SAE may change, but auto technology marches on

At the risk of sounding like one of those TV columnists/curmudgeons going on about the old days, remember when the Society of Automotive Engineers' annual World Congress in Detroit was a big deal?

Like, a really big deal? With product unveilings and lights and glitz and glamour that filled Detroit's Cobo Hall for a full week? Fifteen years ago, SAE was practically a mini-auto show.

By comparison, check out the chart from our sister publication Crain's Detroit Business listing 10 upcoming conventions in downtown Detroit. Scan all the way to the bottom, after the Baptists and the Lutherans and the Evangelicals.

Even after volleyball and something called the American Society of Association Executives. At 10^th place on the list and the smallest spending budget is SAE's annual event, set for April 14-26.

The anticipated spending, at $4.1 million, is still a healthy figure. And the papers presented during World Congress still typically cover some high profile problems and solutions.

This year's event is expected to draw 12,000 people to downtown Detroit, according to the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.

But in 2000, SAE World Congress had a record 49,200 attendees.

Soon after hitting that height, things began to change.

Top suppliers started pulling out. They were wary of showing breaking edge technology at an event where their top competitors could also get a look an up-close look.

Competitive automakers — who also wanted to guarantee they had the edge on new ideas — started bringing in suppliers to their own private technology shows. Without customers in the audience, Tier 1 firms downsized their stands, then stopped hosting their own booths altogether.

At first, the change didn't seem too major. After all, there were plenty of Tier 2 suppliers — once relegated to space in the basement — who were anxious to make it onto the main floor.  Soon, there was no need for basement booths because everyone who wanted to exhibit would fit onto the main floor. Then SAE took up the extra space with headline speakers in a technology theater in the middle of the exhibit floor, followed by a gradual downsizing in the amount of space it used on the main floor.

Of course all those changes don't mean that new technology is dead, of course. Just check out your satellite navigation system seamlessly integrated in your multi-layer, soft-touch TPO skin instrument panel while the sensors hidden under your bumper fascia continually scan your blind spots to make sure you don't end up in a fender bender if you don't believe me.

It's just that the new technology information and parts are delivered throughout the auto industry in a whole new way than it was back then. Back in the old days at the start of the 21^st Century.