I attended the SEMA show with my friends/client, Clutch Masters, this year and it was a lot of fun. SEMA stands for Specialty Equipment Market Association (e.g. aftermarket products for automotive industry). I learned a lot more about the industry and met a lot of talented folks in the automotive industry including racers, publishers, manufacturers and marketers. Below are a couple highlight photos from the show:

E-Bay Motors had a booth set up, just like they did at CES Show for buying/selling except this one was dedicated to Autos. I also saw similar for Yahoo! - both these companies are very active at the tradeshows which is good to learn, especially for Internet technology companies that you wouldn’t expect.

Live editing booth for Speed Vision broadcasting.

Snapshot of one small section of the Central Hall

Another Central Hall snapshot.

As we were visiting Steve Oaks, Sr. of Oaks Racing, we managed to talk his model into posing in front of the Clutch Masters stickers on one of his race cars. Dozens of folks were snapping shots possibly for various magazines so likely some free press for Clutch Masters.

Michelin had a cool exhibit in the South Hall with the world’s fastest street legal cars including this one, the Bugati. Most cars were over $1 million each and a show stopper was also the McLaren F1 - a beautiful car that was suprisingly a 3-seater. The driver sits in the middle with the steering wheel and to the left and right, passengers can come along, slightly offset behind the driver - very cool!

McLaren F1 - Beautiful car and I loved the center cockpit with side passengers - I’ve never seen anything like that before.

What would a trip to Vegas be if I didn’t rub elbows with a few stars? Here I am with rapper/actor Ice-T. The second CD I ever owned (back in 1991) was actually one of his; pretty cool. Actually we ran into a lot and I even met the guys from Good Charlotte during a private party for C16 at Tao (see below) we were invited to.

Mopar booth in South Hall as we headed up escalators to the offroad section

C16 after party on Wednesday night at Tao Nightclub at the Venetian - we were invited to this private party with Good Charlotte guest dj-ing for the latter part of the night. The club had a lounge level, then dining level and the upper level where we were boasted a couple bars and massage room plus main dance area.

The main dance area had raised platforms with gogo dancers and a section that separated some VIP booths and 2 dance floors with a bathtub and throughout the night they had barely-dressed girls dancing in the tub.

On the main club level, you can go into the main dance area (prior picture) or to the massage room or back bar. This is the back bar, complete with statuettes filling the entire wall.

Ice sculpture in the back bar with the C16 logo.

Overlooking the front of Venetian and Strip. From the club, they have a balcony where you can go out (primarily for smokers I think) but we went out for some fresh air and couldn’t resist snapping a couple cool photos.

Good Charlotte was at the party and I met a couple guys. I have an autograph on the back of one of my business cards I may scan in and add to the post - we’ll see.

All-in-all, this was a very fun time and I learned a lot and got to meet with a lot of Clutch Masters’ top customers plus their race team.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 3rd, 2006 at 12:02 pm and is filed under News, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. This post has been viewed 23,243 times.