#334 Behind the Curtain of the World’s Biggest Car Show: Tom Gattuso on the Magic of SEMA

Welcome back, we're intonation. I say you're behind the rodeo, you're hooked, you're on the one-on-one, or maybe out north Dakota, Miami, California. Always in order to spend it with you right here from the East Valley Institute of Technology.

Your favorite automotive lifestyle show will bring you car tips, and always take you on a journey with special guests from all over the world right here.

You know, I've been telling you for years, it's always an honor to hang out with you. I know a lot of you're busy, you get you're getting out, you know, whether you're starting a new gig, you're changing careers, I will tell you East Valley Institute of Technology and you're initially renowned. In fact, Aiden Moore in the studio, welcome back, Aiden. Thanks for having me.

Good to have you. Aiden is a former alumni of the event radio, always representing. In fact, the radio station, students just came back from skills, you say, and took some awards.

Yeah, it's honestly amazing to see what they can do.

Yeah, so with our little automotive show, we always want to promote the skill trades, mom and dad, I hear you. It's long gone.

All the days where Uncle Louis is coming home to the family with greasy nails and all this kind of stuff.

The trade is really advanced. I always tell you that you know you're talking about 60 to 70 million lines of code on some of these newer vehicles.

So give the automotive department a tour. And in fact, I invite you, of course, we're biased, automotive wise, you know, we're intonation, we're going to speak up the automotive.

But you got a ton of skill trades right here on the campus. And how's your week fair and everything good?

Yeah, it's going to be healthy. The heat is just drawn. I'm trying, man, it's insane. I mean, you heard on the news thing they played earlier that the hikers got rescued by helicopter.

Yeah, they don't feel like that's a common thing right now.

Well, they knocked it down. They knocked it down from eight to eight to five. A lot of you, I see a German tourist coming to Phoenix.

You get out there with your perfume and you want to hike. That's Deutsche London camel back.

And you get up there and listen, you don't realize it's a track man.

Oh, yeah. 108 is serious. I get out there from time to time. My daughter's into it. And eight to five is when they shut it down.

They have to. It is dangerous. You got to, you got to be cautious on that. I do have, there's a recall I wanted to share with you for anyone out there driving a land rover.

And gosh, I see this in the garage. We do have a fair share of land rovers that come in control arm bushings front end suspension work like that.

Well, land rovers recall on a hundred and twenty one thousand of these range rover and range over sports because of the potential cracks in the front suspension upper knuckle joints that's according to Netsis.

I want you to be aware of that. If you drive, let's get the year right 14 to 17. I'm bringing it up because a lot of you may be in that year range.

And we're talking about a hundred and twenty one thousand of these vehicles. So I will be on the lookout for my land rover clients that come into the garage where we service them on a daily basis.

But find something I get excited. I'm always excited to tell you that you don't have to spend money on your vehicle. Most good mechanics and dealerships they'll share the same with you.

If there's a warranty or recalls, speaking of which, what do you do? How many of you have children? 16 17 just starting to drive.

You buy them a vehicle. And then those engine mounts at a very young miles. In fact, hey, I'm throwing my daughter under the bus. She drives a little GR 86, not quite the supra.

She's like, Dad, I want a supra. I said, honey, you got to earn your way up to a supra. So I got her a little GR 86 is better than what I had.

I was pushing my car more than I was driving at the first car I had. Now I'm in the car with her playing passenger. And she's a great driver. She's aware she's a good kid.

And I feel a thud when she accelerates. And I'm like, wait a minute. Immediately I know these are the dang engine mounts there. She's got eleven thousand miles.

Now what she says, Dad, well, we bought it at nine thousand. That was like that before. So I can't, you know, I can't go there.

But I want to bring that up engine mounts for you. We'll give you a symptom. You're going to get vibration through the stream. In fact, some of you come in the garage.

Hey, Frank, wait, I need a tune up. I need to replace the plugs. When you get that feeling in the stream was like a vibration, like a vibration, you just feel it. You're in drive.

Maybe you put it in neutral or park and it smooths out. It's under load. That's a vibration from warn engine mounts as well as when you accelerate. You may get a thud like a clunk, clunk.

So how do we avoid that? Well, some of you hot-footed on the accelerator. You think you're doing, you think you're doing the track at Formula One or something.

You have the on your foot that does produce torque excessively sometimes for those engine mounts that may already be tired.

So if you're not sure, get ahold of me, wrenchination.tv. I've got a national network of great community-minded automotive service providers and as well as some great dealerships.

If you're not sure engine mounts you don't want to let go because once they are separated, they will lift up, pull on everything like spaghetti out of a pot. Just pull them on it and snaps and it breaks and your engine harness and have you ever experienced that with the motor mounts on your right?

I'm experiencing that right now. They're not cheap. You're holding on. You're saving the pennies. I want to introduce the show topic. I'm really, really excited.

SeemaShow.com. Seema, you've heard of it. You may not have been out there. I'm going to tell you, from draw, drop and custom builds to the newest performance tech, Seema is where the automotive future meets just straight up pure, thunderous car culture.

If that's what lives in your veins and you want to treat yourself, visit seemashow.com. We are honored to have vice president of events, Tom Gatuso. I hope I got the last name. My italiano.

