Archive for November, 2011
And we’re back.
And you thought you were busy?
The D.C. Auto Show team had more than a dozen big-time meetings in one day at the L.A. show. As Kimatni says, our team keeps rolling deep. Kimatni doesn’t really need a last name. He’s actually as cool as he sounds, and anyway he goes by “K.”
But it’s Rawlins, in case you were wondering. He’s president and publisher of Automotive Rhythms, a lifestyle automotive media and marketing company and a longtime partner of The Washington Auto Show. As mentioned in the last post, K was in L.A. to cover the show and provide a peek of what’s headed to D.C. Here he is chatting up George Doetsch, the chairman of the Washington Area New Automobile Dealers Association (WANADA), which produces The Washington Auto Show. This doesn’t do K justice.
This does:
Our team also had a great meeting with Coda, the electric car company that began producing its sedan this week. Here is some insight into the company by one of my favorite news sites: http://gigaom.com/cleantech/10-things-you-should-know-about-coda/
Of course, you can interview Coda reps yourself at the Washington Auto Show. 🙂
Leaving for La-La Land
The Washington Auto Show team is off to see and be seen (cuz that’s what you do in LA) at the LA Auto Show. Press Days start tomorrow, and DC’s show leadership will be checking out the swirl of innovations and meeting with friends and colleagues. In short, we’re on top of it. We’ve got our ears to the ground or whathaveyou to be sure the DC show blows it out of the water.
The LA show is big on design. In fact, “Design Los Angeles,” a conference for automobile designers, takes place at the show, and features a high-profile competition and a soiree at The Conga Room at LA Live. Let’s Conga!
Mitch Bainwol, Auto Alliance President, will be delivering the Welcome Address. Takashi Yamanouchi, President and CEO of Mazda Motor Corporation, will give the Motor Press Guild Keynote Address.
Stay tuned for pics and deets from LA. Automotive Rhythms, a longtime partner with our show, will be taking video of the latest and greatest products on display, and we will bring you their coverage of what’s headed to D.C.
Where the cool kids are
I don’t know when exactly the “tech support” dudes became the cool kids, and, yes, I’m aware of Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs and their legions of admirers. But I got to see the new frontier up close last week at DCWeek, which stands for Digital Capital Week, and was held, whodathunk!, in DC.
So the weeklong program, presented by Ford, was sort of like the TED talks meet your college campus — a sensibility underscored by the atmosphere in Artisphere, a supercool sculptural space filled with offbeat artwork and a lounge serving up drinks, grub, wifi (duh?) and, last Thursday, DCWeek’s “core conference.” It’s arguably the coolest space in DC, even though it’s in Arlington. So you’ve got folks in their funky sneakers and disheveled clothes hanging out there, looking like the 2012 version of the kids on Saved by the Bell. Actually, didn’t the nerdy guy end up doing porn? You see how nerd pressure leads to overcompensation? Some labels die hard. So, back to DCWeek, where all the nerds are saved by themselves if not the bell and looking like millionaires under 30. You do this by being as insouciant and irreverent as possible. Cue the “fireside chat” that closed the core conference. In his interview of Ben Milne, the founder of the online payment portal, Dwolla, Andrew Warner brilliantly notes that despite Milne’s success, he dresses like one of the rabble rousers in “Occupy Wall Street.”
And so you’ll forgive my taking some latitude as I blog about attitude. It’s not far from the M.O. prescribed by Justin Timberlake in the movie, “Social Network.” I freaking love that movie. Milne, incidentally, uses the real curse words. A lot. We get it. You don’t play by the rules cuz you’re making your own. And, you know what? I think that’s great. Whether you like it or not, the economy is moving toward entrepreneurship, and that gives you and me the freedom to hustle and live by the thrill and risk of our own charted courses. But we don’t all have to be high-tech priests and priestesses.
Sorry, this is starting to sound like a commencement address. I just would hate for the nerd kingdom to be the next bastion of snobville. DCWeek was definitely the place to be if you were remotely plugged in. But with everyone so wired in high-tech hipdom, man — I haven’t felt that uncool since middle school.
Atlanta Gas Light to build natural gas fueling stations
Georgia voted today to let Atlanta Gas Light spend $11.5 million on a network of natural gas fueling stations for vehicles.
AGL’s plan to begin construction with 5-10 gas stations in Atlanta would substantially boost access to natural gas for local drivers.
The AJC reports that roughly half of America’s 1,000 natural gas fueling stations are open to the public. In Georgia, they number just five, two of which are located in the Atlanta area.
No word yet on how consumers feel about the green-lighted allocation, which could have been used to build pipelines, help the poor or provide customer rebates, according to the AP.
http://www.ajc.com/business/atlanta-gas-light-gets-1213789.html
