LAS VEGAS – October 7, 2025 – AAPEX isn’t just a trade show; it’s a mirror image of the automotive aftermarket. This year, attendees are likely to notice “a different reflection.”

That’s according to reporting by Jason Morgan, who is the director of content at Babcox Media. He interviewed Auto Care Association CEO Bill Hanvey and MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers President Paul McCarthy to write the cover story for Aftermarket News in September 2025.

Why will the reflection be different this year?

“For the first time in decades, the show floor is segmented by product and service category—a change that Hanvey called ‘the biggest change to AAPEX since we moved to Vegas from Chicago 40 years ago.’”

Reorganizing the show floor in this way was a multi-year process and based on both qualitative and quantitative research. Most importantly, these changes are, “about ROI for buyers and exhibitors alike.” 

Read the full article here: AAPEX 2025 is the Aftermarket’s Homecoming

AAPEX networking as currency

In a separate and supplementary article, AMN describes the networking that AAPEX facilitates as currency.

“If products and training are the backbone of AAPEX, relationships are its lifeblood. Both Bill Hanvey, president and CEO of the Auto Care Association, and Paul McCarthy, president of MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers, keep returning to the same theme: the aftermarket is a relationship industry, and AAPEX is where those bonds are built.”

To help facilitate relationship building, the show has announced several “formal and informal networking” events this year. These include a variety of networking opportunities such as the Free Buyers Lunch, the Keynote Breakfast with Wayne Gretzky, Beers and Gears (formerly Service and Repair Reception), and the all-new Daily Booth Crawls that will traverse the show floor to explore exhibitor booths.

A list of these networking events can be found here. 

“There’s all these things at AAPEX—there’s the business meetings, there’s the booths—but in the end, so much of it’s about connections and relationships because that is what we draw on to be able to solve our problems, to grow our industry,” said McCarthy in the article. 

“You need some of that bank account of goodwill when you’re going to sit and talk about tough things like tariffs and where do we source and how do we get into this new market.”

Read the supplemental story here: AAPEX Networking Serves as the Industry’s Currency 

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Credentialed media are eligible to receive complimentary passes to AAPEX 2025, which is being held in Las Vegas from November 4-6, 2025. If you are new to AAPEX, start here; if you’ve received a media pass in the past, you can renew here. Questions? Send them to [email protected].

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