Interns@AutoCom

Hohoho folks, here comes a christmasy “hello” from the German Santa Clause! Unbelievable, it´s nearly two years now that I left AutoCom and my “homecastle” on campus of Oakland University and as I could find out in the meantime from the blog there have been a lot of new faces coming to AutoCom during the past 24 months. It´s funny to read about the experiences of my followers which are almost the same I made when I was a “US-girl” for a transitional time… ;) What did I do when I returned back home – except missing you guys, the American traditions like Thanksgiving, shopping on Sunday, yummy donuts from Tim Hortons ;0)) etc…?? First I had to finish my studies and had to pass my final exams… puhh, that wasn´t easy because I had a lot of time pressure… But fortunately my examiners were nice and all went well… After my diploma I started with a traineeship in the pr-department of Jacobs University - an international university in the free Hanseatic city of Bremen. Excellent fish, a cool br

Hey AutoCom guys and ladies, Now it’s over a year ago that I left Detroit to finish my studies. I cannot believe that time is going by so fast. I will give you just a little report, what happened in my life in the meantime. I finally turned in my thesis, which took a load off my mind. I mean… as u know…directly afterwards I got on a plane to see you guys. It was really great being able to see you again. Especially your faces were just amusing: “I know that girl… but with long hair”. After leaving Detroit I visited Boston and New York. I don’t know why, but I don’t care too much about New York. But Boston was just great. I fell in love with that city right away. It looks really European and is so much cleaner than New York :-). But nobody told me that arriving at the Boston Airport is such an adventure. You really think you will crash into the water. And I can tell you one thing: Your economy must have improved a lot after I went back to Germany. I shopped like there is no tomorrow :-

Hi guys! As we all know, Halloween is one of the most important holidays in America…for some (Dee) it’s even the most important one;) You could feel the excitement among people when Halloween came closer. Not only would your shopping experiences at Meyers and others turn out to be creepy…wandering around through shelves decorated with spiders and little witches, even if you drive down the streets of your neighborhood, you felt like visiting a Halloween museum. Since the Hella guys from Germany, Winfried and Steffen, have been in town during this sinister times, we were planning on discovering the real American Halloween spirit together. And so we did. We drove to a town called Romeo, North of Washington, where Steffen had read an article about a certain street where neighbors compete against each other with decorating their front yards. Actually, those owners did not only decorate their front yards but also their entire houses. They almost re-built them into castles and pirate ships. W

Last weekend some friends invited me to the Michigan/Michigan State football game at the Big House in Ann Arbor. It is supposed to be the “game of the games” and I was really excited to go there. I left my home at 7:30 am and met my friends in Northville. At 9:00 am we started tailgating at the golf course in front of the Ann Arbor stadium. Tailgate parties have become popular in the United States as social gatherings events that take place in stadium parking lots before football games. One of my friends fit me with Michigan shirts. We had a great time, met lots of fun people, had good food and of course good drinks. Six hours later the game started. Since it was a very cold day, I couldn’t wait to stand close to some people. It was so crowded, almost every seat was taken. I was surprised how Michigan and Michigan State fans were seated together. In a German soccer game this would be impossible because of big fights between the fans. However in Ann Arbor the atmosphere was great and w

Hey everybody! I’m the new intern at AutoCom Associates, and for the next six months I’m going to be part of your lovely family. So, who am I? My name is Doreen and I’m 24 years old. I study business administration with a major in marketing and tourism at the University in Rostock, Germany. Last November Larry invited me to an interview in Frankfurt, and two weeks after our meeting I was offered an internship. I’m sure you can imagine how glad I was when I heard this! I’m really grateful for having this opportunity, and I started to make plans for my stay in the US right away, because living here has always been a dream for me. Since then, October 9, 2008 has been the start date of a whole new phase in my life. After settling all matters, it took me more than 20 hours to land in Detroit, because I flew via London and Chicago. Tony picked me up at the airport and we drove to Royal Oak, where I moved into my new home and met my roommates. The first couple of days have been amazing. The w

On July 24, Silke and I volunteered at the Detroit Institute for Children’s (DIC) Summer Camp 2008, which they held at their facility in Detroit from July 21 – 24. DIC is a provider of specialized diagnostic, medical and rehabilitative care to children with disabilities. The theme of this year’s camp was “Four Seasons” and the four days were divided into fall, winter, spring and summer. Silke and I volunteered on the last day, which was about summer and water activities. The DIC divided its facility into three areas representing the continents Australia, Europe and the United States. In Australia the children made boomerangs and afterwards they took an “airplane ride” to see the great sights of Europe. They ended their trip back home in the US – where they enjoyed water slide, blowing bubbles and a special visit from Disney Radio for karaoke fun. Forty disabled children and their siblings attended on that day. Volunteers gave their time and became “Camper Buddies.” Each volunteer took

