Sema Newsletter about Consumer ATTENDEES

[ProdigyCustoms]

I talked to SEMA today with some other questions on moving in the car and such. i asked about late regestration on site. They pretty much said expect the rubber glove if you have never been before. Apparently most retail people coome from driving distances, and make last minute decisions to come, and do not pre regester. So that seems to be a red flag.



I did hear that this year a "copy" of a occupational license will not work. One should expect to have a original with them complete with water mark. Also heard a buisness card will not be enough. but take all that with a grain of salt. This came from someone responsible for moving in, they may know less then us.

But considering how easy it is to fake business card and "copies" of documents, it made sense.

[nancejd]

I would think it would be in SEMA's best interest to be very clear about the documentation required. Nothing is going to get them sued like sending people credentials and then denying them entry at he door. By sending you credentails they are basically inviting you to their show, and imagine paying for airfare, hotel, and car, not to mention the potential business loss of being gone for four days, and then having them say, "oops, you didn't bring the secret decoder ring, sorry we can't let you in." They can use the badge holder distribution to ensure that the person attending matches the credentials, but that's all they can do on site. As for original documents, how could you bring your original business license with you, most states require that it be posted in your store whenever you are open for business? They will never be able to keep the retail public out 100%, all they can do is make it difficult enough that it keeps the croud down and limits entry to enthusiast that are inventive enough to produce whatever they need to get in to the show. I'm sure in the end even SEMA recognizes that a certain amount of enthusiast participation is a good thing, think of all of the advertising that manufacturers get from word of mouth from participants, especially with the prevalence of internet forums. The thing they need to figure out is how to get that participation level to the right amount.