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The LA Auto Show's Andy Steinhauser: There Is No Substitute. · That Car Show

• 0:00
  There is just no substitute for being able to put your hands on
• 0:04
  the wheel, put your butt in the seat, touch the buttons, feel
• 0:08
  it, and then get up, walk over and be in a completely different
• 0:12
  brand in less than a minute. This week, that car show meets
• 0:16
  that auto show, the LA Auto Show.
• 0:18
  Or at least the show's director of sponsorship and business
• 0:21
  development, Andy Steinhauser. Andy lives, breathes, and almost
• 0:25
  certainly dreams the LA Auto Show.
• 0:27
  And this one's a fun ride. We go deep into the history of
• 0:30
  auto shows, what the challenges are in putting on a show of this
• 0:33
  scale, and why the LA Auto Show might be more relevant now than
• 0:37
  ever. This will be the 118th year of
• 0:40
  the LA Auto Show, if you can believe it, and Andy shares
• 0:42
  everything that's up the show's sleeve this year, and even some
• 0:46
  hacks for the out of town visitor.
• 0:48
  We'll be there and hope to see you there as well.
• 0:51
  This year's show is November the 21st through November the 30th,
• 0:54
  and tickets and more info are at laautoshow.com.
• 1:01
  That car show is brought to you by Sheffield Watches.
• 1:04
  Sheffield is the storied watchmaking brand that was
• 1:06
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  and it's seen wild success in both the car and watch
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• 1:14
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  choice. Order your Sheffield watch at
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  sheffieldwatches.com. Give them a follow on the gram
• 1:39
  at Sheffield under score, all sport under score watches and
• 1:43
  tell them that car show sent you.
• 1:47
  Hey, it's that car show. And today we're talking auto
• 1:50
  shows, specifically the auto show, the LA Auto Show, which
• 1:55
  returns for its. This is this, right, 118th year.
• 1:59
  It's. Hard to believe.
• 2:01
  It's incredible. That's.
• 2:03
  An achievement this November. So Andy Steinhauser is the
• 2:06
  director of sponsorships and business development for the LA
• 2:09
  Auto Show, and he's joining us today because we have a bunch of
• 2:12
  questions about what it takes to put on an event like this.
• 2:15
  It's an event that always showcases a lot of new
• 2:18
  offerings, particularly in the EV realm, And let's not forget
• 2:22
  is smack dab in the middle of the biggest automotive market in
• 2:26
  the country. It's good to have you on the
• 2:28
  show, Andy. Welcome.
• 2:29
  Oh. My God, thank you so much for
• 2:31
  having me. This is so fun.
• 2:32
  I you know, to be able to talk about the show and and what's
• 2:36
  coming. We've been, you know, it's
• 2:38
  interesting is like, I think for most people, the LA Auto Show
• 2:41
  kind of like rears around now in October, November.
• 2:44
  Oh, yeah. And they, you know, start to
• 2:46
  come back into consciousness. But I live and breathe it year
• 2:49
  round. So it's so fun when everybody
• 2:51
  starts waking back up to us. We're like a cicada, but an
• 2:55
  annual cicada. An annual cicada.
• 2:57
  There we go. That's the title of the show,
• 3:01
  the LA Auto Show and. We are we are perennial and we
• 3:04
  will never die. You know, as you said, 118
• 3:07
  years. I love thinking about the
• 3:09
  evolution of auto shows. I mean, literally, and you know,
• 3:12
  I'm a very elder millennial and even, you know, in my lifetime,
• 3:17
  it was like, you know, the, the evolution of like the ball gown,
• 3:22
  you know, Miss USA, Miss Michigan standing on stage
• 3:26
  showing off a a car right through the evolution of letting
• 3:30
  them talk. You know, Martin Kreski, you
• 3:33
  know, revolutionized the industry when she let the models
• 3:37
  talk about the car. That was revolutionary.
• 3:40
  And. Then there was the introduction
• 3:42
  of of men. Just to talk about.
• 3:45
  The car, you know, just that those things were like, you
• 3:50
  know, to think back how far that goes in that story and that it's
• 3:54
  still here and it's just, it continues to evolve.
• 3:57
  Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry I missed the days of Miss Michigan
• 4:00
  rapping about the Pontiac Aztec, but it's good that we've
• 4:04
  evolved, I suppose. You know, interestingly, and you
• 4:08
  know, we could talk about this later, but I got my start on the
• 4:10
  show floor of the auto show and some of those beauty Queens are
• 4:13
  still around. They are like executive managers
• 4:15
  now, but they are very much still around in the business and
• 4:18
  they are a real part of it. And they've, you know, they've
• 4:20
  become a part of the fabric of huh, delivering this product.
• 4:23
  It's like the price is right, you know, they were there for
• 4:25
  like years. They never changed.
• 4:27
  Now they're the producers. Yeah, that's.
• 4:29
  That's incredible. I mean, I love to hear that arc
• 4:31
  too. And we were chatting a little
• 4:32
  before we started about your history with the show and sort
• 4:35
  of the different roles. And, yeah, I mean, you think 118
• 4:38
  years, it's like, it's like with a rescue dog.
• 4:40
  You wish the show could talk for a minute because that show has
• 4:43
  seen some things and been through some time periods.
• 4:46
  But I know we'd love to hear a little bit about how you got
• 4:50
  started with the show and kind of the, you know, the story of
• 4:54
  your experience with it and where we are today.
• 4:58
  Happy to. Yeah.
• 4:59
  I mean, just quickly. Interestingly, I moved to Los
• 5:01
  Angeles in 2012 and this is a whole nother podcast that was a
• 5:06
  cruise director. Amazing.
• 5:09
  Yes, again, that's a that's a different episode.
• 5:12
  When I come back, we'll talk about that as I was a cruise
• 5:14
  director for many years. I've where I lived, you know,
• 5:17
  and. I just watched that documentary
• 5:19
  on Netflix, sorry. And the cruise director?
• 5:22
  I was. Played a played a very big role
• 5:23
  in that narrative. So I was yeah, we will have you
• 5:26
  back. I was prepared to to, you know,
• 5:29
  to have to have that experience, right?
• 5:31
  I mean, you are expertly trained on a cruise.
• 5:33
  OK, Thankfully I never had a poop cruise.
• 5:36
  I've seen a lot of crazy things in sea but.
• 5:39
  I know when writing that documentary, I was thinking, I
• 5:42
  think the couple that came out, well, they're one of us, OK?
• 5:46
  Yeah. I don't ask about this.
• 5:47
  They're both. You've been studying a cruise
• 5:50
  director? Yeah.
• 5:52
  Cruise directors in crazy scenarios.
• 5:54
  I mean, the craziest thing about that time is that like when I
• 5:56
  think about it, I started that when I was like 28 years old and
• 5:59
  I was like emergency number, a single, like 2 digit, you know,
• 6:04
  and it was like maybe like 12 or something.
• 6:07
  And what that means is like, if so, if the captain is dead in
• 6:10
  the emergency, he's number one and the staff captain is dead #2
• 6:13
  etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, there would come a point where I
• 6:16
  would be the one in charge. And it was like a low enough
• 6:20
  number that definitely gave me pause for my age level that I
• 6:23
  wasn't in this position. But like.
• 6:25
  I'm not prepared for this, but here we are.
• 6:27
  We always rise to the occasion that we're given, right?
• 6:30
  You know, so you don't get more than you can handle, right?
• 6:34
  So anyway, I moved to Las. I was trying to be ATV host, I
• 6:37
  was trying to be Ryan Seacrest. And you know, that industry was
• 6:40
  evolving. There was really, I was out here
• 6:42
  for a little while kind of like doing things and not making
• 6:46
  nobody was making any money doing like red carpets and TV
• 6:49
  hosting things. And finally someone of my TV
• 6:52
  host, you know, want to be colleagues was like, Oh yeah,
• 6:55
  the only way people actually make money in this business is
• 6:57
  to do the auto show. And I'm like, what's the auto
• 7:00
  show? I'm from South Georgia.
• 7:02
  Like, we don't have this where I'm from, you know, growing up.
• 7:05
  That mean? I literally thought the only
• 7:08
  ways to make money in cars were build them, sell them, that's
• 7:12
  it. That was the alpha and Omega.
• 7:13
  I didn't think there was anything in between.
• 7:15
  I mean, very naive and ignorant. No, you know, now for been more
• 7:18
  than a decade in this business, but so I I learned about it and
• 7:22
  it was just like, to me, an audition, you know, and it was
• 7:25
  like, I just kicked the door down, found the person I had to
• 7:27
  find to be seen. And I was like, listen, I'm
• 7:30
  going to do this better than anybody.
• 7:31
  Like give me a chance. And anyway, they sent me out and
• 7:35
  I auditioned for a bunch of brands and I wound up at, you
• 7:38
  know, I got like cast, you know, like drafted to Chevrolet.
• 7:42
  And you know, I was literally the last person hired for the
• 7:46
  season that year. And honestly, this is a true
• 7:48
  story. There was a guy who looked ish
• 7:50
  like me with a beard who left, who like got a corporate job and
• 7:54
  left. And there was like, oh, we have
• 7:55
  a we need a replacement for a white guy with a beard.
• 7:58
  And so they cast me at the end. And you know, I was just like,
• 8:01
  OK, I'm here, let's do it. I'm here to make some money,
• 8:03
  like and talk about cars. Like, and transparently I did
• 8:06
  not know anything about cars at the time.
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  And so, you know, I just started, Yeah.
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  And I got thrown into the gauntlet.
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  And anyway, long story, sure, I wanted a very successful career
• 8:15
  with that and I loved it. And I traveled the world and I
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  did like every auto show in the US, all the major big ones, some
• 8:21
  of the small market ones too, really just fun transformed
• 8:25
  experience. Like I joked when I was on a a
• 8:28
  cruise ship, I was like a car, like a pirate, you know, just
• 8:31
  like traveling around everywhere.
• 8:33
  And then I became a Carney, you know, circuit like.
• 8:37
  It's quite an analogy, yeah. There is the through line though
• 8:41
  and I feel like cruise director preps you well for then going
• 8:44
  into the auto show circuit like. Yeah.
• 8:47
  It's on paper you'd go like, that's interesting.
• 8:49
  But if you really look at it, there are a lot of skills that I
• 8:51
  feel like for Translate, they're both.
• 8:53
  Like mass market consumer experiences where you're really
• 8:57
  with the people, right? Right.
• 8:59
  The biggest thing I learned doing the auto show was like,
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  really like listening to consumers and like hearing them
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  talk. And like, I used to just get
• 9:07
  such a thrill about, you know, inevitably every single show,
• 9:10
  somebody would come and won't buy Chevrolet, whether that was
• 9:14
  either I bleed blue or I'm import only.
• 9:17
  And they would just like they were like just a you can't.
• 9:20
  And I would just take that thrill of like, oh, you think,
• 9:22
  you know, this brand. OK, let me open your eyes, you
• 9:26
  know, and I would take like, you know, assess them and, you know,
• 9:30
  figure out, OK, you got two kids, all right, you need a
• 9:32
  third row. You know, let me show you this.
• 9:35
  You don't know about this feature in the Traverse where
• 9:36
  the, you know, you can keep your car seated and show them these
• 9:39
  features and the tech and you know, kind of walk consumers
• 9:42
  through the cars and there is and that kind of goes back to
• 9:44
  the core of the auto show, right?
