SEMA360 コロナ2020の年: Lost in the virtual plaza

Neon Dreams, Limited

What happens when you attempt to bring the SEMA Show experience to a virtual plaza where you can\’t fully immerse yourself as you would in the desert sun over Sin City?

Everything gets lost in translation.

A big show like the SEMA Show isn\’t the same

For me, I want to be able to see all of the vendors in attendance, to see what wares they\’re offering up. I want to see the builds, to take as many photos as possible. Just give me a map, and the strength to walk through the whole floor.

The virtual plaza of SEMA360 left a lot to be desired. Generally speaking, the online space considerable shrinks the world around you, for better or for worse. The vastness of the SEMA Show, however, isn\’t something easily compressed, compared to the auction extravaganzas by Mecum or Barrett-Jackson.

Thus, if you were looking for a specific vendor or build at SEMA360, the search box was your only bet.

If it worked.

It didn\’t.

Not even CTRL+F could shorten the journey.

And what a journey, too. Away from the major players, whose product photos and colorful logos called out to all like the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip, smaller vendors were black text over a gray background.

Like a business directory of an office building, where all but the one suite you sought could be ignored, instead of the aisles of a supermarket, where anything can grab your eye as you wander through.

Speaking of being ignored…

Good morning, America

The SEMA Show is always held on the first week of November.

A week which happens to house Election Day.

One could say the big tent is an escape away from whatever comes from the most important day for all Americans. One could even say it\’s usually successful.

Alas, while SEMA360 rolled through the first week as if it were the big show, it only had one day to gather as many eyes and virtual footprints as possible:

The first day.

Once Election Day rolled up the next day, whatever was happening in the virtual plaza would be cast aside for the biggest show in the world, one that would not be over by midnight.

Or the following day.

Or the next week.

Who knew an automotive trade show would be overshadowed by a car guy with a \’67 Corvette convertible in the driveway, and one who pretended to be a car guy for two years in the late Eighties with two tacky Cadillac limos?