Tom Gatuso, vice president of Seema is going to be joining us. He's hanging in the wings. We're going to lift the curtains up. Get behind the scenes of one of the largest, if not the largest, Tom will set us straight there.

Automotive get together in Las Vegas. It is absolutely an amazing time. It is the global stage for the automotive aftermarket. You've got everything there. Music.

It is a lot of pollution with full wheels and everything else. You see six wheels, eight wheels, two wheels, one wheel. I'm sure they've got the one wheel action as well.

And give the people some weird automotive news, man. We're shaking. All right. I know some of y'all like Ram. So I got a ram themed one for you. Ram, Ram truck. Yes. All right. I like the ram.

Ram has claimed its custom built mechanical bowl. Nicknamed the Bucking Hemie was stolen during tear down after a road kill nights event in Pontiac, Michigan.

These people still in Bucking Hemies. That's the nickname for this mechanical bowl themed around the heavy V eight. Wow.

CEO Tim Kuniscus. I'm pretty sure I miss. But made a public statement calling the theft, you know, just absolutely.

Well, frustrated. Yeah. I mean, the sheriff's office is probably. But here's where it gets interesting. The police later discovered the bowl was never missing.

Whoa. So how does that happen? I mean, so wait a minute. The CEO chimed in the CEO chimed in. But now the police are saying the bowl was never missing.

And it was in the company's possession this entire time. How do you go? I like how I'm trying to find out is something like a Bucking Bronco Hemie bowl go like somebody.

I don't know. But here's where here's where I'm thinking. How is it highly distinctive $30,000 rideable attraction?

Go missing. But then they're like, no, you would see it if it's you would see it if you found it. But they had it this whole time.

I'm trying to figure if I was working that event, like I was responsible for that. If I was the man behind Bronco, Billy, Hemie.

Big branded bram. I was the guy had a team of six people to take over and maintain this bronching, bucking crazy ham.

I that's what I'm thinking like it was just a miscommunication internally. But what was the time frame on this? Was it a few weeks, three weeks?

This was over the course of two weeks. So we're missing two weeks. But you know, I find it very interesting.

Because the authorities are investigating whether or not this report was filed on purpose, this false report, which is highly illegal.

Or if maybe there was just a few miscommunications. So now that's under investigation. The Rams PR team. So that that I find is really, really weird.

You think people people people people get fired over that one. Oh, I'm guessing if it's found to be an honest.

But I guarantee you at least the entire team is going to be sit down. I one of a kind mechanical bull ride cover worth thirty four put your pinkies up thousand dollars.

Owned by auto mode of manufacturer ram was later found in possession. My thinking, look, look, everybody's having fun at this ginding.

I think they took this bowl to the local bar quite.

They got a bunch of roll killed nights out of Pontiac. It's a big deal. Yeah.

Police say that the ram issued a news release that said the custom made metal cover for its bucking hemmy was stolen. So it was the metal cover.

Yeah. Meanwhile, it was probably mixed up with something else here and there. It is a story. How many of you get get to these big events? In fact, we'll ask Tom.

You have a year after year branded a few pieces of equipment items. They're integral to the show integral to the brand.

And they go missing. That's a big deal. Absolutely. Do you have a backup that would drive an event planner bananas now the sheriffs involved.

Innocently, they want to solve this problem, but it turns out I think it's miscommunication for sure. We're going to take a quick break. I do want to bring in. I, like I said, draw dropping custom builds out of.

At a SEMA is happening every year. I was enjoying my time out of SEMA where the automotive future meets pure car culture. We've got vice president Tom Gattuso of SEMA.

I invite you to visit SEMA show dot com stay tuned for intonation.

A powerhouse in the automotive parts distribution world parts authority has all your automotive needs covered whether you're a mechanic or enthusiast.

It's not just about business for parts authority as they are deeply invested in community engagement. They sponsor local events, support automotive training programs and promote education in the automotive field.

It's evident that parts authority plays a crucial role in the automotive parts landscape. Their commitment to quality, innovation and community engagement sets them apart from the rest of the competition.

With nationwide locations, professional parts counter assistance and a variety of manufacturers like AC Delco, Motocraft, Denzo and Bosch, it's easy to see that parts authority is the best choice for quality auto parts.

More info at partsauthority dot com parts authority. The answer is yes.

Mailshark is a powerful marketing platform designed for businesses of all sizes whether you're a small business owner or part of a large marketing team.

Mailshark offers the tools you need to engage with your audience effectively. It has some of the most incredible standout features like direct mail postcards, customizable templates for emails, automation tools and box toppers.

With customizable subscriptions like monthly, weekly or just one time deal explore the power of Mailshark and watch your campaigns soar to brand new heights. More information at Mailshark.com.

The smart choice for auto parts pronto national association is dedicated to supporting the automotive industry by promoting quality, collaboration and innovation among auto parts suppliers and professionals.

They provide essential resources and networking opportunities that help businesses thrive in an ever evolving market.

With their support, members gain access to training industry insights and best practices that help elevate their operations.

Pronto Association is committed to driving the future of the automotive industry. More information at pronto-net.com.

