Business Students Intern at Chicago Auto Show

By Brandon Wallace '17

Several students with business majors or minors gained valuable experience as Chicago Auto Show interns in February.

The Chicago Auto Show, produced by the Chicago Automobile Trade Association (CATA), is North America’s largest and oldest auto show. It was February 14-22 at McCormick Place in Chicago. This year marks the 107th annual show. According to CATA’s website, exhibitions included multiple world and North American introductions, a complete range of domestic and imported passenger cars and trucks; sport utility vehicles, and experimental or concept cars.  In total, nearly 1,000 different vehicles were on display.

The students gained experience in many different areas, with marketing and social media being the main two.

Senior advertising major Kristin Kreher, who has minors in business studies and marketing, was an intern whose primary job was to update social media with pictures and videos of the event.

“Perhaps the greatest lesson I learned was about the power of social media,” Kreher said. “When the show's marketing team noticed many visitors complaining about parking situations via social media, we quickly set out to remedy the situation by responding to tweets to let visitors know about alternative parking issues. Within an hour, the negative comments ceased.”

Senior public relations major Erika Kubik, who has a minor in social media marketing, also was in charge of creating social content. She was required to exercise her leadership skills and take initiative to come up with new ideas.

“[Another intern and I] ran down to the showroom floor with an iPad and polled media and other attendees to see what people were talking about and filmed their responses,” Kubik said. “We then used these tidbits to create Vine and Instagram videos to share on the CATA's social platforms. In addition to this, we also created a Buzzfeed Quiz that asked the question - ‘What #CAS15 Concept Car are you?’ using some of the newest models launched at this year's show.”

As is the case with all internships, the experience wasn’t all that was valuable. The students were also able to interact with industry professionals.

“There were many events that we got to attend that gave us the opportunity to network with different professionals in the industry,” said senior advertising major Sydney Yeazel, who has a minor in social media marketing. “I learned a lot about the auto industry as a whole. I definitely wasn't ready to leave at the end of the internship and would've loved the opportunity to stay longer.”

The next Chicago Auto Show is scheduled for February 13-21, 2016.