Godfather of Detroit Auto Show taps former journalist as successor
What to expect during the 10-day event in January
Sam Klemet doesn’t believe in looking over his shoulder.
The future is now in Detroit.
The Motor City believes in cars and trucks and the people who build them.
So while the Geneva and Frankfurt, Germany, auto shows have ceased to exist, the Detroit Auto Show has returned to its beloved January slot with bold plans that build on past successes while forging new traditions.
This is about harnessing the intense energy in Detroit and passion for all it represents — grit, stamina and resurrection.
A Detroit Auto Show will spotlight not just new cars — more than 30 brands including an estimated $10 million in ultra-luxury vehicles — but also downtown bars and restaurants and sporting events and history and cultural institutions.
“People want to say that the auto show isn’t what it used to be. But the world isn’t what it used to be,” said Klemet, co-executive director of the Detroit Auto Show and the Detroit Auto Dealers Association. “There’s this thought that auto shows are really struggling. But I see this as an evolution. I love this city. This will be a stage for the city to show itself off.”
Klemet, 40, of Royal Oak, Michigan, has been tapped to succeed Rod Alberts in carrying on an event that has helped welcome the new year for generations of Detroiters. Now is a time to embrace that nostalgia and, in some ways, redefine it.
“We want something for everyone but maybe not everything for everyone,” Klemet told me. “Whether it’s a young family or a single guy, this will be a place to go to spend the afternoon and check out cool cars, engage with music and art.”
Trucks and Football
Oh and, without revealing details just yet, the record-smashing Detroit Lions football team will have a role.
“There’s going to be a strong presence of the Lions at the show,” Klemet said. “Whether it’s a rally or a tailgate, there’s just an energy that can be stoked. Anything that gets more people excited to come downtown, even just to be around other Lions fans, can you imagine just seeing Lions jerseys all around you at the show?”
Talks continue. Details are unfolding. The Detroit Lions are expected to be in the playoffs with hopes of the making the Super Bowl. The Lions, founded in 1930, have never appeared in a Super Bowl.
Taylor Decker, Detroit Lions offensive tackle #68, has already been featured in a promotion for the Detroit Auto Show’s new campaign “My Drive. My City. My Show.” with his vintage Ford Bronco.
10 days (and MLK holiday)
Bottom line: All eyes are on Detroit.
And Klemet knows it.
The city saw a $213.6 million economic impact of the NFL draft on Detroit in 2024. Now is an opportunity to build on that success, Klemet said. Plus, the show will run through Martin Luther King Jr. Day, making the event 10 days long.
Klemet is planning collaborations that will inspire conversations with young people and visionaries from groups including the Divine Nine, historically Black sororities and fraternities. Their influential alumni will play important roles in the event, in addition to student performances and a panel discussion led by community leaders. Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield and State Rep. Joe Tate, both candidates for mayor, plan to attend.
“It’s natural to do some special programming,” Klemet said. “We’ll also be hosting a week-long clothing drive. We talked to Detroit Public Schools about what is needed — new, coats and mittens and hats and scarves for students kindergarten through 12th grade. Then on that Driven by Service Day (Saturday, January 18) we’ll pack it up to give to DPS to give to the kids. Cars and car culture will always be front and center for us. But we’re asking, ‘How can we lift up other groups?’”
Bins will be placed throughout Huntington Place, formerly Cobo Center, which was the site of the first time Dr. King delivered his historic “I Have a Dream Speech” in 1963.
Bronco, Jeep adventures plus track action
Yet the Detroit Auto Show is, most importantly, about driving.
Experience is everything, Klemet said.
This year, visitors will have the opportunity to get into vehicles and see how they ride.
“This is not just about opening the car door and looking inside and smelling the leather,” Klemet said. “We have four tracks at our show … Ford is bringing Bronco Mountain and Jeep is bringing Camp Jeep, too. We want people to get into the vehicles and sense what it’s like to ride.”