Welcome back to Rensionation of Rensionation.tv. Always in order to spend with you every week.

Just about a week if you missed the show.

Last fall at 5, I heart when all you major broadcast players. I've heard from you. I always tell you to get in the show ideas or local rock star no matter where or in the States.

All over the world we've had everyone on from Richard Brawling's to Princess Medita saying out of India and love sharing the story.

When it comes to putting the automotive world on the map.

If you do it better than Tom could do so he's the vice president of events for SEMA and the driving force behind one of the most influential automotive trade shows on the planet.

The SEMA show in Las Vegas is the destination. Some of you don't want to leave. The events over you still want more.

I see. I've been out there and we've got Tom on the line. Tom, welcome to Rensionation.

Frank, how are you? Good to be here.

I'm an artist. I wanted to have you. I know you're busy and I tell you SEMA is the grand puba for sure.

Many of us are heard about it. So for those that have it. I run into you. I'm in the elevator. I see Tom. Tom has got SEMA. Tom's got SEMA branding all over his shirt.

What does SEMA tell the people if they're new to SEMA?

I'm really lucky because SEMA is this force that ended up itself as a bucket list item for people in the industry and outside the industry.

At its core, it's this global marketplace that just pops up. So call it a pop-up global marketplace that features automotive innovation, new products, new builds, new ideas.

It's like a connection machine is the way I like to describe it where we bring this community together with products and builds and cool stuff.

And we just make these connections happen throughout that whole week. And it's really magic to watch what happens on the show floor translate what happens into businesses for the next three to five years.

Yeah, that's incredible. When we talk about the show floor, we're not talking about a 30,000, 40,000, 50,000.

Give the people a visual of the square footage and the monstrosity of, in fact, we always joke around. We have to work out before we go to SEMA because we're going to get our steps and paint a picture. Tom, what's the venue look like?

So it's the entire Las Vegas Convention Center. So if you've never seen that, it's the second largest convention center in the United States.

We're filling all the indoor space and we're filling all the outdoor space. So from a trade show nerd perspective, it's about 1.7 million square feet.

You kind of double that to about three, three and a half million square feet of total automotive passions that happens in Las Vegas at the convention center.

And it's really cool because we've got it segmented in a different parts of the industry. So there's 12 vertical segments to it, but it's all under one horizontal umbrella.

And the way I like to talk about scale is every trade show or public consumer show that you've been to has an aisle.

We've got 21 miles of aisle carpet that we put down. So that'll give you an idea of the scale. If you really wanted to walk it and walk every single aisle by the end of that week, you'd have walked 21 miles.

It's incredible. I mean, and you're also talking about, and I don't this is not just about the celebrity, but obviously a lot of celebrities enjoy core enthusiasm in the core culture.

But you've got folks like Chip Foos and Richard Petty, Jay Leno, just a ton of names. What is the biggest wow factor that you think for many that have been going year after year? Why do they return?

I really what it is, it's just this innovation that happens. This is where the new products get debuted, and conversations are happening on what's happening now with successes and struggles. And how do we get through it?

So I like to think of it as just this giant industry of homecoming, where you bring the industry together and they're able to share what they're going through and really help themselves navigate their way through it.

And then you throw some of these poetic names like Chip Foos or Jay Leno into the mix, and you start to see these builders that are trying to start their career.

And Jay or Chip will spend an enormous amount of time being in cheerleader form, looking at their build and being able to have an opinion and tell them like, hey, I started here and you're going to be able to do some more things and just keep at it.

That's kind of the magic because the automotive industry itself is very close-knit, and there are no celebrities because there's not a lot of ego.

People are bringing their stuff there to show it off, and I think that's part of one of the finest parts of it.

Yeah, whether you're hanging out with an industry icon or a legend or the future builder, talk to us. We're doing the show for close to 10 years here from the East Valley Institute of Technology.

There's great talent on campus. They are the future of the industry. Talk about this build competition that is highlighted throughout SEMA.

Yes, it's neat because we call it the Battle of the Builders, and it started as this idea where we wanted to figure out a way to bring SEMA to more of a global marketplace, just on television.

And we don't really produce SEMA, or that's not a part that you can do, so we wanted to feature all of our exhibitors and people that make products for our industry.

So there's no better canvas than to feature products than great builds. So we created this contest, and it was this background for a TV show that's now since evolved.

But we'll take probably 250 to 300 cars. It gets narrowed down to 40, and then we've got judges that narrowed down to a final 12, and then a final 4.

And then the vehicle builders themselves will rate the cars from 12 to 4, and then there's a finalist.

So it's become something that we created really to show off the exhibitors and the product manufacturers under industry.

But at the same time, be able to get builders in these great cars on much more of a high platform than they really have been before and be able to share that with the industry and the public at large.

Yeah, that's going to be exciting, because a lot of these up-and-coming talents are, and many of them, from years ago now, they've got a lot of claim to fame in their design, in their talent, in the industry now professionally.

And I want to speak on that, because there are a lot of professionals that go, when you mention sort of this ideation, this creation, this networking, I need to get to a certain level with my fuel injection currently.