• 9:45
  Is that like like when you think about your car buying
• 9:48
  experience, Like I recently leased a couple months ago and
• 9:52
  you know, thankfully I know all the product because I am
• 9:55
  immersed in them. But you know, I wanted to drive
• 9:58
  a few and I got through 2. That was it, you know, and so I
• 10:03
  think about that when I think about consumers getting the
• 10:06
  chance to, you know, drive over 50 for models at our car and our
• 10:10
  show, you know, so it's just such an experiential opportunity
• 10:14
  that is just unique. And it takes that like giant,
• 10:17
  you know, organizational effort to bring everybody together, you
• 10:22
  know, because the industry is very competitive, but they're
• 10:24
  all willing to put their products, you know, and may the
• 10:28
  may the best product win. And it really is always just
• 10:30
  kind of like that match to consumer, right?
• 10:32
  It's like what fits you and your lifestyle and price.
• 10:35
  And then the end of the day, you still got to go buy it, right?
• 10:38
  So you've heard a lot about That's how I got here.
• 10:40
  Yeah, no, that's all. And you've heard a lot about the
• 10:42
  death of the auto show, right? And, you know, last year was my
• 10:46
  first time at the LA Auto Show, and it seemed to be thriving to
• 10:49
  me. And I hear a lot of buzz.
• 10:50
  And, you know, it seemed like just, but everyone was
• 10:52
  represented. And how do you keep it relevant?
• 10:55
  Like, what's the secret? It seems to be things are much
• 10:56
  more experiential than they were like when I was a kid, right.
• 10:59
  Far fewer static displays, more, you know, driving experiences,
• 11:03
  really virtual, that kind of thing.
• 11:05
  And totally 10 questions. Sorry, go.
• 11:07
  No, I love it. I think it's listen, we'll
• 11:09
  always take that one head on. I mean, the the reality is in
• 11:12
  118 year old product is going to evolve over time.
• 11:16
  We are now in a new era and it's a different show than it was
• 11:21
  when I was working it in 2012. And then, you know, I think what
• 11:25
  happened was just real, like transparently is in 20 like 17
• 11:32
  ish, there was a, you know, we have to, it's like, it's real
• 11:35
  easy to forget like how online we are now versus like what that
• 11:40
  was like even just like 7 years ago, we were, you know, there
• 11:43
  wasn't 1000 YouTube reviews of every car, right?
• 11:47
  This was kind of the whole place that you could really get a good
• 11:50
  look at everything. So it was a must do destination
• 11:54
  and that that has evolved. I still think it's a must do
• 11:57
  destination to actually feel a product.
• 11:59
  And I think there is a huge return to in person and there is
• 12:03
  a huge desire for us to go back out into the world and reconnect
• 12:08
  after the isolation that happened, you know, unbeknownst
• 12:11
  to the COVID era. And the COVID era was A
• 12:13
  reckoning for a lot of large scale events, a lot of
• 12:17
  businesses. They just, it really shook
• 12:19
  everything very hard and it shook us harder than anything
• 12:23
  because we were a complete in person event.
• 12:26
  The auto show was one of the first major shows to come back
• 12:29
  in 2021. And I was working this at an
• 12:31
  automaker at the time and we were wearing masks and showing
• 12:35
  our, you know, vaccinations and stuff that now seems like
• 12:38
  insane, you know, but that's what we had to do to put the
• 12:41
  show on. And you know what, it was still
• 12:42
  a great show. And I can tell you from the
• 12:44
  business perspective, it was a great show from a business
• 12:46
  perspective, even in those really challenging
• 12:49
  circumstances. But through that kind of shake
• 12:52
  out of this, like, unbeknownst to us at the time of a heyday
• 12:57
  era where automakers were pouring money into the show and
• 13:00
  building massive displays that were like, incredibly
• 13:04
  impressive, we got used to a product that has evolved, you
• 13:09
  know, and it's just like brands are spending differently.
• 13:13
  They're still here. And maybe there's not two
• 13:15
  stories of a, you know, like Volvo.
• 13:17
  I remember IN201718 literally like a Scandinavian house inside
• 13:22
  the show. Bonkers.
• 13:23
  Like, it was so cool. We were like, this is insane.
• 13:27
  And yeah, they're not building a Scandinavian house this year,
• 13:29
  but they're here and you can touch their really cool cars and
• 13:32
  you can drive them at the show. And that is, in the end of the
• 13:35
  day, the most important thing for the consumer and right to
• 13:39
  what you were kind of alluding earlier is that the evolution of
• 13:42
  the tech and the experiential, that is how the show has evolved
• 13:45
  now. So it's no longer like, wow,
• 13:47
  look at that. It's let's really put our hands
• 13:49
  on this. Let's and a lot of brands have
• 13:52
  brought like immersive and mobile experiences into their
• 13:55
  show. So it's like where you can
• 13:57
  actually like not just drive. Maybe it's a like the Camp Jeep
• 14:01
  mountain and the, you know, the Bronco mountain.
• 14:03
  Bronco Mountain, Yeah, we. Had these indoor drive tracks
• 14:06
  that you know we're still seeing at the show that are like fast
• 14:09
  moving through the product and then there's a ton of driving
• 14:14
  experiences. We have a bunch of test drives
• 14:17
  this year. Like this is I think our our
• 14:19
  busiest test drive and maybe ever.
• 14:22
  I don't know. I mean, it's really like the
• 14:24
  amount of test drives this year is pretty wild.
• 14:28
  Like how many I don't have the final like count of like you can
• 14:32
  test drive like, you know, 70 cars or 50 cars or whatever it
• 14:34
  is. It's a lot.
• 14:36
  Yeah, I. Can tell you the brands if you
• 14:37
  want to. Know I was going to say can you
• 14:38
  share? I know because I know Ryan and I
• 14:40
  got to go with our Co host Dan last year to automobility and at
• 14:45
  least for me that was one of my favorite parts of the day was
• 14:48
  when we went outside and started test driving all the cars.
• 14:51
  I still talk about the Lucid that we got to drive.
• 14:54
  I mean, I think you guys were probably like, we get it because
• 14:57
  I'm like it was so transcendent. Immediately I was just like,
• 15:00
  yes, I'm in. So who can we expect to see this
• 15:05
  year? So we've put a lot out on the on
• 15:08
  the website already. What is the?
• 15:10
  More than. What we're talking about Elliot
• 15:12
  autoshow.com, I know you wouldn't think right like it's
• 15:15
  that's up. There, right?
• 15:17
  OK, so like actually like vehicles in motion, right?
• 15:22
  So you want to talk about what you can drive.
• 15:24
  So Alfa Romeo, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge,
• 15:29
  Faraday Future is back, Fiat, Ford, Hyundai, Jeep, Kia, Lucid,
• 15:38
  Nissan, Ram, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and
• 15:44
  Volvo. Those are cars that you can get
• 15:46
  in motion in. And that's not just one car per
• 15:49
  brand, it's multiple models per brand.
• 15:52
  So you see the move to yes, they're exhibiting, but there's
• 15:55
  also it's like we really want to get butts in seats and get
• 15:58
  people driving because there really is just no substitute.
• 16:01
  You know, I come from an OEM background.
• 16:02
  There is no substitute from getting them in the car and put
• 16:06
  nails on the wheel and drive it right.
• 16:08
  Once that's done, it's that will move it, yeah, further down the
• 16:12
  sales funnel than anything else. Right shout out to Subaru, who I
• 16:15
  know always puts on a a big show.
• 16:17
  At the LA Auto Show last year, they had a manual transmission
• 16:21
  WRX, which I got a kick out of because that takes some real
• 16:25
  confidence in your product to put a manual WRX out in the mix
• 16:28
  for the public to drive. You know, I feel like I've been
• 16:30
  talking about the death of the manual since 2012, you know, and
• 16:33
  it's like, but it is really, it's comes now like we're down
• 16:37
  to like two or three models that have manuals.
• 16:39
  You know, I can think of like the Integra has a manual.
• 16:42
  Sports. Cars like, there's just not a
• 16:45
  lot, right? But people do love it still, you
• 16:47
  know, there's still a small subset, but in the end of the
• 16:49
  day, it's like automakers have to build at scale and we'll know
• 16:53
  if that's there anymore. I'm sorry to all of our I'm sure
• 16:56
  there's a lot of people right now are cursing.
• 16:58
  He's like, don't talk bad about the manual.
• 17:00
  No, but, but you're right, there aren't.
• 17:02
  I mean, we just had Rory Carroll on the show and his wife is
• 17:04
  driving a manual that he said they've been discussing a
• 17:08
  replacement, but there aren't really any manual options.
• 17:10
  And that's her preference. And I know I think we were
• 17:13
  probably unique last year, Ryan. We went out to the Subaru, you
• 17:16
  know, area to do the test drives, and they also had a
• 17:19
  manual BRZ, which I took. Oh, that's right.
• 17:21
  You and Dan took the WRX. Yeah.
• 17:23
  But we were probably, you know, one of the few groups that were
• 17:25
  like, yeah, yeah. Where?
• 17:26
  What do you have in manual? We would like all of those.
• 17:30
  That is actually amazing that they did have a manual like for
• 17:32
  a test drive. Yeah, like that.
• 17:34
  Pretty too. We'll just see that clutch at
• 17:36
  the end of the show, but. I want to tell you guys, you
• 17:39
  know, like you guys are like the behind the scenes, like this is
• 17:42
  like kind of embarrassing. When I was 21, I was a a valet
• 17:48
  and a bellman for a small hotel that shall remain nameless.
• 17:51
  And I, they were like, do you know how to drive a manual?
• 17:54
  Because if we're going to valet. And I was like, Oh yeah,
• 17:57
  absolutely. Yeah, no problem, 100%.
• 17:59
  And I had done it times, you know, like I did.
• 18:05
  I knew to you know how to put. Like proficient might not have
• 18:08
  been the word, but you'd done it before.
• 18:10
  Pro Definitely not proficient stretch anyway and I literally
• 18:16
  like getting in these like BMW's and just like riding out of the
• 18:23
  riding out of the. Just like pay no attention,
• 18:27
  nothing to listen. Nothing, nothing to do here.
• 18:29
  I mean, yeah. So if you have a manual, just
• 18:31
  like you probably don't want to valet that.
• 18:33
  No, that's just it for our, for our, is it while we're talking
• 18:36
  to manual consumers, Yeah. This is.
• 18:39
  We're going to do a little bingo card.
• 18:40
  This is the life advice from Andy.
• 18:42
  First one is if you have a manual drive, something else if
• 18:44
  you're planning to valet. Don't valet it.
• 18:47
  Stay tuned for the next year. Honest enough to tell you they
• 18:49
  don't know how to do it right? Yeah, it probably won't.
• 18:53
  Yeah. So I think something else that
• 18:56
  you know, that that keeps the show so good is that you really
• 19:00
  have kind of an ear to the community and you you bring in
• 19:03
  like young people, right? And that's a whole other
• 19:06
  discussion. You know, do young people like
• 19:07
  to drive? I mean, come to the LA Auto
• 19:09
  Show. I mean, that we could, Oh my
• 19:11
  God, like, yeah, if we could go on about like, you know, what
• 19:14
  will cars look like? And things are like, are my
• 19:17
  children even going to drive? I honestly, I don't know, like,
• 19:20
  I really don't know the like. And will the auto show in 15
• 19:24
  years just be a collection of like autonomous vehicles that
• 19:27
  you can drive? You know, will it be like a
• 19:30
  subset or will it be like half the show?