Professionals will be in the driver’s seats for all track events, including a Detroit Grand Prix track and an electric vehicle track. A special Racing Day with race car drivers, presented by the Detroit Grand Prix, will be happening on Friday, Jan. 17.
Concept cars and big product reveals no longer shape the event. The name has been changed from the North American International Detroit Auto Show back to simply the Detroit Auto Show.
“We’re filling 700,000 square feet at Huntington Place, and plan to do a really good job engaging with a new generation,” Klemet said. “I’ve been to the LA show, the New York show, the Paris show. I worked for a company that did CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Vegas. There has to be an energy, a feeling that this is something for me. We’re definitely trying some things.”
A former broadcast journalist takes the helm
Klemet, who takes over the role as executive director of the Detroit Auto Show from longtime godfather of the show Rod Alberts at the conclusion of this one, has been an understudy since joining the team in May.
A former radio broadcast journalist in Indiana, Klemet is past president of the Michigan Association of Broadcasters. He established a reputation for creativity and vision, having established a broadcast academy that took the career fair out of the traditional hotel or convention center setting and relocated it to Ford Field.
“As a journalist, I went to my fair share of career fairs. I didn’t leave inspired,” Klemet said. “We’re trying to sell an industry that’s fun and exciting … I said I wanted to switch up how to do do career fairs.”
The revamped approached increased attendance from 250 to 600 people, then 900 and then 1,100, Klemet said. He worked to help applicants get resume reels with Ford Field as a backdrop. They hosted sessions about writing, offered engineering sessions, sales, production.
“I wanted to give the whole ecosystem of what’s available, shake it up a little bit,” Klemet said. “Now Wisconsin broadcasters are hosting theirs at Lambeau Field. To see that grow across the country is really exciting. We wanted to put together a multi-faceted campaign. We broke it down to 15 or 16 careers in the industry — and talked about things like what credentials you’d need ...”
“I don’t come from the auto space,” he said. “My grandfather, Roy Klemet, worked for General Motors. He was a white collar worker. He was a father of 10, Catholic. He was just a grinder. He knew what hard work meant. The auto industry was good to him.”
Auto show godfather Rod Alberts retiring
Alberts, 68, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, is passing the baton to Klemet after running the Detroit Auto Show 34 years.
“I was brought in to grow the show,” he told me. “If you’re anywhere long enough, and 34 years is a long time, you’ have many ebbs and flows, and ups and downs, as the economy and the industry change. When we started, we raised $100,000 for charity. The 1990s were good for the economy and the auto industry, and we grew to a $7 million charity event. It was a little bit amazing what took place at that time. You knew things had to change.
“The economy had challenging times around 2009 or so. We went through it all … Things have changed and the industry has changed and I knew it was time for a change in my position. We needed somebody with a fresh approach and new ideas … to carry the ball into the next decade or two.”
Charity preview events have raised more than $120 million over the past 25 years, benefiting children’s charities in southeast Michigan.
The key to success is growing incrementally and steadily and offering a clear vision, Alberts said. “You need to be patient but be assertive. Take calculated risks, so you’re staying ahead of the game and leading the charge and not waiting for others to do something to follow. It’s a fine line. I’ve made a few mistakes. If you try to stay ahead and be a leader, you’ll see results.”
Detroit and its auto dealers know what it’s like to feel pain and work through it, he said.
“You have something happen to you and it knocks you down. If you get knocked down seven times, you get up eight times,” Alberts said. “That’s the way life goes.”
These are the words of a man who doesn’t give up easily on anything. He competed in the 2022 World Armwrestling Federation World Championships in Antalya, Turkey and the 2024 International Federation of Armwrestling World Championships in Loutraki, Greece.
‘You got to do what you got to do’
Alberts, a Jefferson City, Missouri, native, ran the Little Rock auto show (“the smallest show in the country” that doesn’t exist anymore). Back in the day, Alberts did everything, which included putting down carpet. (“You got to do what you got to do,” he said.) He managed the auto show in Orange County, Calif., too, before creating the behemoth in Detroit.