And I can visit with vendors. It's really a smorgasborg of not only some great entertainment value behind the concerts and shows, but networking.

Like I can literally meet the vendors that I have been doing business with, and learn that much more. Talk to us about that from the professional side of SEMA.

And we've got everything there, so we really, again, it's this environment that we build, but I always say, be careful who you talk to, because you might be friends with them for the next 30 years.

And we definitely have stories of that happening at the show, and it can be a colleague, it can be a current vendor or customer of yours, or anywhere in between.

So what you have is you have this industry that gets together, and they're always solving problems, they're always evolving.

And they get together and they go, hey, like you said, this fuel injection, how do I solve this problem?

And somebody will have gone down a path and come up with an idea, and it doesn't have to be a perfect idea.

The other thing about the show is we're an incubator of ideas. They're not all good, right? Some ideas are bad.

But as people start to really bang on an idea and forge it into something, at that point it becomes good.

So if you look at us as a fashion week for automotive, there's going to be some stuff that's just way out there.

But what happens is it just keeps getting hammered and hammered and hammered and refined and refined, and then it becomes this thing that's just commonplace in the industry.

So it starts as an outlandish idea at our trade show, and it becomes a product that's in the industry for decades to come.

So we watched that happen on the show for a year after year, and that's part of the excitement.

Yeah, no doubt, speaking about landish, what is one of your favorite landish that had a little sticky sticky and became a mainstake?

And you think of over the years of any platforms or ideas that you thought, oh boy, this is going to get a harsh response from the audience, or just not going to stick to marketplace.

Was anything that stuck in us like with us today?

I mean, it was before I was producing this summer show, and I've produced on a mode of events my whole 30 year career, but I went to this summer show, and for the first time ever I saw a 20-inch wheel.

And I remember thinking, there's no way.

Look at that.

There's never going to be a bigger wheel.

And it was like, and your mind is just blown, like, how are they going to do this? It's crazy.

But then it created this movement. Again, and that's the forging of the ideas, where people were like, oh, wait a second.

It may be more economical in terms of fuel, and tires, and wear, and that type of stuff.

And now it's way more commonplace.

And you've got 32-inch wheels and off-road, and like all these other wheel sizes.

But again, it starts with this little spark.

And our industry has this tendency to take these sparks and fan them into a flame, and then really have the thing ignite the passion of our end user enthusiasts.

So that's really the role of our industry, and we're lucky that our trade show gets to play a small part of it.

Yeah, that's great.

I had to buy it to Segway. You said sparks, so I've got to bring up some controversy regarding ICE versus EV.

I know that SEMA, of course, traditionally ICE has done an amazing job in sort of Segway, the future technology of some really different things done with electric vehicles.

How important is SEMA's aspect of the future of EVs, and how do you incorporate that for the attendees?

So it's interesting because we have this area of the show called Future Tech, and it's really all about future propulsion.

And at SEMA, we really feel there's a place for EVs, but there's also a place for synthetic fuel and hydrogen vehicles and internal combustion engines.

And we're strong with our belief that no one should be able to side what's best for you.

No one should be able to say this is what has to be in your driveway.

So we've had some recent success where the EV mandate was recently lifted with a push that came from our DC team.

That's fine. Or doing it?

I hate to interject, but I got to tell you, I'm really passionate about that.

I've been keeping up with it, and I've been a lot of my automotive industry peers, whether they work at the dealership shop owners, mechanics technicians, body shop folks.

I have to thank you personally for you and the team. There was a lot of quiet work.

Could you explain to the people, give people an idea? I think it's worthy of stopping to say, what was at stake with some legislation

that you and the team at SEMA were quietly working to prevent a massive disruption

for what would have been a multi-billion dollar from the small family on the corner to a big 500 employee manufacturer.

Talk to us about what was done behind the scenes for this legislation for SEMA.

There was a lot of letter writing. There was a lot of meetings with our lawmakers.

Our DC office in the past five years or so has really ramped up to prepare and get this going.

It's being in the right place at the right time with the right regulators and telling our story.

One of the stories behind these stories is it turns out when you bring Richard Petty to Washington DC, lawmakers want to talk to him.

Really, he's got that celebrity factor that just stops people in their tracks.

We were very calculated with how we did some of these things as we were meeting with some of the members in Congress and Senate.

We really wanted to share what the automotive lifestyle is and means to these families in these small businesses across the United States.

Our industry has this history of taking things and making them better.

We've made the internal combustion engine more efficient.

We're at the forefront of synthetic fuels and you're watching it happen with F1.

They're going to start using some synthetic fuels and they're informing the E to a certain extent.

We want to be able to use a lot of different types of propulsion and we want to just tell that story and it's unfair to take this industry and put it into one vertical motor or form of propulsion.

It's the freedom. For those driving right now behind the wheel, you may have heard a lot of legislative position.

I heard automotive and I heard enthusiasts but we're talking about the right to modify vehicles.

If you wanted to lift your truck, if you wanted to swap an engine or go into the latest fuel injection or whatever it is to modify your vehicle, the RPM act.

I've got to read this. I want people to know because ultimately you listening and want you to go on and support entertain becoming a member of SEMA because this is a number situation.