• 19:33
  Will it be 1/4? I don't know.
• 19:35
  And those are fascinating things to think about.
• 19:37
  That stuff that we'll really be discussing at Automobility LA.
• 19:40
  We'll pin that and talk about. Yeah.
• 19:42
  But yeah, I think it's really interesting.
• 19:44
  We really focus. So we are doing something
• 19:46
  different this year with the Kentia Hall.
• 19:48
  Did you get to go down to the Kentia Hall last year if you
• 19:50
  were just on Automobility LA? We didn't open it at that event.
• 19:54
  We opened it. Then we're like, no.
• 19:55
  OK, well, don't worry, even if you only become problems over
• 19:58
  the LA this year we're opening it so the Kentia Hall.
• 20:01
  Hall is the lower, the lowest level hall at the show.
• 20:06
  And this year we're kind of just you, we're reskinning it and
• 20:09
  we're giving it a new vibe and a new atmosphere and a new focus.
• 20:13
  And it's called the Underground and we're making it a car
• 20:15
  culture focused hall. So classics, tuners, lowriders,
• 20:21
  you know, custom, off road custom, you know, you're going
• 20:26
  to see things that you would not normally see.
• 20:28
  But also we're really tapping into LA car culture.
• 20:30
  And LA car culture is really interesting.
• 20:33
  It is like very alive and well, I went to an event at race
• 20:37
  service. If you guys had a race service.
• 20:39
  Yeah, yeah. Those, I mean, they are like I,
• 20:41
  I went, I mean, I'm like I said, very elder millennial.
• 20:45
  I mean, thankfully I have a very fashionable wife who keeps me
• 20:47
  looking appropriate for, you know, but if I did not, if I was
• 20:51
  not dressed by my stylist, I would have been like, I am old,
• 20:56
  you know, Well, got in there. I feel like that happens more
• 21:00
  and more these days where I'm like, hello fellow kids.
• 21:02
  Oh, wait, no. Right.
• 21:04
  Like, oh, now I'm not you're. The best to us, yeah.
• 21:06
  But it was just like such a pulse and such a scene.
• 21:10
  And it was the new era of the younger consumer, right is of
• 21:15
  car culture is like it's cars, it's culture, it's art, it's
• 21:19
  merch. It's like all of this blended
• 21:22
  together into this. And it's also experiential.
• 21:26
  So it's going places, it's connecting IRL.
• 21:30
  And I think this is, you know, another podcast where we talk
• 21:33
  about the, you know, the death of in life, in real life
• 21:35
  experiences and the loneliness epidemic and all of that.
• 21:38
  And like, you know, on a deeper level, we're serving some, we're
• 21:41
  serving the community in that way.
• 21:43
  And I'm really excited about what the Underground is bringing
• 21:45
  this year. You're going to see everything
• 21:47
  from kind of the stuff that I've already mentioned up to we have
• 21:51
  creator studios. So like one of my like favorite
• 21:54
  like car artists. You guys know Joshua Vides.
• 21:57
  Yeah, just the black and whites, like the really just like eye
• 22:01
  pop look. It's on.
• 22:03
  Real cars, Ryan. I know.
• 22:05
  You see, I do know. This and they look like.
• 22:07
  They're animated and Derek Powell, who's actually he was on
• 22:10
  the show, he's a friend of the show.
• 22:12
  He wrote an article about Joshua I think for Rodentrek, possibly
• 22:16
  Car and Driver. He did it.
• 22:18
  So this is funny. This is like and this is a
• 22:19
  little BTS, right? You know how it happens, right?
• 22:22
  So this year Joshua did his exposition in LA.
• 22:26
  It was super successful and he put that whole thing on himself
• 22:29
  and that, you know, took a big swing for himself and just
• 22:31
  really did this and it was awesome.
• 22:34
  And we all got all of our attention and, you know, we
• 22:37
  reached out to him and we're like, we need to connect.
• 22:39
  Like how do we get you involved? Like, and it was just kind of a
• 22:42
  dialogue where it was like, we know we want you to do
• 22:45
  something. We just don't know what it is or
• 22:46
  who's going to pay for it, but we're going to figure it out,
• 22:49
  right? You know, we have to have this
• 22:50
  like this culture, this art and that's, and as the year evolved,
• 22:54
  as the show planning evolved and as we changed, you know, the
• 22:57
  what we used to call the garage into and updated it to the
• 23:01
  underground and added elements. One of the things that we're
• 23:05
  investing in and adding this year is the Creator Studio.
• 23:08
  So the Creator Studio is a collection of four creators that
• 23:12
  are coming down to show off like their art, their, you know, what
• 23:17
  they build and what they do. And we have some art elements
• 23:20
  down there. So we're kind of blending all
• 23:21
  those things that we're talking about, right?
• 23:22
  Like the culture, the merch, the art, you know, the right people
• 23:26
  and inviting everyone to really be a part of it this year.
• 23:29
  And so there's a lot of like, really just cool stuff that's
• 23:32
  going to happen down there, a lot of rotating content this
• 23:34
  year that we're not, you know, like you're going to see.
• 23:36
  We introduced something last year called the All Roads Stage,
• 23:39
  and we changed it four times this year.
• 23:42
  We're changing it every day. So a new, like, headline car
• 23:46
  every day. So yeah, it's going to be like,
• 23:49
  yeah. And that's just one thing that's
• 23:51
  literally like on the way into the underground, right?
• 23:55
  So so Joshua Vides will be one of the creators, right?
• 23:58
  So you want to see that art exhibition that you didn't get
• 24:00
  to go see last, you know, earlier this year.
• 24:02
  It's here a version a new version of it at the show.
• 24:05
  That is really exciting 'cause I kept seeing his cars everywhere
• 24:08
  and yeah, you know, people we knew kept getting to meet him
• 24:11
  and I was like, this feels this is that happens all the time.
• 24:14
  But for some reason this was one of those where it really like.
• 24:17
  I really would love to meet him and see his work.
• 24:20
  In person, right? Well, you're going to see it.
• 24:22
  I think he'll be there at the show.
• 24:24
  So we're going to open that during the media day this year,
• 24:26
  so the media has a chance to go down and experience it and
• 24:29
  connect with the creators that are going to be there.
• 24:31
  Do you guys know OG Slick? He's really cool.
• 24:34
  He's the guy who did the. My age of show.
• 24:35
  Mickey Mouse. So you think you're old, Andy?
• 24:38
  Right. You know the I didn't know I had
• 24:41
  to learn about this. You know the LA hands that are
• 24:43
  like this, right? I think, yeah, the Mickey Mouse,
• 24:45
  LA hands, yeah, yeah. It's the whole thing thing.
• 24:49
  He's going to be there and he's doing.
• 24:50
  Very cool. Oh, right on.
• 24:51
  Yeah, very cool. Yeah, this sounds.
• 24:53
  Exciting. Can you share some of the other
• 24:55
  creators that'll be there also? Yeah, I just need to pull them
• 24:58
  up because I don't know them off the.
• 24:59
  Top, but that's the well you do that.
• 25:01
  I mean, that's really the I think that makes the LA Auto
• 25:03
  Show different. It's it's just it isn't static
• 25:05
  and there are all these other things going on at the same same
• 25:09
  time, you know. Yeah, I remember last year
• 25:11
  aftermarket was a big part of it and specifically the over
• 25:14
  landing stuff. Is that still the same this year
• 25:16
  or have the kids moved on to other things or what's?
• 25:19
  No, so, so I, so OVR, essentially OVR magazine is back
• 25:26
  with another collaborative this year.
• 25:28
  What they're going to be doing is kind of similar to what we've
• 25:31
  done in years past. It's going to look a little
• 25:33
  different with our with the hall this year because it's so full,
• 25:37
  but we're going to bring, you know, a collection of out
• 25:39
  outdoor overland adventure. Essentially what that is, is
• 25:41
  like OVR magazine, like the pages brought to life and
• 25:46
  they're bringing unique one of ones and everything in there is
• 25:48
  like a product that the magazine is vetted and used and, you
• 25:52
  know, is showing and you kind of an experience.
• 25:54
  And what we always hear when and if you're if you spend any time
• 25:57
  in the OVR section is you hear somebody inevitably come again.
• 26:02
  Usually it's, you know, like a husband and their wife.
• 26:04
  See, this is what we should be doing.
• 26:07
  We should get. A camper van.
• 26:09
  We should get a RV or we should rent one and.
• 26:13
  It's it's a tempting lifestyle for sure.
• 26:16
  Right, that is very alive and well.
• 26:18
  Yeah. Are you doing the sleepover
• 26:20
  thing again this year? No, we're.
• 26:22
  Not that's right. So can you.
• 26:24
  Can you talk a little bit about what that was and how it like
• 26:27
  what you thought after that? What?
• 26:30
  It's done. Oh my God.
• 26:32
  OK, so last year with this brilliant idea to do a overnight
• 26:37
  for creators. So we're always trying to engage
• 26:40
  automotive creators. If there's any out there, we
• 26:42
  want you at the show. We're doing a partnership with
• 26:44
  TikTok. This year.
• 26:45
  TikTok is doing their own kind of like hashtag contest and
• 26:49
  they're giving some really cool prizes away and stuff.
• 26:51
  So that. So if you're in auto creator on
• 26:54
  TikTok, you're probably getting outreach now or soon about that.
• 26:58
  Yeah. Now they're going to that's
• 26:59
  going to be kind of during the consumer portion of the show.
• 27:01
  Preferably. I believe they're going to be
• 27:03
  starting on that opening day, like first Friday with that.
• 27:06
  But last year we did something where we just an invitation kind
• 27:10
  of selection group of creators that were that spent the night
• 27:14
  at the LA Auto Show. This was after the industry
• 27:17
  media and press day, Automobility LA before the
• 27:19
  consumer shows of the first Thursday they spent the night.
• 27:22
  We worked with the automakers, we worked with the OVR magazine
• 27:25
  and we basically let everybody camp out.
• 27:28
  Like they're camping out and they're like Jeep, you know, the
• 27:30
  camp Jeep area, they're camping out in the Subaru as we talked
• 27:33
  about earlier, like Subaru, if you haven't seen it, basically
• 27:36
  build like a Fort. They're very connected to
• 27:38
  national parks, right? And they basically build a
• 27:40
  replica National Park. It's crazy.
• 27:42
  It's. Great, sit and relax.
• 27:44
  With the Subaru, yeah, it's such a breath of fresh air because
• 27:48
  you walk in and you kind of go, it's a moment of pod and, you
• 27:52
  know, like that's their goal is to encourage you to come in and
• 27:55
  hang out and see the cars and it works.
• 27:57
  And then they have natural, of course, they're rescue dog, you
• 28:01
  know, partnerships. Yes, and the dogs will be there.
• 28:03
  We're going to have more dogs this year by popular demand.
• 28:06
  With. More dogs.
• 28:08
  Yeah, that's really. Amazing our dog count.
• 28:10
  Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, but we have a charitable
• 28:14
  group we work with that does they're called Dove Rescue.
• 28:19
  And then basically they, they work and they, we have them
• 28:21
  there both weekends and just really couldn't keep the dogs
• 28:24
  there every day. It's a little overwhelming for
• 28:25
  the dogs to come every day, but they're like constant feedback
• 28:28
  was like, you know, if you came in on Monday and there weren't
• 28:30
  dogs, like, well, I want the dogs, right.
