I’m still catching my breath. SEMA 2024 was a huge hit, and I’m still trying to unpack everything we did over the course of our week in Vegas. It seems like every year I go, it feels more and more like a family reunion.
To me, it’s probably my favorite show of the year because it’s a mixture of business and pleasure. Being a car geek in general, I never fail to see at SEMA a wide array of tools and world-class cars that anybody in our industry would be lucky to see. The biggest issue I seem to have is carving out enough time to check out all of the vehicles on display. To date, I’ve never left the show thinking I saw everything I wanted to.
Jay Goninen.
On the business side, it felt like I was constantly running from meeting to meeting. The beautiful part about conducting meetings at SEMA is you can get a bunch of high importance meetings done in a relatively short amount of time. Some of the meetings were more formal in that you had a specific meeting place, some were in trade show booths, and others were in a hallway. While they are all different, the impact each has is huge. For us as a company, many of the meetings will have a lasting impact for years to come.
As cool as all of the material things always are at SEMA, it’s the people that make it memorable each and every year. The amount of incredibly talented people we have in our industry is on full display every time I go, each of whom has a huge passion for the industry. On top of that, the number of content creators roaming the halls of SEMA continues to increase by the year, and each is helping us spread the message about this wonderful industry.
Of course, I don’t want to leave out the AAPEX side of the show. Our company, WrenchWay, had a booth on the AAPEX side and there was so much to learn over there as well. From the classes to the equipment and tool displays in Joe’s Garage, there is something for everyone to benefit from. I’m guessing a lot of you haven’t been over to the Venetian to see everything going on there as it relates more to the repair side, but I encourage you to carve out some time to check it out in 2025.
All in all, I feel like this event provides an opportunity to fill the passion bucket for all of us. It serves as a reminder as to why we all love this industry as much as we do. Over the course of the year, we grind through our day-to-day in hopes of making a better life for ourselves and don’t often take the time to reflect on all of the things this industry has provided us. As you return from SEMA, I challenge you to take a moment to think about everything you experienced in your time in Vegas. Hopefully you can take a minute to think about the progress you have made from the prior year, reflect on notes you made during a training session, or reach out to somebody you talked to at the conference. And, if you haven’t been to SEMA yet, add this to your must-attend list for 2025!