Am I right Tom when we can all get together from the enthusiasts at home building out a Honda Civic or a 68 Chevelle or a professional automotive technician or shop owner.

We are tremendous in numbers and SEMA quietly works in the background for that.

I think that's really what we discovered is we were one of the largest groups to write the letters to the lawmakers and we've got these political action committees that really are helping share that voice in DC because at the end of the day when you look at an automotive industry it is a bunch of small businesses.

They're really just trying to do their day-to-day and help their customers and have their business survive and hopefully be intact where they can hand it down to their next generation but they're just not organized because they've got to do their daily business.

That really is where an association comes in or we can help them get organized and we've got really talented people in our DC office that we're able to talk to the right people at the right time and get things swayed in our way.

And it's not anything more than we wanted to have more choice and I feel like in a free economy that's how it should be.

You decide the color of your car and the motor in your car and nobody should look the other way on what you pick because cars like you mentioned earlier, cars are freedom and cars are this opportunity to individualize how you want to walk out and drive to work every day.

And we did just that and it's really not anything we do. It's something we're doing for the industry because it's something the industry did and I think that's the takeaway is we do it for the industry but at the end of the day the industry is what makes it happen.

For all of my automotive industry family I tell you with over 7,000 plus member companies with a wide variety of business tools that are available and resources to really help you succeed.

I invite you to visit seema.org for slash membership. You know what you're going to keep abreast of what's going on and certainly head out to Vegas in November.

Individuals can join as well. Can you talk about that? Some people have this feeling like seema is only for the big corporations talk to us about an individual.

You know that has interest that has a build. Maybe there's a young student that is up and coming and he's got a whole future in the automotive industry talk on an individual level. What am I going to get if I join seema as an individual?

Yes, we've made some changes and really we started doing it as we were coming out of COVID because we noticed that the passion never stopped and when we were thinking that people were going to be sort of locked in their house and not doing anything what they were doing was they were working on their projects.

So we created this thing called seema plus and it offers some industry discounts but it gives people this opportunity to be part of a community. It gives people a chance to meet at events and it gives them also the opportunity as an end user to be part of the advocacy that we're doing with lawmakers in DC and in each state.

So we created this thing called seema plus and it's this individual membership where anyone can join. You can get the benefits of it but you'll feel like you're part of something bigger.

And then at the same time we looked at our trade show and it's this bucket list item I said for people in the industry much less out of the industry but we created this opportunity for people to come to the show on Friday.

So if you're just a core enthusiast and you've heard about the seema show and you want to be able to go we now have an opportunity to do that and we do it through our website seemafest.com but you mentioned seemashow.com earlier Frank you can find information there but you'll be able to go to the show and you'll be able to see the builds and the innovation and talk to the manufacturers and really see where the industry is going in the next three to five years.

So we identified as we were coming into sort of a changing marketplace out of COVID because things were changing rapidly that our workforce was getting younger and they were expecting different things and the order processing and bringing a product to an end user was way more streamlined than it had never had been.

So the end user suddenly had this voice and we saw that opportunity and we said you know that there's got to be things we can do to connect it all together.

So we did just that so we've got we've got programs and opportunities for just an individual to either go to the show or be part of our advocacy or really just can discounts and be part of a community.

And I think again that's exciting because as the marketplace continues to change and our workforce continues to get younger and new people are coming into the industry.

They don't have any preconceived notions other than they just want to do fun stuff in cars that are cool and what that looks like is different for every generation.

We want to make sure we can propagate that for decades to come and this is the very beginning of us doing that.

Yeah, you mentioned Seema Fest. Tell us about the Fest.

Yeah.

Anitating people because this isn't just a few cars laid up on some hot asphalt.

Talk to us. What's the lineup for Friday night for folks to give us some insight Tom?

Yeah, so what we did when we thought of the idea of Seema Fest, we knew that our industry was getting to a point where they were looking for this evolution of what an event is.

And our trade show is 58 years old this year, but we're constantly evolving it.

But then we looked at this tie to our end user enthusiast and we said, okay, how can we connect that all together?

And we got in weird places in our brains and we were like, okay, you remember the first time you drove a car when you were 60?

You know, one of the first things you did was turn on the radio.

Like you turned the key to get the ignition going and then you turned on the radio.

That was like hand in hand. Some of us had static, but you know, before Bluetooth, we got Aiden in studio.

Aiden is a 2021 years old.

Did you buy your car? The little monster that stereo was important as a decision.

So my first car was an infinity i30.

And let me tell you Tom, I feel a little called out because that was definitely the first thing that you didn't care about the muffler hanging in the back.

You know, I was all about them tunes, baby.

Yeah, there you go.

I was the exact same way. Like my sound system was louder than my cars or I didn't have to hear the rattles.

But we decided that there was this connection between music and automotive.

And we wanted to share that.

And we wanted to find these groups of people that would get ignited with both.

And we've been successful this year.

Our lineup is going to start with neon trees.

We're going to go into black crows and then Queens of the Stone Age is going to bring the house down at the end of the night.

Wait a minute, are you just but Queens of the Stone Age check the black crows check neon trees people.

This is a man. That's a jam packed lineup.