Hey AutoComers, You may be wondering who I am, why I’m at AutoCom, and why I’ll disappear before I get to really know any of you. I’m a senior at Country Day and my school has a program they call Senior Project. The basic idea is to get the seniors officially out of the school so they no longer have to deal with our senioritis. Thus, we spend the month of May and early June engaged in a project of our choice. The seniors can pick any field, in any place they want. People do projects as diverse as writing books, creating artwork, serving as a teacher’s assistant, shadowing doctors, and working for magazines. The only requirements are that we work thirty hours a week and turn in a brief paper at the end so that we can graduate. So why am I at AutoCom? It may seem like a strange place for a girl whose main interest is in history and politics and who dreams of working overseas for a non-profit organization, but it really isn’t. The skills AutoCom uses in public relations apply not only to

Hello to the AutoCom Team I loved reading all your postings on interns@autocom. For someone who does not know you yet it seems like you are all one big family. I like that. Why am I writing on this blog? I want to become an intern at AutoCom. I just arrived in Michigan two months ago. My hometown in Germany is Heilbronn next to Stuttgart, but the last six years I studied in Konstanz, which is really in the south of Germany, directly at the border to Switzerland (at the swabian sea). I am 27 and my stay in Michigan will be my second US stay. I studied one year in Oregon, which made me love the US and convinced me to come back. Why Michigan? Because Markus, my husband, works in the automotive business…and well, you know that Metro Detroit is an automotive paradise…so to speak. Some of the things former interns wrote seem already familiar to me. I know about the beautiful downtown area in Royal Oak, where it is a lot of fun to go out at night and where –very surprisingly- you meet a lot

May 10: It was a sunny day during a week full of rain. Christina and I met with Jack in Bloomfield Hills. He was so kind to give us a ride so we could enjoy the landscape. On our way to Port Huron, we picked up Jan who became the car DJ. Jack has satellite radio and so we could choose between the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, Bluegrass, Country, Jazz, Hip Hop, R’n’B, Rock, Blues, etc. I like the 60s and 70s, Jan the 90s, Jack Bluegrass and Christina Rock. As you can imagine DJ Jan had a tough ride… As we were in Port Huron one hour to early, we decided to have a little “wedding appetizer” at Wendy’s. After some fries, sandwiches and milk shakes we drove to the church where we met Larry Weis and Kathi McCarroll, Don Habarek and Nancy Arnold, Joe and Mary Cabadas, Jim Meloche and the other AutoCom girls. The celebration was in the St. Joseph Catholic Church. It’s a beautiful old church and Marty and Ruth had it decorated lovely. Marty’s youngest son Justin opened the service with the so

In its 7th year, the SAE Media Dinner at Coach Insignia was a huge success thanks to the participation by all of our clients and the significant media attendance. Coach Insignia was the perfect setting for an evening that included fantastic cuisine, an unparalleled view of Detroit and unique networking opportunities for all. The attendee list included senior executives from Behr, Coherix, Eberspaecher, GKN Driveline, Hella, InterRegs, MANN+HUMMEL, Trubiquity and Wallonia as well as 45 of the industry’s top automotive editors and reporters. Other activities included an InterRegs press conference, the annual MANN+HUMMEL media briefing along with Hella’s press luncheon. All three events were successful and generated positive exposure for the companies involoved. Hella Luncheon Mann+Hummel luncheon A big thank you goes out to all who participated and we look forward to next years SAE World Congress!

We’re going to the dogs … and cats, birds, rabbits -- we’re looking for photos and digital images of your cutest household pets! For our first annual PET IDOL Contest, send us a photo or a high-resolution jpeg image (300 d.p.i.) so that we can post your pet’s photo online. Please submit photos to Silke Schwarte at sschwarte@usautocom.com . This contest will be in conjunction with our Traverse City week festivities and events. For more information, contact Maggie Beauregard at 248.647.8621 or by e-mail at mbeauregard@usautocom.com .

Christina’s Highlight in February? The NADA conference in San Francisco!! Wow! How fast the time goes by. So many things are going on. I thought I should tell you about my latest journey. At the beginning of February I got the chance to go to San Francisco to NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) Convention and Expo 2008 with Larry and Marty. It’s one of the biggest shows in North America. We had to represent two new clients – vAuto and Compared Insurance. It was awesome! Not only to get the chance to go to San Francisco, which is such a lovely, busy and sunny city, but also to experience the convention at first hand. I was working for vAuto and one of my tasks was to take care for the Press Kits. I had to assemble them, put them into the press room at the convention center, to take part at an interview between the client and a publication and at vAuto’s sales meeting with their people before the show on Friday. We had to be present at vAuto’s booth to welcome journalists and