A summit that opens Detroit's mobility week

The Women's Automotive Network Summit opened the week at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, running alongside AutoTech Detroit and drawing engineers, product leaders, suppliers, and OEM executives into one room. AutoMobility Advisors was there for the full day — not as an observer, but on stage.

What makes this summit worth the calendar space is the candor. The agenda skips the polished keynote format in favor of practitioners describing what actually moved their careers and their programs forward, including the detours.

Closing panel — Where Exactly Are the Opportunities?

Managing Director George Ayres moderated the closing session, "Where Exactly Are the Opportunities? How to Make Your Own Career Plan." The panel took a direct look at the roles being created as vehicle programs shift toward software-defined architectures, connected services, and electrified platforms — and at how quickly the required skill mix is changing underneath long-standing job titles.

Panelists traced their own non-linear paths: moves from engineering into product, from supplier to OEM, from adjacent industries into mobility. The recurring point was that the openings appear where two disciplines meet — software and safety, data and customer experience, hardware and service economics — and that positioning yourself there is a deliberate act, not a lucky break.

Themes from the room

Three threads carried through the day. First, leading through change: teams are being asked to deliver on architectures that did not exist when their programs were scoped. Second, inclusion as an operating requirement rather than a reporting metric — the panels kept returning to who gets pulled into early technical decisions. Third, the pull of AI and connected-vehicle work, and the practical question of how to build credibility in those areas from a standing start.

Attendees pushed back usefully in the Q&A on mentorship, sponsorship, and how to negotiate for the assignments that actually compound — a reminder that career strategy in this industry is as much about scope as it is about title.

What AMA took away

The summit is one of the more reliable places to meet the people building the next generation of vehicle programs before their work becomes a press release. The conversations that started in Novi turned into introductions, follow-ups, and perspective we carry directly into client engagements — on how teams are actually staffed, where capability gaps sit, and what it takes to move a connected-vehicle roadmap from slide to production.