Who on forum went, observations, attendance, oddities, celebs etc?

I've attended every SEMA Show since 2006 except for one (2011). I thought it was great as always. 2021 was down a bit over recent years but I still say it looked a lot worse last year than it really was and that was due to the addition of the West Hall. That added about 20% to the overall footprint of the show. With more space for the people, the foot traffic appeared worse than it was.

This year there were more vendors than '21 so that helped. I also think the foot traffic was better than '21 but still not to pre-Covid levels. As far as real attendance numbers, only SEMA knows for sure.

The big news was the both Ford and Chevy pulled out for 2022 and Dodge attended. A lot of people think that Dodge has always been at SEMA but that's not true. Mopar has always been at SEMA, not Dodge. Yes, there are Dodge vehicles in the Mopar booth and even a few Dodge execs, but it was never a Dodge display. When Ford first announced that they were pulling out, Chevy jumped into the Ford location in the Central Hall. Ford always had one of the best locations. It was a power move for Chevy. Then Chevy decided to pull out and Toyota quickly took the old Ford spot. Dodge jumped into the Chevy footprint and they did a killer display!!! We always felt the Chevy display at SEMA felt like a hospital waiting room, very sterile - there were cars people there, but no excitement. Dodge brought in a curved video wall that was probably 10-12' tall and maybe 50' wide. They had lots of cool videos and you could hear it from quite a distance. One of the coolest videos in my opinion was a simulation of the new Hurricane Six running the Nürburgring. It actually sounded really cool. And Mopar was in the South Hall as they have been for at least 16 years that I've been attending.

On top of the killer Dodge display at the show, they also took over most of the digital signage on the strip. Ford and Chevy pulled out so Dodge jumped in with both feet!! There is a Hilton property on the strip near the convention center and the entire side of the building is a digital sign. It's about 40-stories tall and it looked really cool with Hellcats doing burnouts!

I think the celebrity attendance was off the last couple of years. It also wasn't clear who was actually there. The SEMA app and website didn't seem to agree. I would see celebs posting that they were at SEMA and signing in a booth who were not on the SEMA app nor website. In the past, it seemed like almost every personality from MotorTrend TV (or whatever the network name was at the time) was at SEMA. This year, only a handful were there. I'm not a celebrity hound, but this is important to me because this is often how I get to know them so I can try to book them for Carlisle.

There are never a lot of classic Mopars at SEMA. For me, the Mopar pinnacle was the B7 '69 Coronet R/T HEMI convertible in the Legendary Interiors booth. There were a handful of other stock Mopars there but it IS the SEMA Show so 95% were modified vehicles (or more).

As a true car guy, I think I will always love going to the SEMA Show. Yes, it's work and it's a week away from home and my family, but I do enjoy it. You never know what (or who) will show up.

That's my AAR for SEMA!

Ed

Nice Report
Thanks

Thanks for the report.

Wasn't there but was running media coverage being sent in from people who were. Among celebrities, Mike Musto was there with his recently refurbished and Redeye-powered Daytona, Kevin Hart was there with his Grand National, I saw that Jason "Wee Man" Acuna was signing autographs next to his Impala lowrider at Air Lift Performance at least one day, Freddy "Tavarish" Hernandez was signing autographs, I saw one image of Courtney Hansen, Leah Pruitt and Linda Vaughn. There's a whole list of celebrities who were scheduled to appear posted in SEMA's content.

The new West Hall - I was looking for a vendor and was told they were in the West Hall. West Hall? The SEMA person said go outside to the white booth and take the escalator down. There was and underground tunnel system and maybe 40 Teslas waiting to drive people underground through what looked like Elons Boring Company tunnels to the West Hall. Was pretty cool. About a 1/2 mile drive. Would have been a damn long walk considering I'm struggling with a Meniscus tear but wasnt gonna miss SEMA. Was funny how many old guys had knee braces or bandages or supports on their knees. I felt right at home.