By Michael Imlay
With exhibiting brands on pace to top 2,400--and hundreds of them participating as first-timers--enthusiasm continues to build for the 2024 SEMA Show, slated for November 5-8, at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). In all, this year's Show will encompass millions of square feet of exhibitor and vehicle displays, new product introductions, live-action demonstrations, educational events and seminars, and special sections highlighting the latest trends and innovations reshaping the specialty automotive market.
"The SEMA Show is the ultimate gathering for our industry," states SEMA Vice President of Events Tom Gattuso. "For attendees, it is the best place to discover new products and trends, make new business connections, strengthen existing ones, and take their professional careers and businesses from good to great."
While the Show is fast approaching, there is still time to register at semashow.com/register. Attendees can also maximize their Show investment by taking advantage of housing and travel discounts found at the SEMA Show website.
Of course, what an attendee gets out of the Show depends on what you put into it. To truly boost your ROI, you'll want to arrive with a game plan for leveraging the many Show features tailored for attendee success. And that begins with grasping the Show's unique advantages to you and your business.
"The Show presents a once-a-year opportunity to immerse yourself in the industry and see what's happening in the marketplace," explains SEMA Trade Show Director Andy Tompkins. "With thousands of new products being introduced at the Show, you can see where innovation is headed, spot trends and understand what's coming next. But more than that, you can connect face-to-face with the vendors you're currently doing business with, new vendors that you could be doing business with, and other like-minded business professionals in your field. It's the ideal place to tap into different markets, exchange ideas, cross-pollinate concepts, and really move your operation forward."
Building Relationships for Success
The SEMA Show offers unmatched opportunities for meeting face-to-face with more than 2,400 exhibitors representing every industry category--all under one roof in a single week.
"The SEMA Show is unique because we've got industry manufacturers, distributors and end users all in one place at one time," underscores Gattuso. "Business happens at a dynamic, quick pace, so it puts you on the cutting edge. The Show is literally about what you're going to be selling to your customers in the months to come."
To facilitate potential connections, save time on the Show floor, and map your daily itinerary, the official SEMA Show mobile app is the ideal pre-planning tool. Downloadable from your native app store, it features an exhibitor directory, the Show's roster of New Products Showcase entries, and listings for feature vehicles, events, outdoor activations and educational seminars, along with a host of other features, including LVCC maps and directions for navigating the Show.
In addition, the SEMA Show website features a My Show Planner tool. After providing it with some basic profile information, the planner will help you customize your Show experience according to your specific interests. Attendees can peruse exhibitors and select those they wish to visit, as well as education programs and other Show features and events they want to attend. The planner also syncs to the mobile app and many calendar apps.
Both these tools allow attendees to arrive in Las Vegas with a ready list of the exhibitors and activities they most want to engage with and a logistical plan for getting to them. In addition, attendees should take into account that there's extremely limited parking space at the LVCC, so public transit like the Las Vegas Monorail or buses, taxis, and rideshare apps like Uber or Lyft are the best options for getting to and from the Show. (The SEMA Show website includes comprehensive information about all these options.)
With seemingly countless innovations introduced each year, the New Products Showcase ranks among the Show's top attendee destinations. The products carry scannable QR codes to lead attendees straight to their exhibitors on the Show floor.
Finally, every pre-Show plan should include a scheduled visit to the New Products Showcase, which most veteran attendees will tell you is their number-one destination and often their first stop upon arrival at the LVCC. The Showcase contains hundreds of new and featured products from every Show category, along with scannable QR codes for every product. These codes enable attendees to capture vital information about each item and its maker in the SEMA Show app, and then map a route to the corresponding exhibitor(s).
In other words, "if you leverage it right, the Show is a highly efficient way to build your business," observes Gattuso. "With one plane ticket or car trip, one hotel room, and a single week's work, you can talk with as many as 2,400 companies in one venue. That's a lot of conversations with key decision makers and influencers who can shape your business's future sales and revenues."
At its core, SEMA Week is all about relationships--building new connections and reinvigorating existing ones. Although meeting with exhibitors on the Show floor will often be an attendee's main focus, the SEMA Show also offers numerous other high-quality networking events and opportunities. First, there's the Show's annual Tuesday-morning Kickoff Breakfast, featuring New Products, Manufacturer and Channel Partner of the Year Awards. This year, the Show will also introduce its first-ever industry party on Tuesday evening, featuring music, entertainment and industry camaraderie. Throughout Show Week, there are also a variety of SEMA council and network mixers highlighting different industry categories where attendees can relax, forge new relationships and trade insights.
Of course, the Show's highpoint gathering is the Thursday-night Industry Awards Banquet at the Westgate Resort, which is immediately preceded by a cocktail reception. Highly anticipated each year, the event includes networking, entertainment, a glimpse of industry trends, dinner and awards, and other surprises.
"One of the great things about our industry's people is the camaraderie they experience in hanging out together--you see it at races and every type of automotive event," observes Gattuso. "The SEMA Show is no exception. We're creating a platform where everyone can come together, enjoy each other's company, do business, build and preserve our industry's future, and be excited by it all."
"We've also seen that those who come to our Show are unique in their networking expectations," adds Tompkins. "They're looking to continuously network and build community throughout the Show in non-traditional ways. So we build our Show floor, events and outdoor areas to accommodate that. Even our mobile app connects attendees and exhibitors in a manner that facilitates follow-up."
A Nonstop Immersive Experience
Outdoor activations exude the thrills and excitement of the specialty automotive marketplace while demonstrating industry product in action.
The SEMA Show is often described as an immersive experience--a venue where attendees can escape their businesses for a few days to experience new products, trends and innovations first hand. In fact, the entire Show environment is specifically designed to stimulate the senses, promote extensive industry interactions, and impart learning.
