Blog entries from Karen Fierst during her stay in China and attendance at the Automotive Maintenance and Repair Show Beijing, China.

Foreign media and a few others who were guests of the Automotive Maintenance and Repair Trade Show (AMR) were designated VIPs. Red carnations and VIP ribbons were
pinned to our lapels when we met in the VIP room. All the VIPs were asked to
sign a huge poster on the wall.

All of the ‘VIPs’ were directed to the outdoor stage for the Opening Ceremony which included the ribbon cutting ceremony. It was pretty surreal: Chinese military marching band playing, Chinese paparazzi taking pictures, some Chinese government and repairer association dignitaries and ‘foreign media guests’ on the dais during a few speeches (in Chinese, of course) and then all of us participating in the formal ribbon cutting ceremony together. They also arranged a special dinner in our honor last night. There were reps from Australia, Malaysia, Korea, Australia, South Africa, France and I represented the USA.

During the day we walked the floor, networked at a Business to Business B2B session, and were hosted by AMR at a VIP dinner.