• 28:32
  So we worked with them to get more dogs.
• 28:34
  So they're all days of dogs. That's amazing.
• 28:38
  I love it. But so, OK, so people were able
• 28:40
  to. They had the opportunity to the
• 28:42
  group of creators at the night We did.
• 28:44
  We actually curated this whole thing.
• 28:46
  This is all all our show president who's like, just like
• 28:48
  a creative, like mastermind, give her give her time and
• 28:51
  budget and like watch out, right.
• 28:53
  And so it was like you went to like this, you know, experience
• 28:57
  and you had like, you know, a drink there and then you went
• 29:00
  and you had AF and B like a food moment here.
• 29:02
  And then you had a, you know, you got to do all these
• 29:04
  different things and explore the show.
• 29:07
  Meanwhile, operationally you were like changing the show over
• 29:10
  from media day to consumer days. A lot happening.
• 29:15
  I I was there till about like 10/10/30 and seeing everybody
• 29:19
  off OK. And then off they went on their
• 29:20
  adventure. And we did like we do a little
• 29:21
  pop out. We're very creative and love
• 29:23
  like. We had like a a costume squirrel
• 29:26
  who was like. No detail went unattended.
• 29:32
  Yeah, Like, no, yeah, exactly. So all these ended with like a
• 29:35
  like a pancake breakfast at camp Jeep.
• 29:37
  And like, it was so it was outrageous.
• 29:40
  And so all the creators, I was coming in at like 7:00 in the
• 29:43
  morning the next day and I'm watching them like starting to
• 29:46
  pack up and they're like didn't sleep.
• 29:47
  And, you know, they're like one of them was when she walked out,
• 29:50
  I was like, oh, hey, how did it go?
• 29:52
  It's like, Oh my God, you guys, this is the best thing I've ever
• 29:56
  done, the best event I've ever been invited to.
• 29:59
  I'm like a mind blown. Like I think we over stimulated
• 30:01
  them for sure. One of my favorite wrap UPS was
• 30:05
  there's a a creator called Gen. Z, like Jennifer's, you know,
• 30:09
  Gen. Z, Gen.
• 30:10
  Z, look up Gen. Z.
• 30:12
  She's great. And she did her she did like
• 30:13
  just this, like, you know, you know, vertical video, like 1 1/2
• 30:18
  minutes. That was like really
• 30:20
  encapsulated the experience or really, really well.
• 30:23
  So that's kind of a good like if you can go back and look at it.
• 30:26
  We are doing something different this year for creators.
• 30:28
  Instead of an overnight, we are doing a two things.
• 30:32
  We're doing a scavenger hunt and we're doing a partnership with
• 30:35
  fork and film, which is really cool.
• 30:37
  Fork and film, look them up. They're very like cool
• 30:40
  underground thing where you watch a movie and they bring it
• 30:43
  to life through food. So, you know, you're watching
• 30:46
  Lady and the Tramp and then when the moment when they're doing
• 30:48
  the the dog's kiss spaghetti, you're getting handmade, you
• 30:53
  know hand rolled Michelin spaghetti, right?
• 30:58
  Yeah, so. We're doing dogs to.
• 31:00
  Eat it with does that. Yeah, well, maybe when.
• 31:03
  The rescue dogs come in, maybe? You can make it happen.
• 31:06
  To make give it that extra sparkle that L any right, but we
• 31:10
  will be doing a fork in film this year and they're doing with
• 31:12
  the movie cars. It is like a private event.
• 31:14
  So I. Shouldn't be like?
• 31:16
  Bragging about this too much. You're only just going to see it
• 31:18
  on socials, but you know. Well, but I think it goes to it
• 31:22
  speaks to the level of detail that the show puts into.
• 31:26
  It's a part of the overall experiential experience of the
• 31:30
  show. Yeah, I mean.
• 31:32
  You know, we definitely felt last year and in years past.
• 31:36
  Yeah. So one of the reasons why LA
• 31:38
  Auto Show is unique and I did not really fully understand
• 31:41
  this. I always just knew it was
• 31:42
  different and more innovative and more, you know, kind of
• 31:45
  exciting and just like a little fresher than you know.
• 31:48
  And that's what I felt when I worked all the shows.
• 31:52
  We're actually. So the difference is, and this
• 31:54
  is, it is not a good or bad thing.
• 31:55
  It just is. There are a series of events
• 31:57
  that happened in the 70s. We're privately owned company,
• 32:00
  so we're privately owned company.
• 32:01
  We are most auto shows are dealer run shows and they're,
• 32:05
  you know, consortial. The, you know, greater Chicago
• 32:07
  dealers association comes together Kumbaya.
• 32:09
  We all agree we're going to put the cars on roof and you know,
• 32:12
  may the best car win. And you know, we do this all in
• 32:14
  the greater good of of, you know, servicing and getting
• 32:17
  people educated on the cars. I mean, we serve that exact same
• 32:20
  purpose. We're just organized differently
• 32:23
  and independently. And because of that, like, we
• 32:26
  just think about it differently. We're, you know, think always
• 32:30
  creatively, always how do we evolve the show, always how do
• 32:33
  we give the consumer something new?
• 32:34
  But also that's because we're in Los Angeles.
• 32:36
  And like, I mean, honestly, you know, like you can open up your,
• 32:41
  you know, anything and you can do 100 different things today.
• 32:45
  I mean, it's just we have, you know, 2 football teams, 2 soccer
• 32:49
  teams, NBA teams, you know, we have a 360 near 360° immersive
• 32:55
  Dome where you can watch all these said sporting events and
• 32:58
  or for Du Soleil or a movie at, you know, in concerts.
• 33:01
  I mean, hundreds of theaters or multiple arenas, like, so to
• 33:07
  serve this customer, you got to bring it, you know, and we're
• 33:11
  just a family friendly offering that hopefully brings it, yeah.
• 33:14
  Yeah. Yeah, you're right.
• 33:16
  You have to. You definitely You have no
• 33:18
  excuse for being bored in Southern California for sure.
• 33:21
  Yeah, that choice or funds. Yeah, exactly.
• 33:25
  So you spent quite a few years on the road going from auto show
• 33:28
  to auto show. You could probably write a book
• 33:31
  any highlights or low lights of of a life on the road like that
• 33:35
  because I mean, you were kind of Charles Kuralt of.
• 33:38
  Yeah, it was. It was OK.
• 33:39
  So it was really cool. Like it was a really cool
• 33:42
  experience. And I was also doing it during
• 33:44
  that unbeknownst heyday era, you know, where I was like, well,
• 33:46
  think about. It but that's like anything you
• 33:47
  don't know till it's done right. You know you don't know what you
• 33:50
  have until it's just like. And we were probably complaining
• 33:52
  about the food. I don't know, you know, like at
• 33:54
  the time. But it was good.
• 33:56
  We were treated very well actually.
• 33:59
  So what was interesting about it is we all it's auto shows are
• 34:02
  like a winter time activity. You know, like they're kind of
• 34:05
  originally built around like the Northeast and upper Midwest of
• 34:10
  like it's winter, there's nothing to do.
• 34:13
  Let's just go indoors and look at the cars.
• 34:16
  You know, that's kind of like the schedule was served around
• 34:19
  that. And so we were constantly like
• 34:23
  just traversing the country. You know, it was kind of built
• 34:25
  around the tent poles back then of like LA in this order.
• 34:29
  LA in November, which was home for me, which is great.
• 34:32
  Chicago, I'm sorry, North American International Auto
• 34:36
  Show, now known as the Detroit Auto Show in January.
• 34:40
  And then there was Chicago in February and New York
• 34:44
  International Auto Show in eight March, April, May, because it
• 34:48
  always falls through Easter, Passover.
• 34:49
  It just evolved whenever those dates align.
• 34:52
  So that was always built around those tent poles.
• 34:54
  And then there was a lot of little, little shells in between
• 34:56
  and you know, you just got like drafted to them and you were
• 34:59
  like assigned it. So it was just so cool.
• 35:02
  You know, like sometimes I would do these things where like and
• 35:05
  that we would also do like the Texas State fair, like oh, wow,
• 35:08
  that was that's that's another podcast episode that worked in
• 35:12
  Texas State fair. I've.
• 35:13
  Been keeping a list so we've got you from.
• 35:16
  Earmark part. Of this year, yeah.
• 35:17
  That's true, but we so OK when I worked this is fun.
• 35:20
  So when I worked the Texas State Fair, I worked for Chevrolet and
• 35:24
  we were obviously promoting trucks, you know, so.
• 35:27
  I was like. Texas, Can you imagine?
• 35:30
  And we have like, I mean, they built like an outdoor like, like
• 35:34
  cement and like, you know, tented area just for this and
• 35:38
  ripped it out. But we were right next to Big
• 35:41
  Tex, which is that big, like Big Tex.
• 35:44
  Yeah. I was not there the year it
• 35:45
  burned down, but that looked like apocalyptic.
• 35:48
  Yeah. That was like the Wicker Man or
• 35:50
  whatever, Yeah. Yeah, that was scary.
• 35:53
  But we were also some Big Tex. And then right next to Big Tex,
• 35:57
  it was like a very popular corn dog stand.
• 36:01
  OK, I cannot. Tell that's what you want to be
• 36:04
  next to. How many go, I mean, it smells
• 36:06
  good for like the first day and a half three weeks later.
• 36:10
  How can I tell you how many conversations I would have where
• 36:13
  people are like waving a corn dog in my face?
• 36:17
  Like what's different knowledge? There's junk, you know, I'm just
• 36:21
  like, and then that's one of those moments where you're like,
• 36:24
  it's 98°, I'm sweating like, and, and then, so then, you
• 36:30
  know, that experience, right? That's a whole experience, you
• 36:34
  know, but look, at the end of the day, we're just like, we're
• 36:35
  still working. We're doing one of those moments
• 36:37
  where you're like, what am I doing?
• 36:39
  This is crazy. And then we would that would
• 36:42
  finish and then you would quickly get home and, you know,
• 36:45
  take a moment to breathe. And then you'd do the LA Auto
• 36:48
  Show and then we'd be the LA press day.
• 36:50
  And back then we wore suits and ties, and you'd never own my,
• 36:53
  like, expensive shoes and my, you know, and it was like,
• 36:56
  literally like days apart where you're just like, going.
• 37:00
  And then you come to LA and it's like glamorous and you know, the
• 37:06
  juxtaposition was just wild. Yeah, that sounds like quite a
• 37:09
  contrast, yeah. You've got a picture on the
• 37:12
  website, thelaautoshow.com website of, I think one of the
• 37:16
  early shows. It's probably from the 30s,
• 37:19
  Right. So you were, you were I guess
• 37:21
  what, 30-40 years in or, or 2030 years in, right.
• 37:24
  Yes. Yeah.
• 37:25
  But it was very fancy, very glamorous.
• 37:27
  There were like drapes and Packards and people and like,
• 37:30
  yeah, it was, it was very, I don't know.
• 37:35
  Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Auto shows have kind of weirdly
• 37:39
  always been, I mean, it's interesting, right?
• 37:42
  Because in some ways they're very for the people.
• 37:44
  Like it is a very like and obviously life in general is so
• 37:47
  much more casual now than it was even 10 years ago.