Oh, absolutely.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Look, you can't have you can't have car culture without a little music.

A little bit about the music, baby.

And Tom, I see you burning midnight all you're like, man, we need to get the Queens of Stone Age.

Get these guys in here quick.

Because you're answering to the audience.

And I love that.

I think a part of great event planning.

You and your team, you work hard at times event planning.

You're sweating.

There's some bit.

You're burning midnight old because you want better and better doing this for 55 plus years.

Wow, that's a lineup.

No, it's great because the other thing we're doing is we got optimal batteries in that place.

And they're going to be doing something called optimal unleashed where they're going to have professional drivers that are going to be drifting.

And doing all sorts of things with automotive.

And we're going to have vehicles on display.

And we're going to have motorcycles doing things in a globe of gap where you get to see them drive around.

And seemingly impossible.

Wait a minute.

I grew up in the circus time.

I don't really recall it.

We just called it funny looking short dude in a motorcycle running around a globe.

You said global death.

Yes, that's crazy.

I'm old enough to have done media interviews in those gloves.

You weren't anybody if you could unless you got in there and did a hit for the morning news.

But we're excited about that event again because it's bringing these worlds together where we've got our enthusiasts that's expecting to be entertained and they're coming to the show.

They can go to the show on Friday and they can see the things.

And it really is this connection that we're making where it ends this week of business and this week of automotive innovation and passion in a way that only Seema can do it.

So we're excited to see how it's going to come together.

But yeah, this is our third year for Seema Fest and it should be our best event.

Yeah, if you're just tuning in, it all comes to life.

That event, SeemaFest.com.

Friday, November 7th, it's technically over at the Seema Show's Bronx Lot.

Ticket sales are open people.

I know it's August, something like, oh, November, that's Thanksgiving.

No, man, lock it in.

Get your check.

Something you got.

Google calendars look like a kaleidoscope.

It's all blotched.

Get in there and squeeze in the dates and for all my professionals out there as well.

It's a whole grandpa all week.

There's some exciting ideas that are flowing.

It's a great place to sit down.

Get some nosh and exchange some ideas.

You're going to meet whether you're on the service side, manufacturing side, distribution side.

And you had a question about the community.

So we've talked about the cars, the music, everything based on what innovations were bringing.

I'm actually curious to know what was your favorite Seema community story?

Do you have a friend you met there 30, 40 years ago that you still talk to on a daily basis?

What is a personal touch to you about Seema?

For me, I do a lot of speaking and training at some of our events.

And I really look at our new product showcase as a show within the show.

So you can't ever talk me out of the value it has because you can go and you can look at 3000 products.

And then you decide who you want to go see on the show floor based on some of that.

You're going to always have your appointments or whatever.

But I was one of our training things.

We call it our exhibitor summit where we're sharing some information with exhibitors.

And somebody said, you know, we went to the show last year and we didn't have time to be able to do our new product.

And I said, you know, if you put a new product in a new product showcase, I guarantee you'll have more traffic in your booths because that's how people are going to find you.

There's 2400 exhibitors at the show.

You need to stand out somehow.

And the guys white hid them on the shoulder and said, I told you we needed to be in that.

And then the next year he came up to me, he's like, I got to tell you, you were right.

We featured a new product in the showcase and people came specifically looking for it.

And that, again, is like these little success stories that happened where it just validates what I believed was happening at the show

and to be able to get firsthand knowledge of it where it made a difference for them.

And the amount of effort it took really wasn't that great.

But it's things like that in stories like that where businesses are forged on the show, on the floor of the SEMA show, and they grow.

And it's cool to watch.

You bring back a memory for me, Tom. I do a lot of industry work and I was invited to speak at the SEMA booth camp.

I think that's what you called it maybe years ago.

And my thing as an attendee is someone on the service side running an automotive service facility.

A lot of times it's right in front of you.

I think sometimes we can get too grandiose so.

And there are many elements. I speak to all of my other small businesses, maybe they have the latest widget.

And I think there's a certain energy in a booth. And certainly can I say from year to year?

Yeah, I mean, there's an attraction factor if you got the latest redid up H1.

That's important. I mean, I think SEMA, let's face it, there's a lot of core greatness by the way of education that we can get.

And great ideas. I always walk away every year.

And I do bounce from SEMA and Apex, which is our automotive aftermarket parts expo.

I do walk away with both with great ideas. And it's a great think tank.

But man, I always look forward to wow, I've never seen that.

Do you find if you were to give, I've got business owners that are listening that are thinking about.

By the way, is it too late for someone to highlight a booth? Have you wrapped that up? Or is there still reservations for booths?

So we're 83 days away from opening our doors. That's either not a lot of time or ton of time. And in my world, that's a ton of time.

There you go. We can do anything. Like we can, we definitely have still good booth space available.

There's still time to register for all of it. So, you know, we're happy to have those conversations and give people locked in.

Yeah, again, SEMA show.com, in this case, a forward slash exhibitor, you can go on there.

But let's talk about the international aspect of this.

We hear in the States, love SEMA every year, something new, there's always cutting edge.

But internationally, SEMA folks are coming from all over. What's the big attraction factor?

