Here's to the Ladies!

     Aside from being a place where you can see the Toyotas of Tomorrow, yesterday was also Women's Day at the Auto Show. The focus of Women's Day is to increase engagement from females with the show, and it seems to be working. Attendance at the show had trended towards a 60/40 gender split in favor of Men, but over the last few years, the female attendance rate has been gradually going up. To this end, cars with special convenience features have been gaining traction at the Show, such as cars that open up in back using only the touch of a remote button. This innovation makes everyone's life easier, but "Especially a mom, a mom's life is in the car, because you've gotta take your kids different places, you've got to have your own piece of life, and you've got to be comfortable in the car.," said Ronni Roseman, an attendee.

     Beyond offering convenient cars, there was also a program entitled "Women Driving Excellence". This featured various segments throughout the day, all devoted to celebrating women in one way or another. At 11 AM, Nissan offered up its Honoring Trailblazing Women Presentation, where Andrea Metcalf was the MC for a panel featuring Dr. Suzet McKinney, Lucy Moy-Bartosik, Dorri McWhorter, Debi Lilly, Anita Alvarez, and even ABC-7 reporter Janet Davies. After that, there was a session with the ladies of the ChicagonistaLIVE Show, there to talk Auto Show, hand out prizes, and make their presence known. Wrapping up the Women's Day fun was a Social Video panel put on by Verizon, where Beth Engleman and Shawna Coronado shared some tips for putting together good videos. All told, Women's Day 2015 helped to reach out to more Women, who turn in to more customers, who ultimately turn into more car owners. And that's the ultimate goal at this Auto Show. Stay with Chicago 365 for more updates as we head into the second half of the Auto Show.

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Toyota Touches the Future

     Here at the Auto Show, all of the major auto companies have a display. It's like the Rule 34 of cars: If you can think of it, it's here. One such company is Toyota, with their display area devoted to cars of all kinds, from sedans, to trucks, to even a special hybrid vehicle wrapped in livery advertising the upcoming special exhibit at the Shedd Aquarium. However, the real fun stuff at the Toyota area comes from their concept displays. First off, the Toyota FV-2, which looks like this:

     I chatted with one of the product ambassadors on the floor, and she told me that the FV(Fun Vehicle)-2 can be ridden either sitting down like a motorcycle, or standing up like a Segway. Either way, the transparent shell in front(the piece that is standing up in the picture) is intended to act as a windshield to protect the rider from the elements. Additionally, the exterior of the vehicle(as seen) can be customized to create different digital effects, ranging from a solid color to a dazzling array of different colors. Simply put, Toyota has created a Light Cycle:

     The resemblance is uncanny. But making Tron come to life isn't the only thing that Toyota is unveiling this week. Across the way from the FV-2, another Toyota Ambassador was on a car platform introducing the world to the Toyota FT-1:

     A couple of years back, Akio Toyoda(the President of Toyota), was thinking up ways to jazz up Toyota's current racing fleet. After commissioning his designers to come up with ideas, the results were blended into the FT-1, which was first put together by Calty Design Research in the virtual platform of Sony's Gran Turismo auto racing game. After several steps, the car was brought into the real world to symbolize Toyota's latest concept for the car of the future, appearing for the 2nd consecutive year at the Chicago Auto Show.

     Both the FV-2 and the FT-1 are merely concepts for now, with potential street dates not even on the drawing board as of now. Still, being able to show off these concepts to the viewing public is something the Toyota Ambassadors enjoy, as expressed by a gentleman named Daniel who was interpreting the FT-1. "[we're] showing people stuff they've never seen...[we're] here to talk about cars." Daniel and all of the other Ambassadors are doing just that, exposing people to the future of Toyota, right here at the Chicago Auto Show.

Trivia Tuesday: A Salute to Bacon

     Even though we're in the middle of covering the largest Auto Show in North America, we still have to do trivia, don't we? That being said, here we go. The answer to last week's question is this: At the Inauguration Ceremony, the National Anthem was belted out by none other than Jim Cornelison. And now, on to this week's question:

At the minimum, how many different festivals were held in the city last year celebrating Bacon?

 

     We'll be back next week with the answer and more trivia, and stay tuned all this week for more coverage from the Auto Show.

I'm at the Show!

     As I mentioned in the previous post, Chicago 365 will be dropping into the Chicago Auto Show periodically during its run to report on what's happening, and I'm actually here right now, coming to you live from the Official Media Center, complete with my Official Media Credential(seriously, check it out!)

     Anyway, even through all of this excitement I'm still managing to do some exploring. So far I've hit up 2 test tracks, sat in a $97,000 Cadillac Escalade, checked out the Alfa Romeo display(they didn't list prices, but I have a sneaking suspicion that "Alfa Romeo" is Italian for "hella expensive"), and caught a glimpse of Elsa singing "Let It Go"(because of course Frozen would have a place at the Auto Show). I'll be back later, but right now I'm heading back out to the show floor. 1 Million square feet of cars aren't going to explore themselves!

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Chicago 365 goes to the Auto Show

     That annual rite of February known as the Chicago Auto Show has returned for its 107th Edition. In between all of the cars and people, the show also features several special extras, such as the presentation of the Driving Engagement Award by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, a special app designed to make it easy getting around the show, Specialty Days celebrating families, women, and Hispanics, several dedicated TV specials on local stations proving highlights of the 2015 Show, a teen video contest to produce a 30 second safe driving PSA, and a Social Media video challenge. To top all of that off, the Auto Show comes into 2015 having undergone a complete redesign of their website, making all of the more popular parts more upfront and ready to be seen by the public. For the next week, I'll be dropping in with periodic updates from the show, sometimes heading down to McCormick Place to check out the proceedings, sometimes dropping in with refreshing vignettes from the show, but in whatever format, stick with Chicago 365 as your source for all things Chicago Auto Show 2015

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Chicago 365 World Series Central: We've Been Bounced

     Unless you were either living under a rock or partaking in way too many recreational substances back in August, you've heard of Jackie Robinson West. I covered them extensively in this blog back then, from their encounter with Mo'ne Davis and the Taney Dragons, to the hometown celebration of their U.S. Championship, to everything in between(including that time when they were the most popular baseball team in the city). It was a glorious run that will live on in the memories of Chicagoans forever. The record books, not so much.

     This morning Little League Baseball announced that JRW will be stripped of all victories from their postseason run(including their miracle comeback in the Regional Title game and their Finals game versus South Korea). Apparently the team illegally included players from outside the city limits to create a Superteam. In addition to being stripped of its wins, the team's manager has been suspended, the head of the local Little League Disctrict has been fired, and JRW is also suspended from playing until they get their act together. Going forward, the fate is unclear, but we can all rally around the kids, remember how they made us feel, and look forward to the next baseball thrill to hit Chicago(maybe the Cubs and Sox will actually put a watchable product on the field this year)

Trivia Tuesday: The Inaugural Anthem

     We're back! And there's more trivia to boot! First off, the answer to the previous question: After thumping the Packers at Soldier Field on December 7, 1980(after using a full-on blitz on Green Bay's backup QB) Dan Hampton said that the loss "couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of pricks". Charming. And now, on to this week's question:

Last month, the new Governor and other constitutional officers of Illinois were inaugurated. Who sang the National Anthem at the Ceremony?

 

     As always, I'll be back next week with the answer, as well as more trivia.