pictures for our CAS blogs and had the pleasure to meet the designer and sculptor of Bumblebee, Dewaldt Hicks. He owns a sculpture design business in Los Angeles and does sculpture work for Steven Spielberg. The Bumblebee sculpture had scenes in the first Transformers movie. In one scene, he was lying down on the Hoover Dam, and in another, he was being dragged down a street.

Amidst all the work, we’re still having a great time and learning so much. It is a great real-world experience.