Is it because there's really nothing like it, Tom, worldwide?

Yeah, that is the case, Frank. I mean, it's one of those things where they're able to come and see such a condensed version of this marketplace and really be efficient with their time.

Or if they were to fly around the globe and try to match that, it would take them all year long to be able to do it.

Four days, we've really got it to still to a point where they can be very efficient with what they're able to sell on vehicles in their market.

But we created a product that will even help people further where it's called SEMA Live. It's basically a 31-hour television show.

You could call it a live stream or whatever, but we produce it like a television show in over four days.

And we're able to bring what happens behind the curtains of the SEMA show to this global audience.

And really what's going to happen with that is more people are going to be exposed to the stuff that happens behind the scenes

and be able to connect the dots and go, okay, I really need to be able to go from the UK or Germany or Japan or whatever it is.

And attend this show because this is where a lot of decisions are happening and it can affect my business.

And I can be one of the first ones in my country to bring new product that's never been seen before to my country.

And it starts this revolution. So we're definitely open to the whole globe.

And we're doing everything we can to show them what we're doing.

Yeah, that's amazing. They say an automotive technician should have at least 40 to 60 hours a year of training.

My crew, we send them. There's in cylinder waveforms that we have to understand so we can understand what a misfire is beyond just a spark plug.

Training is critical. And what I've liked, SEMA's learning tracks that include legislative and regulatory, sales and marketing, talent management.

There's a shortage of skilled trades folks across the board. I'm a business owner. I'm a small shop.

What can I take away from these learning tracks? Let's dive into the education side.

So the nice thing about it is we're going to help you with your business if you need that.

So from a marketing perspective or how to engage a content creator to be able to help your business or just some best practices within your vertical aspect of the industry like tooling or how you can do some of the service stuff on cars.

If you're in the collision space, we have a vertical for that that's hosted and run by the Society of Collision Repair Specialists, SCRS.

We've got a whole thing for tires done by the entire industry association. I cars doing something in the collision space as far as education goes as well.

So really when we look down to it, how can we help a small business? How can we help you in the vertical part of your business to be more successful?

And then we've got this whole show floor where you'll be able to see and talk to experts in really stakeholders that can help you be successful throughout the entire breadth and depth of your business as well.

Yeah, no, that's awesome. There's something for everybody at the Seema Show, which is November 4th to 7th. It's coming up. It's going to happen quick like SeemaShow.com. Explore. Check out what I always invite folks to do if you're just on the fence like, oh, it's another show and you're not too familiar or you've heard about Seema and you're like, oh, can't make it.

Many of you need to just calendar, take your whole company to the show. Many of us will plan that ahead of time where we can sort of lock it down. It's a great refresher. It's a great vibe to team culture out there. You're going to meet a lot of other industry types and you're going to really get all kinds of assimilation.

Because see we don't mess around. I mean, that Friday night gig with all the music happening and so on is incredible. You're showing up. You've planned it. You've planned it time. You've worked your team. Everybody's in place. It's the first morning ready to go sunrise. I could see you as I paint this scene. You're walking in slow mo with the sun coming up in cars starting. What's your favorite part of doing this all these years?

What really gets you cooking and branding and planning the scene events?

You hit the nail on the head to a certain extent because I do just that. I have this walk on day one where I see the show perfect.

My walk starts at six in the morning but the aisle carpet is down and all the freight is out and everybody's finished putting their booth together and the show's just perfect.

I've got this vision in my head as we're building it. It's not just me. There's a whole team around it but at the end of the day it needs to look and feel and act a certain way.

It's in my head and I'll walk through the show in a very calculated path and I'll look at the aisle carpet and I'll look at each hall and I go to registration and I go where the transportation zone is and make sure everybody's in place and it's working.

It's almost like if you're doing a build and you start the engine and it needs to sound a certain way.

For me it needs to look and smell and feel a certain way and we had a great story where I was walking through on that day one and there was a car parked in front of an emergency exit door.

What kind of car was this car just a delivery driver?

It was a show vehicle. It was a red camera but it was parked in a high visibility area but it was an exit door.

I knew that a fire marshal at some point would be like it just needs to move. So I was waiting there to have it towed so we could have it moved and I'm sitting there with a colleague of mine.

He points to his nose and I give him the thumbs up and we smelled something that didn't smell like the scene of the show because you've got burning rubber and you've got exhaust and you shut all these smells that are the automotive industry.

But this particular one wasn't and we're standing there waiting for this Camaro to resolve itself and what had happened was somebody had put a cigarette in the trash can.

We were outside but it was next to one of our outdoor booths and the trash can was just about to go off.

So we found it at the right time we were able to get it extinguished and everything was fine but it really hit home with me where that was the penultimate of it needs to look and feel and just be a certain way.

And if you plan it right you see the idiosyncrasies and you see the irregularity plane is day and you're able to fix that and put this product out to the world that meets and exceeds their expectations and lets you be around for 58 shows in a row.

And with you at the realm for many years everything is going to stick out it's like a mechanic that pulls up an idle at the traffic stop and they just smell some sweetness and say oh they got a water properly.

