Women ARE Driving Excellence At The Chicago Auto Show!!

The city of Chicago has lots of February traditions (besides MORE SNOW, ugh). One of the biggies is the Chicago Auto Show, which will be held at McCormick Place and open to the public from February 8-17. The Chicago Auto Show is the largest auto show in North America and, because my feet have carried me around the one million square feet of display space that the show takes up in the North and South Exhibit Halls, I can reiterate that yeah, it’s HUGE.

One of the special events going on is Women’s Day, which happens on Tuesday, February 11. Women get into the auto show that day for $6 (half off of the regular $12 ticket price), and there will be women-oriented programs all day long, which brings me to the reason I’m writing this post.

My friends MJ Tam and Beth Rosen, who also happen to be two of the five co-hosts of the social media talk show Chicagonista Live!, are presenting the featured event on Women’s Day called “Women Driving Excellence” (WDE). This is the second year for MJ and Beth’s event and they have a full roster of activities planned. The event as a whole is meant to honor women who “start, accelerate, fuel, and steer others to excellence” (I love that!). This year, celebrity author and entrepreneur (and 2013 WDE honoree) Anupy Singla will emcee, and the following women will be honored:

~Restaurateur and Book Author Karyn Calabrese
~CEO of Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine Sherren Leigh
~President & CEO of the Price Futures Group Susanna Jung
~CEO & Founder of Chicago Toy & Game Mary Couzin
~NBC Chicago Reporter Natalie Martinez
~BlogHer Founders Lisa Stone, Jory DesJardins and Elisa Camahort Page

Though I’m excited about all of those well-deserving women, I’m especially pumped up about the last three. As a contractor for BlogHer, I am lucky to see these women in action behind the scenes (especially Elisa, who I work with more than Jory or Lisa) and I love that they’re being honored at this event in my hometown!

The whole slate of activities that are a part of the WDE event are:

10:30 am: Chinese New Year Performance — Children from St. Therese Chinese Catholic School will perform a ribbon and lion dance

11:30 am: 2014 Trailblazing Women Presentation, emceed by Anupy Singla

12:30 pm: Stretching Your Reach — America’s Fitness Celebrity Andrea Metcalf will have you mix, connect, and stretch

1:00 pm: Performance from Broadway in Chicago’s “The Phantom of the Opera”

2:00 pm: #ChicagonistaLIVE Talk Show — Nancy Loo, MJ Tam, Beth Rosen, Duong Sheahan, and David Grotto chat about their usual Chicago hot topics and will have special guests plus giveaways like mini-iPads.

3:00 pm: Cabaret Concert from family TV host Miss Lori

Wow, right? It’s going to be a great day: you should attend! Register for WDE by clicking here. Hope to see you there!