Adventures in Blogging: I Meet a Titan of Industry

Just before school started, Megan was invited to a sleepover at Tanya's, which gave me an opportunity to visit and have a nice chat with her parents; my friends Tim and Debbie.

Debbie is one of the few real world people I know who understands my blogging and supports it. Even though she's an executive at a movie studio (and so is expected to be pretty sophisticated), she has been tickled pink by all the freebies I've been enjoying lately from marketers who are targeting bloggers like me to get the word out about their products. "Have you had anything new come your way?" she asked.

Yeah. "I'm going to have dinner with the chairman of General Motors."

Tim's ears perked up at this. He's a hardcore car guy -- the only one of my friends who not only wasn't bored listening to me talk about my quest to replace my aging Saturn last year, he hung on every word... and even dragged me out to meet his favorite BMW dealer, because I just HAD to test drive one. (I did. It was a very cool car, but I ended up with something else.)

He was skeptical. "The chairman of GM?"

I nodded. "I think that's what they said. Some guy named Lutz."

Tim and Debbie looked at each other in surprise. "That's the chairman of GM," they confirmed, and then the inevitable question: "How did YOU get that?"

That's a question all of my friends and family asked me when I told them about last night's event, and the answer is, I honestly don't know. Debbie's theory was that a lot of companies haven't quite figured out where the new media fits into their marketing strategy. They're contacting every blogger on the planet, like throwing pasta against the wall to see what sticks.

That was my theory too, until I Google'd Robert Lutz (who is actually a vice chairman) and discovered that General Motors is pretty savvy about the Internet in general and blogging in particular. They have some lively corporate blogs... and Lutz himself posts to them. (Whether he actually writes his posts or has a staffer do them in his name remains to be seen -- but there's no doubt who's talking on his video posts. The point is, he understands the power of the form enough to put company resources into it). I also recall GM's presence at BlogHer 06, where I got to test drive a sexy red Saturn Sky.

GM gets it. This was going to be fun.

"Will you get me his autograph?" my daughter asked. This was after I explained to her what both a company chairman and General Motors are. She spent the rest of the afternoon pointing at cars and asking me if they were made by GM.

"You know, you're not going to get a chance to talk to the guy," my husband said. "You're probably one of a hundred people they invited."

Well, they told me it would be an intimate gathering. Maybe I'll be one in 50, I thought.

We were both wrong. I was one of only about a half dozen bloggers and online journalists gathered in the lounge at the Universal Hilton last night, and the only one who doesn't write extensively about cars, energy or the environment. They shuttled us from the hotel over to Universal Studios' conference facility, where we were to view the GM Collection: vehicles representing the company's commitment to wean ourselves off petroleum dependency. This included several cars available now that get 30 m.p.g. or better on the highway... and vehicles in the pipeline that will employ several new technologies, including the much touted plug-in Volt.

Other participants last night included a guy from Edmunds.com and Brandy Schaffels of AskPatty.com -- two sites I relied on extensively last year when I was shopping for my own new car. I especially like Ask Patty, because it is a site produced by women to educate other women about automobiles and the negotiation process. Brandy told me about a promising new social networking section of the site, called Car Blabber, where women can talk amongst themselves about all things automotive.

I also met environmentalist Kristin Underwood of Treehugger.com, a terrific blog with news and commentary on all things green, and Matt Kelly, the L.A. Bureau chief of Podtech Network, who also hosts "The NextGear," a car show with an emphasis on automotive innovation and clean and efficient technologies.

I didn't catch the names or sites of the other four or five guests, who were all of the same caliber as the folks listed above. More than ever, I was wondering about the PR people who put this little soiree together. Perhaps they wanted to balance this group out with an end user, a consumer who happens to be a carpooling, coffee drinking, PTA supporting, drive-thru utilizing soccer mom. Even so, I was feeling out of my league -- especially when Matt and Brandy asked me for my card.

Why didn't I even think to bring any business cards? Has it really been that long since I've interacted with people who weren't PTA or gym parents?

Yes, it has, and I was starting to feel that old familiar tinge of social awkwardness that has dogged me since junior high. How could I have showed up at this event without the basic ice breaker of a single business card, especially while I'm on this %!^# diet and can't rely on social crutch #2 (alcohol)? There would be no liquid courage for me this evening. My Perrier and lime was definitely not going to cut it.

Fortunately, I had some props: a notebook and pen and my digital camera, both of which I used prodigiously throughout the evening. I felt a lot better when we got to the hall where the cars were displayed and the rest of the group whipped out their cameras and started snapping away. We were met there by a couple of GM spokesmen, who answered some deeply technical questions (none of which were posed by me) about the vehicles and the new technologies. 

Of course, podcaster Matt Kelly had the best prop of all, a digital recorder that caught the whole conversation. He also asked some of the best questions. I walked away from the evening with pages and pages of handwritten notes, but even so, the second half of this post will probably be rewritten once Matt puts his podcast up and I can hear the quotes rendered accurately.

I desperately wished that I could have brought Tim. He would have LOVED to be in that room, with all those people who were as passionate about cars as he is.

After our session viewing the vehicles, we were whisked back to the hotel for our dinner with Bob Lutz, a charismatic gentleman who resembles Cary Grant in his silver fox years. I parked myself next to Matt. After all, he seemed like the smartest kid in the class -- or at least, the most likely to let me copy his test paper.

LATER THIS WEEK: A peek at what the engineers at General Motors have in store for us... and words of wisdom from Mr. Lutz.

Comments

[lomara]

Just Friday I received a private note on Flickr from someone inviting me to some private Nokia event. I think it's the case of "let's throw these at bloggers in the area and see what sticks". Did you get the note too? I think the event is on a weeknight and at least 25 miles away, which is a major deterrent to me attending, but I'm still mildly curious.

[M&Co.]

Wow that's pretty kewl!