by Matt Konkle
Torque Editor-in-Chief
LAS VEGAS — It rose out of the desert over the past few years with a metallic skeleton that gleamed and glinted into the surrounding air both from its silver finish, and from its sense of promise.
A promise to help house some of the biggest conventions the area has ever seen, with also a promise to do it as safely and smartly as possible.
And as the whole thing came together, and that skeleton turned into a full-blown mammoth of a building, the Las Vegas Convention Center’s $1-billion-dollar West complex now stands ready to welcome this year’s Specialty Equipment Market Association’s annual trade show.
For those not in the know, SEMA is a show that brings together many in the automotive industry, both manufacturers and buyers, to discover (among other things) the latest trends and products, as well as showing off countless vehicles stuffed full of those products so everyone in attendance can see how they look.
This time around, SEMA expects more than 1,300 exhibitors to display their wares and around 100,000 people to attend.
For years, SEMA has crammed its entire experience into three gigantic halls — South, Central and North. While those mostly did the job, there was always a hope for more room.
The convention center’s west hall now gives SEMA that extra space. It provides an additional 1.4 million square feet, including more than 600,000 feet of exhibit space that will house the off-road section of SEMA this year. It's lobby also features a massive, 10,000-square-foot state-of-the-art video wall designed by Samsung that is the largest digital screen in the United States convention industry.
In all, the West Hall's added space now gives the Las Vegas Convention Center (and SEMA) 3.2 million square feet of space to show off products. This makes Las Vegas the second-largest convention center in the country behind only Chicago.
Quadratec will be right in the center of that new West Hall all throughout SEMA week, as the company will be exhibiting products from its vast selection of house brands like Carnivore bumpers, Res-Q recovery equipment and Lynx wheels.
Additionally, Quadratec will officially Wednesday unveil its first-ever Jeep build, the YJL, which features many different throwback YJ designs along with more modern equipment.
And as always at SEMA, Quadratec is the place to bookmark to see what is going on every day of the show. After all, as an industry-only event, there really isn’t any other way to get inside and see any of the new products or show vehicles.
From the opening bell Tuesday morning inside the Las Vegas Convention Center, through the rest of the week, check out Quadratec’s social platforms — as well as Torque — each day for all the newest product information, builds, vehicles, booths, interviews and top takeaways from the show.
Additionally, for those into more of the overlanding scene, SEMA has moved its Overlanding Experience inside this year and expanded the available space for numerous exhibitors who will no doubt bring along the latest tents, recovery equipment and other tools all designed to make your next trip, your best trip.
Finally, besides Quadratec’s standard coverage, follow along each day with Torque’s special Postcards from SEMA page that will offer additional content about the city and show.
