Sam Krahn 
The 2020 SEMA Show is going against the grain of other auto shows and events this year, and hasn’t been canceled. At least, not yet. In fact, they’ve just released their safety guidelines for the 2020 show, signaling they are going to do everything they can to have the show go on as planned. Here’s how the show will run in the current situation. From SEMA:
- Require use of face masks or face shields, frequent hand washing and social distancing.
- Designate entrance and exit areas to control and screen visitors with discrete daily health queries, incorporating non-invasive thermal cameras, etc.
- Traffic flow with one-way aisles where possible.
- Hand sanitizing stations throughout the Show, every 200 feet.
- Enhance physical cleaning with hourly sanitizing of high-traffic areas throughout the Show floor and common areas, including doorways, elevators and escalators.
- Collaborate with Las Vegas Convention Center in their advancements to be among the first in the nation to pursue certification for safety measures aimed at outbreak prevention through actions, such as sanitizing the facility nightly.
While all of these measures are what fairly standard for what you’d expect organizers of a massive event to do, it’s good to see SEMA pulling out all of the precautions to protect vendors and spectators. But even with the guidelines, it’s not immediately clear how they will enforce them.
The biggest issues we see are promoting distancing and one way pedestrian traffic flow. If years past are anything to go by, the 2020 SEMA show should draw upwards of 150,000 people to Las Vegas. It’s hard to control where people walk in a grocery store, let alone somewhere as massive as the Las Vegas Convention Center, and especially with that many people.
But SEMA, on the other hand, is massively important to the aftermarket industry. For many of the vendors and companies attending, it’s their lifeline; their way to get the exposure they need to survive in a crowded aftermarket scene.
It’s also worth noting that all of this could change, for better or worse, as the pandemic plays out the rest of the summer. Watch this space for any additional updates as they come.