Of course, the Show floor teems with product demonstrations. Meanwhile, approximately 1,400-plus display vehicles can be found throughout the LVCC halls and in specially designated outdoor locations. More than simply "show cars," the builds illustrate real-life applications of specialty performance and appearance parts and accessories. Feature vehicles also carry QR codes that can be scanned with the Show's mobile app for detailed information about the products used in the build and where their manufacturers reside on the Show floor.
Popular outdoor attractions also include Optima Village, the Toyo Treadpass, the Overlanding Experience and the Shell Performance zone, among others. But it's the outdoors vehicular action that takes the immersive nature of the Show to a whole other dimension. Through activations ranging from ride-and-drives to drifting and other performance demonstrations, attendees get to see industry products put through their paces.
"Even the SEMA Cruise that closes the Show on Friday has become a time-honored experience," says Gattuso. "The SEMA Show is constantly in motion and these and other activations represent great educational experiences where you can observe trends and products in action."
Really that phrase "constantly in motion" is an apt description of the entire SEMA Show. No two Shows are the same, and SEMA continues to evolve the signature trade event to meet the changing needs
of the specialty automotive community.
"We're staying on top of the many trends in our workforce," Gattuso explains. "Its average age is getting younger, and right now Millennials outnumber any other group. Like other generations, they want to see and touch new products, but they're also into experiential marketing and events, and our Show is reflecting that shift."
An Educational Investment
The Show's world-class education program is designed to enhance your personal and professional skills and knowledge, with experts delivering practical and proven tips for growing every type of automotive business.
Take for example the Show's education program, which has grown to encompass a powerfully diverse range of speakers and topics, with learning opportunities spread throughout the LVCC.
"Attending the SEMA Show is an investment in your business, but it should also be an investment in yourself and your personal and professional growth," Gattuso says. "So we've prioritized some great learning tracks to help you enhance your abilities and talents. We also encourage business owners to leverage our curriculum to help train and transform their staffs."
Tompkins adds that SEMA Education offers a range of skills-advancing seminars, with topics running the gamut from digital marketing to future automotive technologies. "We've also partnered with I-CAR, SCRS and other industry and business leaders to help attendees understand and fill any gaps in their trade and leadership skills and expand their knowledge of emerging trends and best practices."
Tompkins further emphasized that attending the Show is more than an investment in an attendee's future--it's also an investment in their industry since the SEMA Show helps fund the association's many initiatives and programs throughout the year. These include industry and consumer advocacy, business services to SEMA members, educational initiatives, and public and government affairs programs to protect aftermarket and enthusiast-consumer choice.
"Uniting around the SEMA Show platform has a lot of short-term benefits, but it also has the long-term effect of showcasing what's important to us as a collective industry and helping support SEMA's year-round efforts to promote the automotive lifestyle," he explains.
Summing up the SEMA Show, Gattuso says: "A key thing to understand is that our exhibitors are working on new products and innovation all year long, but they often prefer to debut them at the SEMA Show. It may be something on a world-class vehicle build, or an innovation they're showcasing in their booth, but it's what keeps buyers, media and others returning each year in huge numbers. And as an attendee, you're getting in at ground zero of it all."
"I think the continued success of this Show speaks volumes for the resilience of our industry--especially coming out of COVID--and its constant ability to innovate and improve products to keep the automotive aftermarket and lifestyle healthy for decades to come."
Top Reasons to Attend the 2024 SEMA Show
In addition to seeing the latest trends and technology on the Show floor, the 2024 SEMA Show will feature the world's largest display of new automotive aftermarket products at the New Products Showcase, the latest builds, new areas dedicated to the future of electric vehicle (EV) and propulsion and other innovations, and world-class education tracks and seminars that give attendees a best-in-class professional development experience.
Unique events and activations such as a new industry party, the SEMA Show Kickoff Breakfast, vehicle demonstrations and SEMA Fest, a celebration of music and car culture, will provide ample opportunities for the industry to unite. As if all that's not incentive enough, the following are some of the top reasons to attend the Show.
- 2,400-Plus Exhibitors: With so many brands projected to exhibit, this is where the industry and media gather to see the products and concepts that companies will be delivering to the marketplace in 2025. The event's multifaceted nature generates unmatched ROI while meeting your company's business goals.
- Millions of Square Feet Under Roof: The size and scope of the SEMA Show provide your best opportunity to discover new product, increase your awareness of industry trends and innovation, and grow your business in the coming year--and beyond.
- 12 Product Communities: You'll find a dozen distinct product sections conveniently gathered in one place, bringing ease and efficiency to your search for the brands and innovations most relevant to you and your business. There's a place for everyone at the SEMA Show.
- 1,400-Plus Vehicles on Display: The Show's wide variety of vehicle displays help familiarize you with the countless new concepts, ideas and products being presented by exhibiting brands--while leading you directly to the booths where you'll find those products on the Show floor.
- SEMA Education: The Show offers the largest, most robust, customizable industry education platform for empowering your business, pursuing your own professional development and training/developing your team.
- 140,000 Attendees, Including 70,000 Buyers and Decision-Makers: The global industry gathers to engage with the entire automotive aftermarket in one location, strengthen and nurture business relationships, generate leads and forge the business connections to be successful. Your competition will be here, shouldn't you be too?
- 2,500-Plus Media and Content Creators: This massive presence of global media reps whets enthusiast and consumer appetites for the trends and products coming their way--and you can witness first hand what's wowing the crowds and the news being made. This presents a tremendous strategic advantage for your business.
- 140-Plus Countries/Territories Represented: If you're looking to expand markets beyond the United States, there's no better venue than the SEMA Show.