“I’ve put my heart and soul into it,” Alberts said. I’ve loved the show and Detroit. I was concerned about somebody coming in after I’ve been here so long. I’ve got my way and culture I built. We needed someone to come in and make change boldly … We found Sam Klemet. He’s got the personality and the desire and hunger to do all the things. He’s taking it on with everything he’s got. And he’s got vision.”
Lessons learned
Looking back, there are two big lessons learned over the years, Alberts said.
Trying things, even if they don’t succeed, can be positive.
Specifically, auto show organizers bent to pressure to move the event from January to the fall. It didn’t have appeal that some predicted warmer weather would offer. Alberts said there’s too much to do in Michigan during that pretty time of year, too much competition. January is a time of year when families area desperately looking for things to do when they have cabin fever.
Super luxury brands such as Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, Maserati, McLaren, Morgan, Porsche and Rolls-Royce opted out of the auto show for a period of time, saying a general consumer audience lacked appeal. So organizers took the collection off site to the MGM casino and created a special gallery event for high rollers. That event was so successful that couples flew in from around the country to gamble, spent a few nights and buy the big ticket vehicles.
One visitor from Florida walked his wife into the event, wished her happy anniversary and announced the $250,000 car was hers, Alberts recalled. The gallery event returns this year with 40 to 50 vehicles will be on display in a special high-security location within Huntington Place. “It’s eye candy that everyone wants to have a picture with,” Alberts said.
Tesla declined to participate this year.
“I’m not saying we won’t miss a few but you’ll be able to find 95% of the cars you’re looking for in one place,” Alberts said. “While many shows have changed, this is part of who we are. I’m excited about where we’re headed. And January has some magic.”
Inspiration and money
What the auto show does now is start consumer discussions and inspire online research, said Chad Wilson, general manager of Wilson Ford Lincoln in Saginaw, Michigan, and Midland Ford Lincoln. “There’s so much cool technology for people to see. And, of course, the off-road technology is cool. Everybody who goes back and forth to Meijer (grocery) think they need a car that goes off road. That’s our adventure spirits and maybe one day we’ll go camping.”
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said the importance of the Detroit Auto Show can’t be overestimated.
The September event in 2022 generated a $100 million economic impact, less than previous years.
“Having the auto show back at the same time as our newest January tradition — Lions playoff games — is going to be fantastic for our city and for our businesses,” he told me. “Hundreds of thousands of people will have a chance to feel the energy and excitement across our city right now. You can’t put a price on what the auto show means to Detroit, and its image around the world. And that’s only going to grow as we continue to become a major center of new mobility innovation.”
Dates, ticket cost
The public event at Huntington Place runs from Saturday, Jan. 11 through Monday, Jan. 20. The annual charity fundraiser will be Friday, Jan. 10 at a cost of $400 per ticket or $700 a pair. General admission tickets cost $20 for adults, $12 for seniors and $10 for kids. Military veterans with identification may attend the show at no cost.
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Great article. Congratulations to Detroit, the auto industry, and your LIONS.
Loved your rebranding of the name, "Detroit Auto Show"
I am so happy for your brilliant revitalization.
I liked the two Lessons Learned
I loved having your black sororities participate in key note positions. Remember to include, and publicize key note positions for Asians, Hispanics, Indians (Western and Eastern), and Caucasians. We all love cars, Detroit, excellence, fun, and I love the Lions.
Thanks for another great article.
Great memories of attending the Detroit Auto show for a dozen years straight. Remembering when the Chinese built cars were out of the way, in the “basement” of COBO Hall, and at that time the fit and finish was terrible. Each and every year you could see the improvements in their vehicles proving that workers are the same all over but the company and corporate cultures are what makes the difference.
Thanks for the great article, hopefully new generations will be inspired by the vehicles on display.