The Specialty Equipment Aftermarket Association (SEMA) has its finger on the pulse of the auto industry, even know during the global pandemic crisis. RacingJunk.com spoke to SEMA Vice President of Events Tom Gattuso about the future of this year’s SEMA show and how the industry will move forward.
As the effects of the COVID-19 virus and subsequent “stay at home” orders ripple through the economy, questions of how the auto industry is handling the crisis have arisen. With events cancelled well into May, manufacturing shutting down in certain states if the business is deemed non-essential, and social distancing affecting auto dealerships, the future of the industry seems uncertain, including one of the pinnacles of the year for the aftermarket: The SEMA Show. The show is often a marker of the health of the industry, and so RacingJunk reached out to Tom Gattuso, SEMA Vice President of Events, for his take on the immediate future of the show, as well as his sense of how the industry may fare in general in the face of this pandemic.
Gattuso spoke to RacingJunk from his home where he is working remotely, much like the rest of the Southern California-based organization’s staff. When asked how he is feeling about the crisis and SEMA’s current efforts, Gattuso responded with cautious optimism. “The most striking part of the situation is that there will be an end to it, even if we can’t see it now.”
SEMA itself has two main foci – events (including the SEMA and PRI Shows, and the smaller meetings and events that happen throughout the year) and its work as a trade organization. The SEMA Show is a touch point for the industry, showcasing more than 2400 businesses, many of them small businesses. It attracts about 161,000 visitors and is a launching point for news, new products and new builds. It’s an essential part of the year for nearly everyone involved in the auto industry.
Since the show takes place in November, SEMA is moving forward on the assumption that it will still take place and planning accordingly to maximize health and safety standards for workers, exhibitors and attendees.
The organization, and the city of Las Vegas where the show takes place, have become painfully adept at reacting quickly to challenges, learning from past incidents like the 2017 mass shooting at the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
“From an event standpoint, looking at the tragedy in Las Vegas, prior to the show that year, we examined our environment with an eye to keeping people safe, “said Gattuso. “That event caused us to look closer at what our security situation was and how we needed to elevate it. We are constantly challenging our baseline to keep people safe and continue doing business.
“From the virus perspective, it will be us looking at face to face business and looking at what things have slipped from society. SEMA has a chance to be the leader in this. We are working with colleagues to set up best practices and to make people comfortable attending and exhibiting at the event. Our goal with the show is to create an environment that connects people through conversation.”
This is where Gattuso’s cautious optimism comes in. The long-term effects of the virus and the economic uncertainty of production shut-downs and unemployment probably won’t be immediately known, but SEMA has often been a visionary leader in in the industry having weathered national disasters like September 11th and more than one recession.
“SEMA is looking at our plan for November as essential to helping the industry and economy and country as we are coming out of this. We want to be part of the development. We want to be a strong base for the industry to gather and chart the course for growth over the next 3- 5 years.”
As part of that effort to support the industry, SEMA moved quickly to enact certain benefits for members.
“As a trade association,” Gattuso says, “Our first inclination is to help our members. We’ve been preparing for this for decades. We’ve saved for a rainy day, and are ready to serve our members in one of our more pressing times of need. We have prepared to be a stable beacon for the industry. It allows us to take a higher level view of what the industry needs and how we can help. This includes the website we just created (www.sema.org/corona-updates), because we’re still powering forward as an organization. We have these great networks of staff and volunteers who can get the message out that we are here and can help in this time of need.
“Last week, we were on calls with our council leadership, board of directors, and show leaders about what we were doing to help our members. In a matter of days, we were able to bring people up to speed.
On a practical level, this means refundable deposits for show exhibitors and flexibility on seniority policies for members who may not be able to attend this year. SEMA is also looking to help exhibitors move into bigger booths, along with other ways to help them grow.
“We are doing individual outreach to all of our members,” said Gattuso. “We want to know how we can help. We want to know what their situation is, what they’re dealing with, and what we can do, which includes keeping show milestone dates flexible for certain circumstances and individuals.”
These discussions can allow SEMA to gain a broader picture of the auto industry as a whole..
“There’s a wide variety of experiences and perspectives,” Gattuso said. “Certain companies are still able to continue manufacturing, keeping their personnel on staff because they’re deemed essential in their states. Other members who are more cautious and planning for when they come out of this; and then companies that are having to make very hard decisions in their day to day operations. It can be hard to hear. But there’s more optimism out there than you might think. We’ve already seen that reflected in the applications for show space so far. People are seeing this as a chance to help rebuild their year after this rough start to 2020. They are looking forward and we want to be there as a resource for them as they do that.
“What I try to focus on from a day-to-day basis is having confidence that we will come out of this, and that the face-to-face interaction the industry has at the SEMA show will be a significant part of helping the industry turn around. This fits with SEMA’s ultimate goal for their members as an organization.”
Leave a Reply