Translogic heads to the Las Vegas Convention Center for the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association's (SEMA) annual trade show in episode 8.1. SEMA began in Los Angeles in 1963, and back then it was just a small group of hot-rodders, drag racers and performance pioneers. Accordingly, when the SEMA acronym was first coined, the S stood for speed. According to the official SEMA web site, the early founders had a simple goal: "develop uniform standards for certain products used in motorsports competition and promote the industry as a supplier to consumers..." Today, SEMA still operates with those goals in mind but the entire organization and the annual show is much larger. It's been in Vegas since 1977, and the show is Mecca for any and all types of automotive aftermarket products and services including everything from portable navigation systems to racing grade engine hardware to classic muscle car parts and supplies. Think of it this way, SEMA is to automobile customizers and restorers what the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is to gamers, gadget geeks and digital photographers.
While CES gets a fairly high profile due to the mainstream appeal of digital cameras, portable music players and flat screen TVs, the two shows have a similar impact on their respective industries and are both open only to industry professionals rather than the general public. Both shows are held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where SEMA attracts a little more than 100,000 people and about 1,700 vendors, and CES attracts roughly 126,000 people and hosts 2,500 vendors. The mass appeal and generally pricier nature of consumer electronics mean the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) represents about $172 billion worth of business where as the more specialized SEMA represents an industry that does about $34 billion worth of business each year.
SEMA has been drawing an increasing amount of mainstream attention thanks to heavy participation from automakers like Ford, General Motors, Kia, and Toyota. Even alternative transportation concepts have begun popping up at SEMA – we found several exhibitors that just a few years ago would have seemed entirely out of place given the show's bling and speed slant.
While CES gets a fairly high profile due to the mainstream appeal of digital cameras, portable music players and flat screen TVs, the two shows have a similar impact on their respective industries and are both open only to industry professionals rather than the general public. Both shows are held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where SEMA attracts a little more than 100,000 people and about 1,700 vendors, and CES attracts roughly 126,000 people and hosts 2,500 vendors. The mass appeal and generally pricier nature of consumer electronics mean the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) represents about $172 billion worth of business where as the more specialized SEMA represents an industry that does about $34 billion worth of business each year.
SEMA has been drawing an increasing amount of mainstream attention thanks to heavy participation from automakers like Ford, General Motors, Kia, and Toyota. Even alternative transportation concepts have begun popping up at SEMA – we found several exhibitors that just a few years ago would have seemed entirely out of place given the show's bling and speed slant.
Click the image below to watch TRANSLOGIC 8.1: SEMA + X Prize Winners:
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