A Motor Show Steeped in Tradition: The North American International Auto Show in Detroit - VIDEO ENHANCED

• Staged by the Detroit Auto Dealers Association (DADA) for 100 years in 2007

• One of the world’s six most important motor shows

• Important stage for Mercedes-Benz premieres in America

EDITOR'S NOTE: To watch the complete video of the 2007 Opening Ceremony and Keynote Speech click on the PLAY button at the bottom of this page.

DETROIT - January 7, 2007: It was a German who brought the automobile to America.

Admission ticket: In 1893, Gottlieb Daimler exhibited an automobile and a boat with combustion engine at the 'World’s Columbian Exposition' in Chicago.

At the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, a motorized vehicle was displayed in America for the first time, according to the book “The world on wheels” published in 1926 about the world exposition in the United States. It continued to report that Gottlieb Daimler showed his famous motorized vehicle, and that this, no doubt, had inspired more than one American inventor to pick up ideas at the exhibition. Incidentally, this has to be taken literally. The engineer and inventor of the automobile had personally traveled across the Atlantic to present his revolutionary means of transport at the world exposition.

It is, however, well known that the American motor industry caught up. Today, the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit is the industry’s most important barometer for the American market.

Admission ticket: In 1893, Gottlieb Daimler exhibited an automobile and a boat with combustion engine at the 'World’s Columbian Exposition' in Chicago.

However, in a country like America, it was not so easy to become the Number One auto show as trade fairs in the United States were organized differently compared to Europe. As a general rule, trade fairs and exhibitions in the New World were staged in conjunction with conferences and conventions. “More often than not, the major focus is not even on the trade-fair part of the overall event,” the Exhibition and Trade Fair Committee of Germany Industry (AUMA) wrote to explain the special characteristics of trade fairs in overseas.

The reason for this is the fact that different sales channels existed.

Outstanding: In 1893, Gottlieb Daimler received an award at the 'World’s Columbian Exposition' in Chicago for both of his exhibits, an automobile and a boat with combustion engine.

The AUMA information leaflet had this to say: “Whereas in Europe, trading was organized via the markets from which the trade fairs developed, in the USA commercial travelers were at the focus of trading. The trade associations of the individual branches of industry have for more than one hundred years been organizing trade conferences, the so-called conventions. These are regular meetings, not infrequently at changing locations, which serve as platforms for an exchange of experience and as an opportunity for more or less informal get-togethers of the industry concerned, including its potential customers.” The initially rather casual product presentations developed into accompanying exhibitions in the course of time.