The Official SEMA Show Press Conference Schedule helps journalists and media attend the news events that are important to their readers. Whether it’s an OEM debut, a project-vehicle reveal or an award presentation, there is plenty happening during the week to cater to all audiences. The schedule will serve as a guideline for credentialed media, providing them with the dates, times, locations and details of all the exhibitors hosting press conferences.

The SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund awarded $160,000 to 60 individuals this year, including 53 SEMA scholarships to current students and seven loan forgiveness awards to employees of SEMA-member companies.

For attendees of the 2017 SEMA Show, preparation is already well underway. It’s now time for buyers to begin acquainting themselves with the online floorplan (www.SEMAShow.com/floorplan) and researching exhibitors. The best place to start is with the following listing of first-time exhibitors—more than 230 companies that are potential leads for new products and business opportunities.

The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit once again showcased a variety of new vehicles we’ll see coming down assembly lines in the next six to 12 months. And while there was a lot of chatter on future trends such as autonomous vehicles and ride sharing at this year’s show, it was the latest sheetmetal and a peek under the hood that everyone wanted to see and touch. With that, here’s what the aftermarket should expect and be gearing up for in the not-too-distant future.

In what has become an annual tradition, Omix-ADA recently unveiled a project Jeep built in support of SEMA Cares, the association’s program benefitting children’s charities. The debut took place at the recent 50th anniversary SEMA Show in Las Vegas. After its unveiling at SEMA Central, the vehicle served as a dramatic conversation piece, raising vital awareness for SEMA Cares charitable efforts within the automotive aftermarket.

More than 2,400 exhibitors from the 2016 SEMA Show voted to determine this year’s SEMA Award winners—a forward-looking honor that identifies the exhibitors’ choices about the hottest new and emerging vehicles and guides consumers toward the most accessory-friendly platforms on the market. For 2016, Ford and MOPAR were chosen as the two most popular OEMs, with Ford winning in three categories and MOPAR winning the remaining two.

The schedule of press conferences scheduled for the 2016 SEMA Show.

Before there was a SEMA Show, there was an association—a loosely knit group of speed-equipment manufacturers who came together with a common interest. It was the Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association’s shared obstacles to building their businesses that brought them together, and the foundation of the industry was born.

A major factor in the vitality and growth of the association was the advent of the annual SEMA Show. In 1965 and 1966, Noel Carpenter, publisher of Speed Equipment Directory, produced an industry-wide exposition that was initially promoted as a chance for the speed-equipment manufacturers to showcase new products. While the shows were not sponsored by SEMA, the association did receive a share of the profits from the 1966 gathering.

With more than 1 million sq. ft. of exhibit space in and around the Las Vegas Convention Center, the annual SEMA Show attracts 160,000 industry leaders from more than 100 countries. In 2015, the Show featured more than 2,400 exhibitors, including 400 first-timers. SEMA offers several tools—the Exhibitor Summit in particular—to help rookie exhibitors succeed.