I mean you know you know when things are that little Camaro event could have could have turned out to be something because we don't think about like to put on an event with how many people would you say attend several hundred thousand hundred and 170 180 200 thousand.

I mean that 160 170 range.

You don't think about like we got to be safe in with with everything that's going on I imagine that's something that you have a very special team to make sure that everything is going to go.

And as folks enjoying that side of the production you don't think of it you know we really don't but that's that's integral I want to switch gears because you pay tribute to the history of this wonderful industry the automotive industry by way of the same a hall of fame.

You induct folks from history aftermarket pioneers and could you speak on that a little bit how important is to recognize the heritage and tradition of our industry as we move.

What would be a breakneck speed with technology and advancements how important is it for current car culture and the future of car culture to recognize history and the heritage of all of it.

Now it's interesting because our our association is really owned by the industry itself.

And we're one of the few shows like you'll go to some more profit events or one of the few shows that takes all of the proceeds and puts them back into the industry.

I don't know the piece nobody owns a piece right it all just goes back into helping the industry evolve and succeed.

And that really is our mission statement is to help our industry evolve and succeed.

So when you get down to it you have these volunteers that through the years have been instrumental of the growth and maturation of our marketplace.

There was a guy you know Ed Iskenderian as an example.

He was the first theme of president.

Wow Iskenderian.

Iskenderian.

He was in this room and he had to go to the bathroom so he stepped out of the room to go to the bathroom and he walked back in and they said you're the president.

He got he got volunteered into being president but he took his job serious and he helped us get through a lot of the legislation and regulatory stuff at the time.

And by 77 there was this guy named Leo Kagan.

And Leo Kagan decided to move the show from Anaheim to Las Vegas.

In the 1977 he didn't want your trade show to be in Las Vegas but he had this vision in the group of volunteers that were on the board at the time supported it and it wasn't until long ago where Leo was coming to the show we were sending people to escort him from his room at the adjacent hotel.

Which is now the west gate to his booth but he had such a huge factor on the growth of the show.

And the growth of the show is also indicative of the growth of the industry.

So you have these volunteers that just did this instrumental stuff.

So to be able to pay back a volunteer you can't double their salary or triple their salary because they're not getting paid.

So you've got to do it with recognition and I think they're very selfless.

They're not there for the recognition but when you can get together as an industry and note the accomplishments and the good work that they did.

It does have a payoff and we're excited to be able to do that every year.

This year we've got four new inductees into the Hall of Fame and we just had an event in July where we first introduced them.

But we're going to do something at the Fountain Blue Theater this year where we'll show some videos and they'll tell their story a little bit more in the entire industry we will be able to celebrate them.

So it is important because we're made up of volunteers that really are driven by nothing other than hoping our industry is able to prosper for decades to come.

Yeah and it's an important time. It's an honor to have you on. I'll be out there. I hope to run into you.

And Chichad, you're a very busy guy and we appreciate you hanging out with Reincarnation.

Tell the people. Give them the websites. Where do they go? They want to sign up now. They're hearing this right now.

So pretty much everything can originate from SeemaShow.com.

But you could also go to SeemaFest.com if you're interested in the Friday experience and the concert.

And Seema.org is where a lot of our membership and the legislative and regulatory work that we do, all of them sort of intertwined.

So if I was to pick one, it probably would be Seema.org, but again, SeemaShow.com and SeemaFest.com also get you there.

So we're excited to be able to just offer people an opportunity no matter what stage of the industry.

And whether you're a user or somebody that is an enthusiast or a manufacturer or buyer, whatever it is, we've got something for you.

It's going to happen in November from the 4th to the 7th. And we'll welcome you.

Tom Gattuso, Vice President, planning in the Seema for a long time.

Specialty Equipment Market Association. We appreciate all you do to bring such a great event in Vegas.

Thanks for joining our intonation.

Yeah, thanks, Frank. Thanks, Hayden.

Hayden, that's what you're excited about. Fuel Fest. You heard concerts. You heard all kinds of cards.

You heard the little motorcycle thingy going in the globe, which is pretty exciting.

Actually, that's going on since I've seen it when we were young PT Barnum Bailey.

You know, I've never actually been out to Seema but I've always wanted to go out there.

Let's plan it. I'd love to take it.

All right, so we'll just get up there on a weekend. We'll figure it out. We'll get Susie Sockets.

We didn't make it today on today's show. She busted a toe. We hope she gets better.

Catch the show. Spotify, iHeartRadio.

Of course, thank you all of my high-desert California people for listening.

We always appreciate you.

For intonation.tv and as I tell you every week, be safe.

Hug each other and never forget to hug a mechanic.

When we're falling.

We're falling.

Why you try, never find

For yourself, for yourself, for yourself

We do it for ourselves

And for everybody else

For yourself, for yourself, for yourself

For yourself, for yourself

We do it for ourselves

And for everybody else

#334 Behind the Curtain of the World’s Biggest Car Show: Tom Gattuso on the Magic of SEMA

Land Rover Range Rover

Toyota Gr86

Toyota Supra

Dodge Ram

Ford Bronco

Honda Civic

Chevrolet Chevelle

Hyundai i30

Chevrolet Camaro

About this episode

Original notes