• 37:51
  But it always has been kind of like this upscale event,
• 37:56
  especially when you go to cities that, you know, like when, when
• 37:59
  I used to work the New York International, I mean that,
• 38:01
  sorry, the, the, the North American International Auto Show
• 38:05
  in January, they would have their charity ball.
• 38:07
  And we don't, we just, we don't do a charity ball here.
• 38:09
  Just operationally, it's too challenging.
• 38:12
  But that was something that was always done.
• 38:14
  And we would call it car prom because it was black tie, you
• 38:19
  know, ball gown. And, you know, but it's like
• 38:22
  that is like there is that connotation of glamour and auto
• 38:26
  show, like still there. Yeah.
• 38:28
  I just think that's evolved, you know, and that is still there.
• 38:31
  And I think there are still people that attend and
• 38:32
  definitely Industry Day. I think you probably noticed,
• 38:35
  you know, it's like it's gotten a lot more casual, sure, but you
• 38:37
  still see some like some fresh looks when you're there.
• 38:40
  Right, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you see a lot of
• 38:42
  international correspondents very, you know, meet a lot of
• 38:45
  people. It's a big deal.
• 38:46
  You know, it's, it's because I, I really think the LA show,
• 38:49
  especially with the, the nod to all the EV stuff, right?
• 38:54
  Yeah. You don't, you embrace it.
• 38:55
  You don't fight it. You know, it's, it's, it's
• 38:57
  really become, you know, the show for that.
• 38:59
  Kind of it's just a part of it. It's funny, you know, OK, in
• 39:02
  2021, the COVID year, just by chance, that was also like, it's
• 39:08
  funny to talk about like that. 2021 is like so long ago, but it
• 39:12
  was so long ago. It was a very different life,
• 39:14
  you know, like. In every sense.
• 39:16
  Yeah, yeah. You know how?
• 39:17
  Strange days for sure. Yeah.
• 39:19
  And so back then there was a dearth of new EVs, you know,
• 39:24
  like then Fast Fisker, the list goes on, right?
• 39:28
  And they were all kind of mulling.
• 39:29
  I mean, they were all like, and they all were like bowing at the
• 39:32
  LA Otto show. So when that happened, the LA
• 39:35
  Otto show got this reputation as the EV show.
• 39:38
  And like, look at this point that has really evolved.
• 39:42
  I mean, EVs are just, they are here.
• 39:45
  They are currently not a, A highly supported car category,
• 39:50
  but they're very much not going away, you know, and I believe
• 39:54
  that because I drive an EV, but I don't, I don't, people aren't
• 39:57
  going back. They're here.
• 39:58
  They're they're here to stay. And the kind of the industry
• 40:01
  saying goes really is like, if you cannot be successful selling
• 40:05
  EVs in Los Angeles, you're not going to be successful selling
• 40:08
  EVs anywhere. So because of that, we do have
• 40:12
  like a good push and enthusiasm or from the automakers around
• 40:15
  their EVs here. But it's not really any
• 40:19
  different than, you know, what you're going to find everywhere
• 40:22
  else. But you will find a lot of EVs
• 40:24
  and there's a lot of exciting EVs now.
• 40:27
  Yeah, yeah. But I think that's an
• 40:28
  interesting point. It's part of the larger show.
• 40:30
  It's not just focus of the show, but it's also that's part of the
• 40:34
  industry and the show is about the industry.
• 40:36
  So it. Makes sense.
• 40:37
  And you know, yeah, when you think about the evolution,
• 40:39
  right, it's like one of the things that we've done is like,
• 40:42
  so for two years we had a an area of the show that was like a
• 40:45
  a test track and it's basically just a just about a mile, a
• 40:48
  little under a mile like loop around the the South building of
• 40:51
  that right, right, right, semi private, semi public, but mainly
• 40:55
  just a quick a chance to do a quicker turn.
• 40:57
  And we did it for two years as the Electric Ave. and we always
• 41:01
  had sponsors and you know, but this year we kind of just made
• 41:04
  the strategic choice to say to the automakers, bring whatever
• 41:09
  car fits best. Like we're not telling you it
• 41:11
  has to be EV anymore. But lo and behold, like most of
• 41:15
  the products are EV. They're not all EV, but they're
• 41:17
  mostly EV. And so this year we have a new
• 41:19
  sponsor, the Clean shout out to the Clean Power Alliance
• 41:21
  promoting their EV Smart Charge program, wonderful partner of
• 41:24
  ours this year coming in a big way.
• 41:26
  And so we've retitled it because it works.
• 41:29
  It makes sense. The Clean Power Alliance test
• 41:30
  track, right, because it's mostly clean vehicles and, you
• 41:35
  know, and they're promoting EV Smart Charge, which is just
• 41:37
  basically a wave locally to save on your EV charging if you go EV
• 41:40
  or if you have EV. And it's a great program.
• 41:42
  So we're happy to kind of connect those dots and then just
• 41:45
  kind of move with the narrative. It's like we're not here to tell
• 41:48
  anybody how it's got to be. We are a reflection of the
• 41:52
  current state and this is kind of where we are.
• 41:54
  It's interesting, yeah. That car show is proud to
• 41:57
  partner with Drake Motor Cars. Drake Motorcars is Denver's
• 42:01
  premier destination for exactly the kinds of vehicles that we
• 42:04
  like here at that car Show. Think Velocity Broncos, Audi Rs
• 42:08
  Sixes, Acura NS XS, and Iacooled Porsches.
• 42:13
  You can see they're complete and constantly changing inventory at
• 42:15
  drakemotorcars.com and check out their amazing online reviews
• 42:19
  from all across the country. But our friends at Drake need
• 42:23
  your specialty car too. A sign of a good business is
• 42:25
  when there are more customers than inventory.
• 42:28
  So reach out to Drake too if you've got a great enthusiast
• 42:30
  car that just doesn't get driven like it used to.
• 42:33
  Find out more at drakemotorcars.com and let them
• 42:36
  know you heard about them on that car show.
• 42:40
  You mentioned the test tracks earlier, the Jeep specifically
• 42:43
  in the Bronco. Are those back this year?
• 42:45
  Please tell me there because my inner 12 year old self comes out
• 42:47
  for that kind of stuff. That's the best.
• 42:50
  That's a highlight every year. The crazy thing is when I worked
• 42:53
  auto shows as a staff or, you know, with an OEM, I never got
• 42:57
  to do it 'cause I was too busy. And you know, even now I rarely
• 43:00
  get to do it, but I usually get to do it like if we're doing
• 43:03
  some promotion for the show or something.
• 43:04
  So I got to do them all like the last year.
• 43:07
  Those are crazy. Like, they're so fun.
• 43:10
  They're really insane. Yeah.
• 43:12
  The only thing that, like, the only reason I'm not like
• 43:14
  terrified is because I know these drivers personally, you
• 43:17
  know, and I know that they have done it like 100 times.
• 43:22
  You know, I'm like, OK, if you're not scared, I'm not
• 43:25
  scared. But honestly, if you were, I
• 43:27
  would be. It's very different once you're
• 43:28
  up there, isn't it? Than when you're on the ground
• 43:30
  waiting in mind, you know? But I feel.
• 43:33
  Doing this indoors This is insane.
• 43:35
  Like when I know. When we all did the problem
• 43:37
  uncle track together and I remember we got to the top of
• 43:40
  Bramco Mountain and I kind of like you said, right, It's very
• 43:43
  different at the top. And I just went and I remember
• 43:45
  Ryan looked at me and he's like, do you have a problem with
• 43:47
  heights and down? He's like.
• 43:49
  Yeah, and you're just like, you know, you're sitting on the hill
• 43:51
  and you're like. Yes, you're like.
• 43:53
  Your seat belt is like holding you in and you're like, what?
• 43:55
  This is crazy, right? That's what it does.
• 43:58
  To your point, you know, you know the drivers and you trust
• 44:00
  their capability, right? It's an incredible way to
• 44:02
  demonstrate the capabilities of the cars.
• 44:05
  Yeah, You know, like what it is. Most people won't do that, but
• 44:08
  you know, if they want to, they can.
• 44:10
  They know they can, and then they can say they can and they
• 44:13
  don't need to. You're seeing people get out
• 44:16
  there and do it though, and that's what, and that's what's
• 44:18
  interesting is that like how we connect all the dots, right?
• 44:20
  It's like, so you may, you know, you make it the Bronco because
• 44:23
  it looks cool, right? Or you may get the Bronco
• 44:25
  because you want to do the thing, right?
• 44:28
  And then you go over to the OVR section, right, the OVR outpost
• 44:32
  and you're like, OK, like here's some more of that equipment.
• 44:34
  Here's some of the people that do this stuff that really go out
• 44:38
  there and there's like tours and groups and you know, it's a way
• 44:41
  to like get, you know, you can kind of thread that like
• 44:44
  connection of your car. That's where our thematic for
• 44:47
  the show has been for the past two years is again, this year's
• 44:50
  all roads lead here because whatever your interest in cars
• 44:53
  or car culture is, it all leads to the show.
• 44:56
  You're into lowriders, you're into new, you're car shopping,
• 44:59
  you're you're into outdoor, you're into trucks, you're into
• 45:02
  adventure, you're into race cars.
• 45:03
  Like all of that is here. Like it's all celebrated here.
• 45:06
  So. I think there's a lesson for
• 45:08
  other, you know, auto shows, right?
• 45:10
  I mean, you know, to stay relevant, you, you, you have to
• 45:13
  kind of have an ear to the street, right?
• 45:14
  You do have to reflect your community, all these things,
• 45:16
  right? Yeah.
• 45:18
  You know, and and it's been amazing to see the show thrive.
• 45:21
  And something else that really I guess impressed me was before we
• 45:25
  started recording, you talked about some of the stats of the
• 45:27
  show, right? The number of attendees, I think
• 45:31
  50 states people come from like 60 or 80 different countries.
• 45:34
  Like can you get on that list? Like because it's, it's pretty
• 45:37
  impressive stuff. I mean, I guess the proof is in
• 45:39
  the is in the pudding, right? Yeah, it's really wild.
• 45:41
  And like we're always surprised by this was like last year there
• 45:44
  were 68 different countries that were ticket buyers, right?
• 45:48
  And this is just, we just know this because the data of the
• 45:51
  credit cards that came from this country, right.
• 45:54
  So it's like 68 different countries of people traveling in
• 45:57
  and some like more represented than others, right.
• 45:59
  Additionally, all 50 states, like we had somebody buy a
• 46:02
  ticket from every 50 state across the country.
• 46:05
  Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah.
• 46:07
  It's. Reach is remarkable, yeah.
• 46:09
  Yeah. And when you look across like
• 46:11
  California, we cover basically the entire map of California
• 46:14
  from sparse, like upper northern counties that are very, you
• 46:17
  know, very rural. But yeah, people come from all
• 46:20
  over. The majority of the consumers do
• 46:22
  come from like the region, which is like, Ray over to the East
• 46:27
  Riverside, up to, you know, Ventura County and down to San
• 46:30
  Diego. So heavy in Orange County, still
• 46:33
  more there. But yeah, I mean, it's just like
• 46:35
  if you're into cars, like there's something here for you,
• 46:38
  you know, and so. We talk about demographics.
• 46:40
  Your demographic is like everyone, right?
