Kennesaw, October 15, 2014 ― VJI’s Business Development Coordinator Courtney O’Connor took a 2-hour drive on October 8 to attend the 2014 Southern Automotive Conference in Birmingham, Alabama. The two-day event had more than 500 attendees from automobile manufacturers, automotive suppliers and from professional organizations including the Southern Automotive Women’s Forum and manufacturing associations representing Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

“This year’s conference focused on different areas of growth within automobile manufacturing and different strategies that have been adopted to prepare for future growth,” says O’Connor. To open the conference, the presidents of each automotive manufacturers association presented facts about their state’s growth, job creation, awards, and recognitions received last year and in 2014. The break-out sessions included guest speakers who elaborated on problems that automobile manufacturers have encountered from quality, workforce development, and safety issues but have successfully overcome resulting in meeting and exceeding goals within individual plants.

“An interesting fact I learned at the conference,” says O’Connor, “is that Tennessee has a long history of automotive manufacturing in the Southeast. The state has continued to grow manufacturing in the sector by opening and expanding new plants resulting in thousands of new jobs being created.” O’Connor also attended the opening night reception hosted by Honda Manufacturing of Alabama. The reception was held at the Barber Motorsports Vintage Museum, which allowed her the opportunity to meet and network with all the attendees at the conference. “With more automotive manufacturers moving into the Southeast, along with their suppliers, I really enjoyed learning more about automobile manufacturing in the region and networking with individuals dedicated to the industry.”