AAPEX 2026: dinner, clients and the night after
November 3-5, 2026 · Venetian Expo · 50,000 attendees · Auto care and parts distribution
AAPEX 2026 runs November 3 to 5 at the Venetian Expo, with roughly 50,000 attendees from auto care and parts distribution, and it shares the week with SEMA at the convention center. Our Las Vegas team books the group dinners, the private dining rooms and the tables after your client dinners, and handles the cars between the halls and the restaurants.
A business-to-business week inside a much larger one
AAPEX is a buyer and distributor show, and it runs in the same three days as SEMA a couple of miles up the Strip. That combination is what makes the week difficult rather than either show on its own: two hundred and ten thousand people between them, in overlapping halls, with Halloween weekend running out the door into the Monday. The distributor dinners and supplier meetings that AAPEX actually runs on need rooms that seat a group and let people talk, and those are the first rooms in the neighbourhood to go.
Where to eat from the Venetian Expo
AAPEX sits inside the Venetian, which is the good news, because the shortest walk is also a genuinely strong list. Wakuda is inside the property. Across the street Wynn and Encore hold SW Steakhouse, Delilah and Mizumi, all of which handle a table of ten without it feeling like a compromise. For the supplier dinner that wants an old-Vegas room rather than a Strip one, Golden Steer is the off-Strip steakhouse that has been doing exactly that since 1958. If the meeting matters more than the scene, ask us for a private dining room rather than a table.
After the meetings
AAPEX is a business-to-business floor, which changes the shape of the evening. Fewer groups want a nightclub and more want somewhere a conversation can continue, which is why the room we recommend most that week is not the one with the biggest DJ. Pinky Ring at Bellagio and the Mayfair Supper Club sit in that register. If the group does want a proper night, Tao Nightclub is inside the Venetian and the shortest walk from the hall of anything worth being in, and Omnia at Caesars is the larger room mid-Strip.
Groups and buyouts
The most common AAPEX booking is a private dining room for a distributor or supplier dinner, somewhere between twenty and sixty people, with a hard start because everyone has a floor to work the next morning. We book those, and we handle the cars so the group arrives together rather than in six separate rides. Larger buildouts and full buyouts we will place with the right room, and the budget is the useful place to start.
Where we would book dinner
After the dinner meetings
Frequently asked questions
When and where is AAPEX 2026?
AAPEX 2026 runs November 3 to 5, 2026, at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas, with roughly 50,000 attendees. It runs the same week as the SEMA Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Where should we host a distributor dinner during AAPEX?
A private dining room is usually the right call rather than a table, because the dinner is a working one. Wakuda is inside the Venetian, SW Steakhouse and Delilah are across the street at Wynn, and Golden Steer off-Strip is the old-Vegas steakhouse that suits a supplier dinner well.
Is AAPEX the same week as SEMA?
Yes. AAPEX runs November 3 to 5 at the Venetian Expo and SEMA runs November 3 to 6 at the convention center, putting roughly 210,000 people in overlapping halls in the same week. Book earlier than you would for either show alone.
Can you handle transportation for a group during AAPEX?
Yes. We coordinate the cars between the Venetian Expo, the restaurant and the hotel as part of the same booking, which matters when a group has a hard dinner seating time and a floor to open in the morning.
Also that week
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