>>The SBN Women's Leadership Forum in Austin, Texas, combined education and networking to advance personal development and leadership skills among industry women.

Such outreaches are in SEMA's DNA. As far back as the '90s, the association presented a program known as the SEMA Experience, which consisted of a series of events featuring seminars and panel discussions on industry-related topics as well as after-hours networking. Featured presentations, sponsored at various times by Chevrolet/Geo and Ford Motor Company, also centered on new-business opportunities for member companies to collaborate with the OEMs on their then-current accessory programs.

In addition, SEMA's industry communities, led by its councils and networks, have long provided niche-specific opportunities for education, networking, career and business advancement in Las Vegas, regionally and, increasingly, online. SEMA sees these initiatives as investments in the industry's future, and has continued to evolve the programs to meet the changing needs of SEMA members and the various markets they represent. The following is a brief look at some current and successful programs that SEMA members can tap into.

As a trade association, SEMA's communities encompass nine councils and networks, each representing an industry segment or demographic. Somewhat analogous to a task force, each council or network is comprised of volunteers—business professionals who draw on the collective knowledge of their respective members to tackle issues of common interest and concern, and create strategies and programs that meet their specific members' needs. Two recently successful educational events offered by the SEMA Businesswomen's Network (SBN) and the SEMA Future Leaders Network (FLN) stand out as prime examples of SEMA members expressed interest in professional-development programs.

EMPOWERING AND ELEVATING WOMEN

SBN has been advancing women's professional careers through networking, mentoring and education for three decades. From Gear-Up Girl gatherings, awards recognition and member spotlights to special events, SBN-powered sessions at the SEMA Show and All-Female Builds, the accomplishments rack up. But SBN's roots trace to the mid-'80s—a time when men had the inside track on opportunities to build personal and professional connections. As few such opportunities existed for women, a small coterie of female leaders helped establish the Professional Women's League, which evolved into SBN in 1993. The group now boasts membership of more than 500 women.

Despite some headway, women still face workplace challenges in what remains a predominately male industry. To help women progress in their careers and hone leadership skills, SBN debuted its Women's Leadership Forum in 2022. With the express goal of bringing industry women together in an intimate and relaxed environment, the forum enables participants to focus on personal development, mentoring and leadership through a series of high-powered keynotes, panel discussions, breakout sessions and informal networking activities.

Held in March in Austin, Texas, the theme of this year's forum was "EVOLVE: Advancing the Future of Women in Leadership." Among the topics: "The New Leadership Challenge: Advancing Women's Leadership," "Walking the Glass Floor: Seven Essential Qualities of Women who Lead" and "Women in Leadership: Lifting up the Next Generation of Women in Leadership." Two networking events—a cocktail reception and a dinner—gave participants and speakers a welcome opportunity to wind down and get acquainted.

"It was a great event," declared SEMA Council Director Nicole Bradle. "We experienced 46% growth this year. It's huge to grow that much in one year. The forum offers a safe space for women to come together. When you do that in a welcoming environment where women let down their walls and build relationships with other women, it's very rewarding to see."

SBN Chair Sara Morosan agreed. "We pushed really hard to publicize and increase awareness of the forum, so we were excited to see more women attend." To carry their message forward, SBN utilized last year's Show as a platform to present a four-hour-long women's symposium, she added.

"We held the symposium at the Show to encourage women to attend this year's leadership forum," said Morosan. "The program offered highlights to show how women in the aftermarket can advance their careers. That's what SBN and the Women's Leadership Forum are all about."

For Kelli Gallagher, president of Dee Zee, the leadership forum has been a rewarding experience. Having attended the event since 2022, it presented the chance not only for her own personal enrichment, but to bring other female employees along as well. The women, five of whom attended in 2023 and seven this year, represented a cross section of Dee Zee's workforce, from the production floor to quality-control and human resources.

"Dee Zee has been a member of SEMA for more than 40 years, but I had not gotten deeply involved. I felt it was time," said Gallagher. "I chose SBN as the area to dive in and get involved.

"The Women's Leadership Forum offered a good opportunity to take my female leaders out of the day-to-day environment and give them the educational aspect to enhance their leadership skills and an opportunity to meet other women in the industry. It's been a good experience and something my team has benefited from. I look forward to the event continuing."

For SBN members, there's good news. Next year's forum will head to the East Coast, with future events slated for a more central locale and California. "We're excited to move the forum to different locations," said Morosan. "We want women in other parts of the country to enjoy the same opportunities."

CULTIVATING YOUNG TALENT

In 1989, the industry recognized the need to nurture aspiring young professionals to help perpetuate the growth and success of the aftermarket industry. And thus, the Young Executives Network (YEN) was born.

In the ensuing years, YEN provided members with networking opportunities with colleagues and influential industry leaders to listen, learn and develop skills to pursue a higher level of professionalism.

In 2022, YEN was rebranded the Future Leaders Network. The new name more accurately reflects the group's membership. The nearly 1,200 members—39 years of age or younger—hold positions throughout the industry, from entry-level staff and trade workers to managers, executives and business owners.

Committed to helping aspiring leaders sharpen their professional and personal skill sets, FLN teamed with world-renowned Dale Carnegie Training to present a leadership training course. The Professional Development Program (PDP) debuted in 2022.

The two-day event is open exclusively to FLN members employed by a SEMA-member company. Attendance is capped at 25 participants. This year's program was held at the SEMA Garage in Detroit in mid-May.

Under the guidance of an experienced Dale Carnegie trainer, attendees were coached on how to enhance communication skills, express confidence in business settings and engage with others by building rapport. The sessions also touched on how to tackle workplace challenges and use new skills to achieve measurable results.

From FLN Chair Matt Beenen's perspective, the PDP's value centers on three factors: location, participants and training. "Having it at the Detroit Garage did a really good job of answering the question, what does SEMA do," said Beenen, the founder of BuiltRight Industries. "It was a great way for people to see and understand that SEMA does a lot more than put on a trade show.

>>The recent FLN Professional Development Program at the Detroit SEMA Garage tapped into Dale Carnegie coaching to hone the business and communication skills of young and rising industry leaders.

"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 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.)

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."

>>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.

A NONSTOP IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

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+ 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.

"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 product, but they're also into experiential marketing and events, and our Show is reflecting that shift."

AN EDUCATIONAL INVESTMENT

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 (see p. 48).

"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 longterm 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 worldclass 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."

>>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.