• 46:44
  I always, yeah, it's funny. I always tell people it's like
• 46:46
  we really are honestly a pretty good cross section of Los
• 46:49
  Angeles. Los Angeles is just a very
• 46:51
  diverse place. So it it really is like an
• 46:54
  imprint of LA, you know, as far as like economics and like
• 46:58
  demographics. And like you really see that
• 47:01
  when you come to the show. Like you just walk around and
• 47:03
  you're like, this just feels like the city, you know, right.
• 47:07
  It really feels like LA is out and it's fun.
• 47:10
  Yeah, yeah, All right. What about some tips, tricks,
• 47:13
  hacks? So say you're coming in from.
• 47:16
  I don't know. Far away.
• 47:17
  Belgium. Denver, Belgium.
• 47:20
  I don't know, it's a lovely country, but if.
• 47:22
  You're coming from if you're OK, if you're not from LA and you're
• 47:24
  going to come to the show like. Yeah, what do we need to?
• 47:26
  Know in the night, don't try to do it in a day, you know, like
• 47:32
  or do the show in a day you could do it spend.
• 47:35
  I mean, honestly, I think most people do the show for about
• 47:39
  three to six hours. It just depends on like how deep
• 47:42
  you want to go. And some people come for two
• 47:43
  straight days, you know, if they want to, if you want to drive
• 47:45
  every car, if you want to do all the experiences, like sometimes
• 47:49
  transparently, you might have to wait in line for that Jeep ride
• 47:52
  for 40 minutes, you know, like, if you want to do it.
• 47:55
  You know it's good. Yeah, exactly.
• 47:57
  But so and you look, we're in downtown LA, right?
• 48:00
  So there's a ton of great hotels and places to stay and things to
• 48:05
  do The We are right next to thecrypto.com Arena.
• 48:09
  Most people know it's the Staples Center.
• 48:11
  So Lakers, Kings, Sabrina Carpenter, concerts, like
• 48:15
  there's some well, those are sold out, but there's a lot.
• 48:18
  Yeah, there's a lot happening around, right.
• 48:21
  So I say like if you're coming from far, like at on, you know,
• 48:25
  like at a sporting event, at a museum, at.
• 48:28
  A Peterson. Right, Oh my God, absolutely.
• 48:32
  Like I don't think that's the last person Peterson is.
• 48:34
  So we got to get a car weekend. We actually do a so we actually
• 48:37
  do a giveaway package with Saint Jude's at auction where
• 48:42
  basically you can go to this is the only way if you're like a
• 48:44
  consumer and you know, just like I have no business.
• 48:47
  I just like cars. I'm not like I'm not in the
• 48:50
  business, but I would just like it like which actually might be
• 48:52
  a lot of this audience. So good pitch if you want to
• 48:55
  come to the industry and media event, like it's vetted, you
• 48:58
  can't just like buy a ticket. It's not, it's a, you know, it's
• 49:00
  like it's for people working that business there.
• 49:02
  But we do allow a couple people in and the only way in is if you
• 49:06
  support Saint Jude's and get that option and win it.
• 49:08
  So we did, we've done it for two years and then we're going to do
• 49:12
  it again next year. And we tack on some additional
• 49:14
  stuff like a VIP weekend essentially.
• 49:17
  So it's like you get to go to Peterson for a VIP experience.
• 49:19
  You get to stay at The Four Seasons.
• 49:21
  You get, you know, like this year's winner also gets to go to
• 49:25
  Palm Springs and go to the BMW Performance Center in thermal.
• 49:29
  And yeah, it's like an awesome. Few days.
• 49:32
  It's like if you're into it, it's a really cool thing.
• 49:37
  So, so tips and tricks, comfortable shoes.
• 49:39
  You're going to walk a lot like I do 20,000 steps a day at the
• 49:44
  show. Easy, you're going to do 10,000
• 49:47
  for sure. I'll never forget my friends
• 49:49
  were here last year and I was, you know, walking down with him
• 49:52
  for a little bit, you know, and and they're like, OK, we got to
• 49:54
  go. Like we just realized because
• 49:56
  they they're the five year old in an Apple Watch.
• 49:58
  Like we just realized he's already done like 6000 steps and
• 50:00
  he's five years old. Like he's done, he's like
• 50:02
  falling down. So there are rest stops, you
• 50:07
  know, along the way. But I think my biggest, biggest
• 50:10
  piece of advice is like is really ask like talk to the
• 50:14
  staff, like the product specialist, the people that do
• 50:16
  what I used to do, they're, they are like encyclopedias of
• 50:21
  product information that you will not, I mean, they, I will,
• 50:25
  you know, no disrespect to the dealers.
• 50:26
  They are better trained than the dealers.
• 50:28
  Most of them, you know that you will find have more product
• 50:31
  knowledge than the dealers. And they can't sell you a car.
• 50:34
  They're just. They're not going to cut.
• 50:35
  They're not like, they're not there to like sell you a car.
• 50:37
  They're there to like teach you about the product and, you know,
• 50:41
  help you experience it. So, you know, go and talk to the
• 50:44
  staff and like really engage and sit and touch and feel and drive
• 50:48
  and you know, really do. That's the whole point of it,
• 50:51
  right, is to really do and to see touch, feel, wear
• 50:55
  comfortable shoes. You're going to walk a lot if
• 50:58
  you're really into it, like save time for the underground.
• 51:00
  Like you're going to want to do the car culture, you're going to
• 51:02
  want to get involved. Like there's just a lot of touch
• 51:05
  points that you can experience if you really take your time.
• 51:08
  I mean, I haven't even, we have so much crazy stuff this year,
• 51:10
  like, and one of our big sponsors, and I'm really excited
• 51:13
  about this is Agua Caliente casinos, which is in Palm
• 51:17
  Springs and three casinos, one in Palm Springs, one in Rancho
• 51:21
  Mirage and one in Cathedral City.
• 51:23
  And they have a resort and they have a five star spa anyway, so
• 51:26
  they're doing a, we have an area of the show called the Showcase
• 51:30
  Hall. So one of their requests we
• 51:32
  always get is, you know, where's the Lamborghinis, where's the
• 51:36
  Ferraris? And I'll just be completely
• 51:38
  transparent, like if you're not aware, Lamborghini, and I know
• 51:42
  this because I was a product specialist for Lamborghini, they
• 51:44
  don't need to market, you know, like they don't need you to like
• 51:51
  buy the like there's plenty they.
• 51:53
  Sell everyone, yeah. They don't make enough, right?
• 51:56
  And so it's like they don't need that like, you know, mass
• 51:59
  exposure that like, you know, a Hyundai is gonna say, I want you
• 52:02
  to try this Ionic 9, you know, like it's a great car I need to
• 52:05
  win. You have.
• 52:05
  Cross shopping the two, yeah. Yeah, it's a little less.
• 52:08
  Right. It's a totally different
• 52:09
  proposition. And the cars, the cars are such
• 52:11
  rolling business cards for lack of a better, you know.
• 52:15
  Yeah. I mean, they're showpieces.
• 52:17
  So what we've done, because we, our consumers want to see it,
• 52:20
  you know, whether or not Lamborghini wants to be there
• 52:22
  and say try my product or not, our consumers really want to
• 52:26
  experience it. So we created a gallery
• 52:28
  essentially. We did this last year and we're
• 52:29
  kind of like evolving it this year and it's going to be called
• 52:32
  the Showcase Hall and it's like $20 million worth of automotive
• 52:37
  like wow, I mean gold Porsches and unique one of one Ferraris
• 52:41
  and like crazy stuff. And you can go and and oh, and
• 52:45
  awe and like Google over. And in this area we have our
• 52:48
  sponsor Agua Caliente casinos doing like at certain times,
• 52:51
  like some like play blackjack for fun and there's going to be
• 52:54
  like giveaways where you can win like desert nights, which are,
• 52:57
  you know, you can go out and experience a show.
• 52:59
  I mean, they have like, you know, really big names that
• 53:01
  they're they do. It's a casino, you know, plus a
• 53:04
  dinner at the excellent Five Star Steakhouse.
• 53:06
  Like, so you know, we're going to be giving away experiences,
• 53:10
  We're going to be connecting, you know, we're talking to a
• 53:12
  potential tequila sponsor. Maybe you'll get a nice
• 53:14
  cocktail. That's when you're done driving,
• 53:17
  When you're done with the class, drive.
• 53:19
  Look for us there, yeah. You can stay, right.
• 53:22
  Well, on the industry and media day, we'll definitely have, we
• 53:24
  have 3 happy hours, so OK. Right.
• 53:27
  I remember that last year we were looking at the schedule and
• 53:30
  we're like, we can't we. Can't do all.
• 53:33
  Of it, you had these great cookies too.
• 53:34
  I remember in the media room what those were, but those were
• 53:38
  like cookie crack. We do like, yeah, so we do a
• 53:41
  really nice meet for like this is very bad in the scenes, like
• 53:43
  with the Media Center for like, you know, people like you go and
• 53:47
  kind of like, all right, you're you're digesting, you're kind of
• 53:50
  taking notes or uploading. You've great Internet up there,
• 53:53
  you know, right. And there's just like a full of
• 53:55
  snacks and, you know, pastries to keep appreciated.
• 54:00
  Yeah. And we have a networking
• 54:01
  breakfast and lunch and three happy hours and so good time.
• 54:05
  Everybody fed. That's unique.
• 54:06
  And nobody else really does that, Like, provides food for
• 54:10
  every attendee because Automobility LA is if you're in
• 54:14
  the business, I mean, it is just no better place to network with
• 54:19
  the automotive industry. And one thing that I've really
• 54:21
  worked hard on this year is bringing a lot of, like,
• 54:24
  relevant partners and policymakers to the show.
• 54:27
  When is this going to air? I want to tell you something,
• 54:29
  but when is this going to go out?
• 54:31
  When would you? Like it to go out, I think
• 54:35
  because I the press release is going out in like a day or so.
• 54:38
  It's like we're recording on the 15th I think.
• 54:40
  It'll go out after that. OK, it's fine.
• 54:43
  So anyway, the, the California Secretary of Transportation
• 54:46
  Secretary took's I'm a shotgun. I'm 99% sure I'm saying his name
• 54:49
  correctly, you know, in charge of a $30 billion an apartment.
• 54:53
  And you know, this guy used to run Caltrans.
• 54:54
  He's incredible. He runs a huge, huge, you know,
• 54:58
  like California sets the tone for legislation for, you know,
• 55:02
  so much when it comes to transportation.
• 55:05
  And we're doing a special session with him on our
• 55:07
  mainstage called Direct Line. And this is literally like, you
• 55:11
  want to ask a question to the California secretary of
• 55:14
  transportation. I think Ryan's like, yeah, So
• 55:20
  what we're going to do is we're going to do, we're going to
• 55:22
  announce it and then we're going to do a call amongst registered
• 55:25
  Automobility LA attendees to submit a question.
• 55:27
  We're going to take those questions to give them to the
• 55:30
  the team for the for the secretary.
• 55:32
  He'll review and you know. Decide to answer.
• 55:35
  And then he's going to go live like he's going to be like you
• 55:39
  in the back, right, You know, in the blue shirt.
• 55:41
  Yeah. Raising your hand.
• 55:42
  Yeah. What's your question for the
• 55:43
  secretary? Yeah.
• 55:45
  So I mean, this type of connection is the thing that
• 55:49
  we're really hyper focused on building is, you know, getting
• 55:54
  everybody in one room. There really is no more like
• 55:57
  there is no currently like 1 all automotive event.
