NADA 2026 is done and we are back home with tired feet, full notebooks, and a lot to reflect on. As our first ever trade show as an exhibiting company, it was quite the baptism of fire — and we would not have had it any other way.
Here is our honest account of the week.
The show floor
We were in the North Hall at booth 7846N across four days of the show. NADA is a vast event and different halls have different energy depending on the day and the crowd — what struck us most was the quality of the people who found their way to us.
Several visitors came to our booth having already put Auto Lot Impact on their list of vendors to see before the show even opened. For a company at our stage, that was a genuinely exciting moment. It told us that the work we had been doing to build awareness in the industry was landing.
The conversations at the booth were substantive. Dealers asked sharp questions, wanted to understand the detail of how the platform works, and took the time to engage properly. There were no half-hearted conversations. Everyone who stopped by was there because they wanted to be.
We also confirmed something we had suspected but wanted to verify in person: nobody else at NADA was doing what we do. We spoke with other exhibitors and walked the floor looking for direct competition. The gap in the market that Auto Lot Impact was built to fill is real, and NADA made that clearer than ever.
Katie Mares and our ladies-only cocktail party
The highlight of the week away from the booth was an event we hosted at the Palms Penthouse Suite — a ladies-only cocktail party with Katie Mares to celebrate the launch of her new book, 5 Steps to a 5 Star Experience.
If you are not familiar with Katie, she is a TED Talk speaker, bestselling author, and one of the most respected voices in automotive customer experience. Her work focuses on the female consumer — a segment the automotive industry consistently underserves despite the fact that women influence 86% of car buying decisions and out-purchase men in new vehicles. Her book CustomHER Experience was already a bestseller before 5 Steps to a 5 Star Experience arrived in November 2025.
The event brought together women from across the automotive industry for an evening that felt genuinely different from the typical NADA party circuit. Katie was generous with her time, the conversations were real, and the feedback we received about the event was overwhelmingly positive. It was exactly the kind of thing we want to be known for — bringing people together around ideas that matter, not just putting our logo on a cocktail napkin.
Conversations that will shape our roadmap
Some of the most useful time at NADA was spent in conversations with other technology companies on the show floor. We had productive discussions with FourEyes and Clarivoy about sales attribution — specifically how to better connect the social media activity Auto Lot Impact drives to actual vehicle sales. Understanding which posts contribute to which sales is something our dealer customers care deeply about, and these conversations helped us think more clearly about how to approach that problem.
What we are taking away
First shows are never perfect. You learn what works, what does not, and what you would do differently. We learned a great deal.
What we know for certain is that the problem Auto Lot Impact solves is real, the market for it is large, and the industry is ready for it. Walking away from our first NADA with strong contacts, new customers, and a clearer picture of where the product needs to go next is a result we are proud of.
We are already looking forward to the next one.
If you missed us at NADA and want to see the platform in action, we are scheduling demos now.
[Request a demo] and let's show you what Auto Lot Impact can do for your dealership.