The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) is an annual event held in Detroit, Michigan and is one of the largest auto shows in North America. It is the perfect venue to showcase current cars and trucks and to introduce pre-production models and concept cars.
For the fourth year, Ford Motor Company has invited bloggers to attend NAIAS on press days in an effort to spread their company’s message across the social media. This year was no different. Well, I guess there was at least one difference: this year, Ford welcomed a few of us from the hunting and outdoor industry to cover the show. It seems like a perfect fit. We love trucks and Ford apparently loves selling trucks – 763,000 sold in the U.S. alone last year.
DAY 0:
So before the crack of dawn on Sunday, January 12, I hopped on a plane bound for Detroit. I arrived in the Motor City in the early afternoon and walked to the adjoining Westin Detroit Metropolitan Airport, my home for the next 48 hours. The fantastic folks from Ford who managed this event greeted me warmly with a full schedule of events, a beautiful scarf and a model car (perfect gifts for my kids!!), and a key card to a large, comfortable, quiet room. I unpacked my few things and headed down to the lobby to meet my fellow bloggers.
They came from all walks of life: gear heads, mommy bloggers, urban stylists, travel bugs, tree huggers, and techies. Most had a pretty deep interest in cars but each brought a unique perspective. In all, around 120 bloggers from 12 countries arrived to cover Ford at the 2014 NAIAS.
Dinner was preceded by a friendly welcome from Scott Monty, global digital communications director for Ford Motor Company. He told us he was “not a car guy,” which I found funny at first since he works for Ford. But as he spoke of his upbringing and his connections to cars along the way, the description made sense to me. Many of us aren’t “car guys.” Yet we all drive cars and that’s where I think a good car company can make in-roads.
I went to bed wondering what the next day would bring. I was thrilled at the opportunity to represent HuntingLife.com in Detroit and was eager to learn as much as I could about Ford Trucks to pass on to our readers.
Check back here tomorrow on HuntingLife.com to see what happens on DAY 1 of NAIAS as I get my first look at the all-new 2015 F-150 (sweet!!!), participate in a Q&A with Ford CEO Alan Mulally, meet up with some Ford Racing legends, and pore over the latest and greatest the automotive industry has to offer.