• 56:01
  Like the automotive industry has a lot of like internal events
• 56:04
  that are like scattered, right? It's like, oh, there's a battery
• 56:06
  event, there's a, you know, manufacturing thing, there's a
• 56:08
  dealer meeting, there's a, you know, it's like it's all
• 56:10
  separate. Everybody's fleets are over here
• 56:13
  and, you know, retail is us and, you know, it's all kind of like
• 56:16
  separate. And so the goal of automobility
• 56:18
  at La was to really bring and everybody together,
• 56:21
  policymakers, fleets, tech, advanced technologies, like all
• 56:25
  of this in one room for just a powerful day of connection and
• 56:30
  networking and fun and sizzle. And right, we're going to pull
• 56:33
  some, you know, curtains off some amazing cars and, you know,
• 56:36
  like, we're going to have all those moments.
• 56:38
  It's going to be a big three ring circus this year because
• 56:40
  the mainstage content presented by Cox Automotive contractually
• 56:45
  bound to sit and I'm just kidding.
• 56:46
  I love my. Get them in now, yeah.
• 56:48
  Yeah, it is. Yeah.
• 56:49
  Well, Cox, we'll be talking. This is a hot topic, right?
• 56:52
  Is AI, AI in the automotive industry.
• 56:55
  Everybody's asking is like, what is AI?
• 56:57
  What are we doing? Cox is going to do a really
• 56:59
  interesting presentation about how the auto industry is
• 57:02
  currently using AI in all these different verticals, right?
• 57:07
  So it's really interesting. And then where's that going to
• 57:10
  go, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 57:13
  You are in LA. We can hear the honking now,
• 57:15
  Andy, you know, and I, I just, you know, Lindsay can vouch for
• 57:18
  this too. But you do see everyone there.
• 57:21
  Right. I was going to say that's.
• 57:22
  Evidence of really how important this event is.
• 57:25
  And, you know, a lot of people that are there, you know, really
• 57:28
  want to talk to, you know, your CEO, your C-Suite, you know,
• 57:31
  like global executives, they're there.
• 57:33
  They usually have a a layer. You sort of have to know who
• 57:40
  like you're. Going to go through their comms
• 57:42
  and work away from media, you know, but they're there.
• 57:45
  And what's what I always find really fascinating about the
• 57:48
  coverage from Automobility LA is like, so I'm like a, like I
• 57:53
  said, a very elder millennial. I love CBS mornings.
• 57:57
  See that Sunday morning, Saturday morning, like, Oh yeah,
• 58:00
  just. Like all the mornings.
• 58:02
  Yeah, might as well be 75 in my viewing.
• 58:04
  Purpose of coffee, you know. Kevin, I was watching, I was
• 58:08
  watching 1 morning and and I caught this, this content that
• 58:12
  was like so familiar, like what is it was?
• 58:14
  And it was an interview with Jose Munoz and it was all about
• 58:18
  the ironic 9. And then it touched on like, you
• 58:20
  know, it touched on manufacturing in America and the
• 58:23
  political changes. And this came out in, like,
• 58:25
  January or February, you know, it was like way after the show,
• 58:29
  but it was all shot at the show. So it was like a national CBS
• 58:32
  Mornings piece of content that was revolved into a large
• 58:36
  feature that was shot at the show.
• 58:39
  And, like, we didn't even know what was happening.
• 58:41
  And then we're just like, oh, that is a really cool piece.
• 58:43
  That's so fun. Yeah.
• 58:46
  Amazing discovery. Yeah.
• 58:47
  You kind of like can never catch it all it.
• 58:49
  Was fun to see some of us in some of the shots.
• 58:52
  I think on some of those, you know, my daughter, my old
• 58:55
  daughter was very impressed. So you're like, look at you.
• 58:59
  I'm on TV, I know, but to to kind of speak to the people that
• 59:04
  you do draw and the group that you pull together.
• 59:07
  Like I had been to the show the year before last, and then Dan
• 59:11
  and Ryan and I went together for the first time this past year,
• 59:15
  and that was what they kept commenting on.
• 59:16
  It was like you couldn't take two steps without running into
• 59:19
  either somebody that we knew in the media or somebody that you
• 59:21
  knew from Instagram or from you. Know right or that you wanted to
• 59:25
  meet yeah right yeah, I always tell everybody so if any of you
• 59:29
  are like in the biz and you're coming to industry event
• 59:31
  automobility LA is like my only tip for you is like I know a lot
• 59:36
  of people are you know either introverts or extroverted
• 59:38
  introverts but I was like this is the day like I'm sorry like
• 59:41
  you might your battery might be 0 at the end but but turn on
• 59:45
  your extrovert. Yeah.
• 59:47
  Get out there and hey, how you doing?
• 59:50
  Like it's like that's. Cocktails help.
• 59:52
  Power, Yeah, yeah, there's so many cocktails and coffee.
• 59:56
  I know J Tow, J Tow Dynamics, incredible company out of
• 1:00:00
  Europe. That's like really making a push
• 1:00:02
  into the US very industry stuff. They're presenting the coffee
• 1:00:06
  bars at Automobility LA and they're like really thematic and
• 1:00:09
  cool this year. So it's like some really like
• 1:00:12
  amazing coffee for, don't worry, 3 coffee bars serving till 2:30.
• 1:00:17
  Everyone's going to be caffeinated thanks to Jado.
• 1:00:20
  Like we got some good stuff. So that's how you counteract the
• 1:00:23
  introvertedness. You just keep the coffee going
• 1:00:25
  and then, yeah, and then you start the happy hour.
• 1:00:28
  The coffee. The happy hours start about 3 so
• 1:00:31
  it's like the coffee ends and the drinks start flowing.
• 1:00:34
  So we're coming in from out of town, maybe out of the country
• 1:00:36
  as a local, some local knowledge here.
• 1:00:38
  Give us a restaurant recommendation.
• 1:00:41
  We should all hit up while we're.
• 1:00:42
  In town. OK, so this is the big like LA
• 1:00:46
  like you gotta understand when you come to LA that like I
• 1:00:48
  always have to like remind people if you are staying in
• 1:00:53
  downtown LA and you want to have dinner in Santa Monica, this it
• 1:00:56
  might be a bad idea. You know, it's like you have to
• 1:01:00
  it's like it's you know what it's like it's like when you're
• 1:01:02
  in Las Vegas and you're at this resort and you're like, oh, the
• 1:01:04
  other one's like just across the street, it'll take 10 minutes.
• 1:01:07
  Like no, it will not take 10 minutes.
• 1:01:08
  It'll take you 30 minutes to walk over there, right.
• 1:01:11
  And it's the same thing with like driving around the city.
• 1:01:13
  So it or taking an Uber or Waymo with zillions of Waymo's.
• 1:01:17
  And so if you unless you want to travel, like localize your
• 1:01:22
  experience, right? So if you're like, I want to be
• 1:01:26
  in, you know, Hollywood, OK, go stay in Hollywood.
• 1:01:30
  Do your plan, your dinners in Hollywood.
• 1:01:32
  I would say probably mother tongue is incredible.
• 1:01:34
  That place is the Michael Mina restaurants.
• 1:01:37
  Can't go wrong with any of those.
• 1:01:39
  So, you know, do it around where you're staying.
• 1:01:42
  Otherwise it's not going to be you're going to get you're going
• 1:01:47
  to lose so much time and travel. It's just like it.
• 1:01:50
  Just takes away from the experience.
• 1:01:52
  But yeah, so hyper local. There are so many cool
• 1:01:56
  restaurants around here. Like honestly, like what I do, I
• 1:01:59
  just open up Google Maps and I'm just like, where?
• 1:02:01
  What's near me, you know? Yeah, that area is really
• 1:02:05
  underrated. It's it's actually a great area
• 1:02:06
  with a million things to do. And so downtown, like throw a
• 1:02:10
  dart, people don't know downtown LA is like is one of the most
• 1:02:13
  thriving culinary scenes you know, in, in LA.
• 1:02:16
  So if you are coming to the show and you're going to be downtown,
• 1:02:18
  like stay downtown and eat downtown town.
• 1:02:20
  There's really good restaurants. I mean, right across the street
• 1:02:23
  from over there, Calo Verde, the proper incredible.
• 1:02:27
  There's a hotel literally across the street from the LA
• 1:02:29
  Convention Center. It's AC and a moxie combined.
• 1:02:32
  And they have this area called level 8 and it's 8 concepts from
• 1:02:37
  these guys, the Halston brothers who would look them up.
• 1:02:39
  They're very cool. They're like very, very cool
• 1:02:41
  guys and they create these really immersive experiences.
• 1:02:45
  So, you know, you walk into it's like a teppanyaki, but it's like
• 1:02:49
  so elevated and it's like, God, this is like such as a
• 1:02:52
  theatrical. And then there's like a shabu
• 1:02:54
  shabu, like a hot pot. And there's like this harp that
• 1:02:57
  is like across the entire ceiling of the room and somebody
• 1:03:01
  is like playing it in the sky. I mean, it's crazy stuff like I.
• 1:03:04
  Got to see this. Where else?
• 1:03:06
  Can you get level level 8? I'm telling and then there's
• 1:03:09
  like a. Barbara, right.
• 1:03:10
  Across the street level level 8, you cannot go wrong.
• 1:03:13
  Now if you have kids, that's not the one.
• 1:03:14
  There's some great. Right, stayed.
• 1:03:16
  Stayed at the boxy last year. Yeah, it's a scene, right?
• 1:03:18
  Oh. You did.
• 1:03:19
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I will.
• 1:03:21
  I will go to the mat on this. LA has incredible pizza.
• 1:03:24
  OK. Not known, but it's true.
• 1:03:28
  Yeah. Oh, there's so many.
• 1:03:30
  You can't pick a favorite, but I do like Pizana is 9:50 every
• 1:03:34
  time. You cannot miss.
• 1:03:35
  It's always right. There's this one in Hollywood
• 1:03:38
  called La Anticadema Calais, which is like the literally the
• 1:03:42
  one from Naples. Like it's like the one.
• 1:03:43
  Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:47
  Something like that. That 1 is incredible.
• 1:03:49
  There's one downtown that was loaded like best to best to
• 1:03:51
  best. This came from Arizona,
• 1:03:53
  actually, but it's like, yeah. Pizzeria Bianco.
• 1:03:56
  Right, that's the one in in the row DTLA, which is also a very
• 1:04:00
  cool area. And then Mozza, but I don't
• 1:04:03
  think that's close. Pizzeria Mozza?
• 1:04:05
  Yeah, not that's one of those where you're like, oh, I'll just
• 1:04:08
  go to Pizzeria Mozza. OK, Go.
• 1:04:10
  Just plan them tomorrow. Yeah, 40.
• 1:04:12
  Minutes, like just as long as you're cool that you're going 40
• 1:04:15
  minutes that direction, right? You'll get there on Thursday,
• 1:04:17
  but it's fine. So the lesson here is the LA
• 1:04:20
  Auto Show really is a destination and then you should
• 1:04:23
  come, you should stay for a few days and you should go to the
• 1:04:25
  Peterson Museum and should go make it a culinary thing as
• 1:04:28
  well. At a sporting event.
• 1:04:31
  Go see Sabrina carpet ticket. So if you get a ticket.
