SEMA Ladies Step It Up!

Your faithful Ask Patty gals spent a few days at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) conference this past week in Las Vegas. Instead of what we did staying in Vegas, we decided to share it with all of you motor mavens!

SEMA brings together all of the companies and individuals involved in the automotive industry, including aftermarket products and original equipment manufacturers. We were busy ladies with the SEMA Businesswomen Network’s breakfast and the Car Care Council Women’s Board reception, not to mention our Motor Trend Radio interview and some impromptu photo shoots! We were like the Spice Girls—if it was 1996.

The Car Care Council Women’s Board held their 2006 Automotive Communication Award reception and announced Lauren Fix as the winner of the 2006 Best PR Efforts Business-To-Consumer award. We want to give a special shout out to Lauren, our wonderful expert woman!

We then trolled the show floor for all kinds of fun and cute car accessories and products so we could give you a comprehensive automotive gift guide for the holidays. No hints! Make sure you watch for our Girl’s Garage of Gifts in the next week.

We rose early on Thursday morning to attend the SEMA Businesswomen Network’s breakfast to see who would win the Athena and the Woman of the Year awards. While we sipped coffee in our cab ride around 7am to the convention center, you could see the rest of the Vegas revelers just heading to bed for the night. Ah, Vegas. The recipient of the Athena Award was Mike Eaton, President of Eaton Detroit Springs,  and the Woman of the Year was Kathleen Schmatz, President and CEO of the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association.

While we were at the breakfast, we caught up with some of our expert women: Daytona Dayton, Lauren Fix, and Bernice Sanders (all in the above picture with us). Speaking of Daytona, Jody did an interview with her for her radio show as well!

It was a whirlwind for Ask Patty at the show. After doing Daytona’s interview, Jody was featured on Motor Trend Radio with Bob Long and it was recorded right in the middle of the showroom. What an exciting place to record a radio show! We made sure to catch up with Devera Lynn of the United Spinal Association and some of her Motorsports team, including Carol Hollfelder and Steve Bucaro. If that wasn’t all enough, we were asked to talk live on National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” show about the power of women consumers.

It was a busy few days and an exciting time for the women of SEMA! Make sure to catch Jody's Ask Patty Webinar on November 16th!