Detroit auto show names new co-executive director ahead of January 2025 return

Detroit's auto show is transitioning back to its historic January timeframe next year with a new co-executive director, the Detroit Auto Dealers Association said Thursday.

Michigan native Sam Klemet will work with Rod Alberts, the executive director who's led the show for three decades, as organizers seek to redefine the event, something other national auto shows are doing as automakers cut back on expensive reveals and displays and increase virtual marketing campaigns for new products. Alberts, 67, who has led the show since 1990, will step aside after the January 2025 event.

Klemet, 39, who was previously at the Michigan Association of Broadcasters as president and CEO since 2021, will be challenged with ensuring the future of the Detroit show after leaders tried to transition away from the blustery month of January only to bring the event back to that timeframe. Even though the 2025 show may look different from the past years when a frenzy of international media descended on Detroit for vehicle reveals and executive access, organizers are optimistic about the event's appeal to consumers.

"It's going to be a different show really focused on the consumer and experiencing product and the new electric vehicles and mobility and technology," Alberts said.

But Klemet says the show can also attract journalists and industry analysts.

"We can reimagine what can be," he said. "There's obviously a blueprint and I think we use that and we use that as a foundation to grow and develop new opportunities for both media and unveils or highlighting technology, highlighting the brands, but also making it something where consumers can come and still sit in the vehicle."

Post-pandemic transition

Detroit's auto show last took place in January in 2019, when organizers decided to move it to warmer months.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic derailed those plans the next year. In 2021, the DADA opted for an outdoor "Motor Bella" event in Pontiac.

The show came back to Detroit in 2022 with new vehicle lineups on display, concept cars and rides on special tracks, including Bronco Mountain. President Joe Biden also made an appearance. But the return was unlike the massive media events of the past with most foreign automakers declining to participate and non-headline worthy reveals outside of Ford Motor Co.'s seventh-generation Mustang.

"2022 was, in my mind, a train wreck," said Karl Brauer, a long-time industry analyst currently working for iseecars.com. "It was a terrible show."

Brauer remembers the "weak" vehicle displays still being put together when he got there on media preview day and not having much news to write. Security for the presidential visit also made attending the show difficult. Brauer, who attended most of the shows from 2000 through the pandemic, didn't go back in September 2023 and doesn't plan to next year either.

"There's a way to make the show more energetic and more meaningful to modern media," he said.

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Sam Abuelsamid, principal e-mobility analyst for Guidehouse Inc., expects the show will go back to being a regional dealer show and consumer event, "which is fine."

"That's what auto shows have been for most of their history is an opportunity for consumers to go and take a look at vehicles from all the different brands," he said. 

The DADA is bringing the show back to January for several reasons. While the group moved the show in part to have more outdoor activations, it found it was competing against other events for consumer attention, including college football and back-to-school events.

Going back to January "does give people something to do in lousier weather," said Doug North, a show executive committee member and president and owner of North Brothers Ford in Westland. "We're really excited about Sam, about our show in January, and I think people are really going to be excited when they see it."

North described Klemet "as a dynamic, charismatic, terrific, young man who's really excited to be involved with not only our auto show, but with our dealer association."

Klemet wanted the job partly because he loves the Detroit community and knows what the show means to the city.

"To be able to be a part of that history and be part of the future, it's just an opportunity that I'm really excited for and hopefully I can give back to a city and a community that has given so much to me," he said.

Alberts: 'I love Detroit. I love the auto show.'

Alberts came to Detroit in 1990 to lead the show, a regional event at the time, into international success. Before he took the job, he had previous leadership positions with auto dealer associations in Arkansas and California.

When he got here, there were 5,000 people attending the show for the charity preview and the group raised about $300,000.

"Seven years later, we had $7 million coming in for charity preview and we had a waitlist of 5,000 people ... that's a reflection of the success of the media-driven frenzy that we had at that time," he said. "We became a show similar to Frankfurt ... building off that incrementally, it took a few years, but it grew faster than we anticipated."

DADA president Todd Szott, in a statement, applauded Alberts' work.

“We are grateful for Rod’s continued leadership in assisting with this transition and for his significant contributions over three decades," Szott said. “We are confident in our future direction with his support and collaboration with Sam.  And, we look forward to evolving our association and auto show as the winds of the industry continue to change in the years to come.” 

Jim Seavitt, owner of Village Ford in Dearborn and former executive committee member and chair of the show, helped hire Alberts, whose mission was to make it the international event it became and get more media to the Motor City for an auto event.

More product, introductions and concepts made it happen.

"We had 5,000 journalists at the top of our game in the '90s," Seavitt said, adding he credits Alberts with growing the show into what it became.

"I credit him and I credit the fact that he would handpick the board," he said. "He knew who the car guys were and who would be a plus to have on the board."

Going forward, Seavitt says the show has to "redefine" itself and become the best among Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

"We reload and do what we do best, which is make sure that Ford, GM and Chrysler (Stellantis) come with big stuff," Seavitt said.

Brauer remembers when the show was abuzz with days of news, fun reveals and times to engage with executives. Photographers and reporters would fight for the best seats at press conferences and rush up to get interviews with executives after.

"Whether it was minivans flying over the top of the stage on really expensive, elaborate pulley systems, or cattle drives down the street in front of the show, or Jeeps being driven through glass windows ... it was spectacle," he said. "It was the perfect atmosphere to break news, because it felt like a big deal."

Alberts "grew up with the show and it's a been a great run," he said. "We've been through a lot, recessions, pandemics, you name it, a lot of debuts at the show."

And now the time has come for a change, he added.

"It's time for youth, new vision, new ideas," he said.

But Alberts says he still "might be around beyond that time come next January if they need some help with the show. I'll always be here for it because I love Detroit and I love the auto show."

khall@detroitnews.com

@bykaleahall