• 1:04:34
  Eat all the. Pizza Andy, can you remind us of
• 1:04:38
  the dates and just the essential information website break it
• 1:04:42
  down for us. 100% OK Automobility, LA media industry,
• 1:04:47
  B2B networking, That all happens Thursday, November 20th.
• 1:04:51
  That is everything that sets up the consumer show.
• 1:04:55
  Then you're going to start to see all the media, all the
• 1:04:57
  content on social start busting through like this car was
• 1:05:00
  revealed. I finally got my hands on this.
• 1:05:03
  Here's my first impression. That's when all the the content
• 1:05:05
  starts exploding and then the consumer show starts Thursday,
• 1:05:09
  November 20th and runs for 10 straight days through Sunday,
• 1:05:13
  November 30th. We are even open on Thanksgiving
• 1:05:16
  and I love coming on Thanksgiving.
• 1:05:20
  It's one of my favorite days to come to the show especially.
• 1:05:23
  If you don't like your family right, that's a good.
• 1:05:25
  Place to come with your family come.
• 1:05:27
  With your There you go. Yeah, you are the PR guy.
• 1:05:29
  Here Ryan's thinking it's an easy out.
• 1:05:31
  Wait a minute. OK, there's two groups.
• 1:05:34
  So there's like, so it's, it's from 9:00 to 4:00, right?
• 1:05:37
  And then that's like, it's just like a really like nice vibe.
• 1:05:42
  Like everybody's nice on Thanksgiving.
• 1:05:44
  It's. Really cool.
• 1:05:45
  Can't be mean on Thanksgiving. We we over index on groups that
• 1:05:49
  like don't sell historically celebrate Thanksgiving, right?
• 1:05:52
  Like LA has a huge Korean American population, right?
• 1:05:54
  So we're like, don't celebrate Thanksgiving.
• 1:05:56
  Like let's go to the auto show, right?
• 1:05:58
  Yeah, right. And then we also have we also
• 1:06:02
  have like family tradition where it's like we all go on this day
• 1:06:05
  like funny. This is like what has become my
• 1:06:07
  family tradition is we all go to LA Auto Show and then we go out
• 1:06:11
  to eat for Thanksgiving. We'll cook.
• 1:06:13
  Right on. Very good.
• 1:06:14
  That's that's the way to. Do.
• 1:06:15
  But that's if you're working the show, that's part of the deal.
• 1:06:17
  I would. Imagine and you have so many
• 1:06:19
  good restaurants, Manuela in downtown LA incredible and they
• 1:06:23
  do a great Thanksgiving. So right here.
• 1:06:24
  So you could do like LA Auto Show, go to Manuela for
• 1:06:27
  Thanksgiving, like, it's a beautiful day and the weather's
• 1:06:30
  like amazing, crisp and dry and you know, like, but it's not.
• 1:06:34
  Cold. So one thing I was going to say
• 1:06:37
  is, can you tell people how do they participate in the Saint
• 1:06:40
  Jude giveaway? Oh yeah, good point.
• 1:06:42
  Yes. OK.
• 1:06:43
  So we're OK. That one's already done for 25.
• 1:06:48
  I would look great. I'm like, we have winners.
• 1:06:49
  Yeah, we have winners. We are doing it again for 26,
• 1:06:52
  what we're talking about doing with Saint Jude's.
• 1:06:54
  And hopefully this is done. We're doing a footnote.
• 1:06:58
  We're done. But we're going to try to
• 1:06:59
  auction it or start it during this year's show, OK?
• 1:07:03
  OK. So we're still fine.
• 1:07:05
  Yeah, because basically we did it and we're like, no, more
• 1:07:08
  people need to know about this and the people that really need
• 1:07:09
  to know about this, people that come to the show.
• 1:07:11
  So try to do something at the show to promote it and talk
• 1:07:15
  about it. So we're working on that now and
• 1:07:17
  that will give me a month I have it done.
• 1:07:20
  Yeah. Yeah, they do, yeah.
• 1:07:24
  No, go ahead. Well, what I didn't tell you
• 1:07:26
  guys is it's all on laautoshow.com.
• 1:07:28
  Literally it's all there. You can just click through.
• 1:07:31
  You can buy a ticket. We have VIP tours, which are
• 1:07:34
  guided by your favorite tour. You know, we have like some
• 1:07:38
  journalists like Motörhead, Mama, who's, you know, if you
• 1:07:41
  love, if you follow Amelia, right?
• 1:07:43
  And Lynn Woodward is doing. Lynn, you know you can do it
• 1:07:46
  with them, right? And that's really cool.
• 1:07:48
  If you like to like you really like an expert to guide you
• 1:07:50
  around. We also have some kind of like
• 1:07:52
  different experiences this year when we're doing, we're doing a
• 1:07:55
  happy hour guided tour, which is going to be a bit more like
• 1:07:58
  social and it's at like 4:00 and it's a different audience.
• 1:08:01
  They're selling really well. So you'll still have like an
• 1:08:03
  expert guiding you around and kind of giving you the, the, you
• 1:08:07
  know, but it's also meant to be kind of like a social experience
• 1:08:09
  or you're like, oh, hey, like, who are you?
• 1:08:11
  And I just really want to create moments where people can come
• 1:08:15
  together. And I think that's, you know, we
• 1:08:17
  can, we can serve that here at the show.
• 1:08:19
  Doing a great job for sure and we're going to be there of
• 1:08:22
  course. Can't wait.
• 1:08:24
  We'll be there with stickers and smiles on our faces and would
• 1:08:27
  love to meet you if you see us, so be sure to look.
• 1:08:30
  For Hi us. Yeah, Yeah.
• 1:08:33
  Andy Steinhauser, thank you very much for joining us on that car
• 1:08:37
  show. You were great.
• 1:08:38
  I feel like we, we didn't get to a lot of these stories.
• 1:08:40
  I wanted to get to, but you know.
• 1:08:43
  Well, he's going to come back. He's already committed.
• 1:08:44
  We have a full list. Whole poop cruise episode wait.
• 1:08:48
  I cannot wait I. Cannot.
• 1:08:50
  I know I will, but I will say I know this is the show.
• 1:08:52
  Last year was a highlight for us and we've been talking about it
• 1:08:55
  and I've been excited to, you know, attend and I'm even more
• 1:09:00
  excited after hearing about all the changes on the exciting
• 1:09:03
  things that we're going to get to see this year.
• 1:09:04
  Absolutely. Yeah, I, I have so much more to
• 1:09:07
  tell you. We're going to have like talking
• 1:09:08
  physical robots there this year. There's a company that's
• 1:09:11
  bringing like robots are. Owns awesome.
• 1:09:13
  Yeah, Fox Factory, if you know, I mean like there is like things
• 1:09:17
  that we didn't even cover like so yeah, get.
• 1:09:20
  OK, So what? Else do you want to tell us?
• 1:09:22
  Oh, my God. I mean, no, I, I I'll leave it
• 1:09:24
  for you to come and discover. Yeah, this was super fun.
• 1:09:29
  I had just thoroughly enjoyed this conversation.
• 1:09:31
  Like, it's just so fun to. And that's what you're going to
• 1:09:33
  get at the show, right? He's like, you can come and talk
• 1:09:35
  cars for an hour with people, Right?
• 1:09:37
  Right. All day long if you want which.
• 1:09:39
  Is what a lot of people they live for, you know so and we're
• 1:09:42
  here to serve it. But we really do have something
• 1:09:44
  for everyone whether you're you know, whether you're like a
• 1:09:47
  casual like car shopper who's trying to get the latest
• 1:09:50
  information and try to figure out like it's funny because it
• 1:09:53
  has worked out for a couple years now where I am actually in
• 1:09:57
  market and I'm in market again this year.
• 1:09:59
  So I do this show as like a two prong, you know, I'm a consumer,
• 1:10:04
  I'm working it, I'm building it. You know, I could do it all at
• 1:10:08
  the same time. Looking at it from all the
• 1:10:09
  angles. I, I tell you, like I from
• 1:10:12
  personal experience, like it really is the very best place
• 1:10:14
  for product discovery. I'm so excited to see what's out
• 1:10:17
  there. And I've got that perfect
• 1:10:18
  timeline where it's like I got to get my next vehicle in May.
• 1:10:21
  So my lease ends. So I'm like, I can go through
• 1:10:24
  like all of it. And it's like some of that stuff
• 1:10:26
  is like coming in the fall, you know, or coming in the summer or
• 1:10:29
  coming in the spring. It's like it'll all be out, so
• 1:10:32
  most all of it. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:10:34
  Some of the year. And then you sleep for a week.
• 1:10:36
  I do when it's over, We, yeah, we hybrid, we, well, we don't
• 1:10:40
  really hibernate that much. We hibernate for like a long,
• 1:10:42
  long weekend and then we come back because everybody's always
• 1:10:45
  like, what do you do all year? And I'm like, I'm already on
• 1:10:48
  2026. Like I'm, I'm having 2026
• 1:10:51
  conversations and they are exciting.
• 1:10:53
  So I'm like, I'm already like looking at like what we're going
• 1:10:57
  to bring for 2026 and I want to bring more interesting non
• 1:11:01
  endemic brands to the show like we're doing this year with kind
• 1:11:03
  of bringing a casino partner and just kind of interesting stuff
• 1:11:06
  that you might not expect really.
• 1:11:08
  That's what I'm really focused on.
• 1:11:09
  So how's it going to be 2026? You know, I mean, we're all
• 1:11:14
  going to find out, right? But I think we're going to see.
• 1:11:16
  Too much about it. I think we're going to see, I
• 1:11:19
  have no idea what it's going to be honestly, because none of
• 1:11:20
  it's done yet. But we're already working on it
• 1:11:22
  and I think we're going to see, look, you know, we're going to
• 1:11:25
  see more brands, we're going to see more participation.
• 1:11:28
  I think if we're going to see as many drive opportunities as we
• 1:11:31
  can produce and yeah, it's going to be a really like exciting,
• 1:11:35
  like jam packed show because like we kind of started this
• 1:11:39
  conversation to Alpha Omega is that like, you know, auto shows
• 1:11:42
  are cyclical. They've been around for over 100
• 1:11:44
  years. Things evolve.
• 1:11:46
  We all went through shake ups and interesting times and in
• 1:11:48
  person events are back. And you know, consumer
• 1:11:51
  experiences are are more vital than ever before.
• 1:11:54
  You know, at age is like by 20-30, like experiential will be
• 1:11:57
  even more valuable than it is now.
• 1:11:59
  And I do believe that. And I'm bullish on the show for
• 1:12:00
  that reason too, because you just can't substitute the
• 1:12:03
  tangible experience. So I think we're just going to
• 1:12:07
  see more and we're just going to have to find places to cram it
• 1:12:11
  all in for you all to explore. Well, if you see one auto show
• 1:12:15
  this year, make it the LA Auto Show, laautoshow.com.
• 1:12:20
  Andy Steinhauser, Director of Sponsorships and Business
• 1:12:23
  Development, really appreciate you joining us on that car show.
• 1:12:27
  Thank you so much for joining us.
• 1:12:29
  Thank you. Pleasure's absolutely mine.
• 1:12:31
  We'll do it again. Absolutely.
• 1:12:33
  And I'll see you all in a month. We'll see you in a mud.
• 1:12:35
  And we're that car show. And remember, always be driving
• 1:12:39
  and we'll see you next week.