With the sluggish Las Vegas convention industry and the sputtering automotive industry, local tourism leaders were asking an important question last week: Just how good would this year’s Specialty Equipment Market Association show be for business?

The association has been a Las Vegas convention mainstay since the 1970s and one of a trio of car-product shows known as Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week (Nov. 3-7). Two of the shows are affiliated — Specialty Equipment Market Association, conducted at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and the Automotive Aftermarket Products Exhibition at the Sands Expo & Convention Center.

The shows focus on products put on a car after it leaves the showroom. Although the auto industry doesn’t participate directly with things such as introducing car models, it supports the $31.8 billion aftermarket industry with sponsorships and by providing vehicles to show off the products.

Struggling Ford Motor Co. was the official vehicle manufacturer of the 2009 specialty equipment show and its vehicles were scattered about the trade-show floor.

A third show, NACE, a no longer meaningful abbreviation for the International Autobody Congress and Exposition (it used to be “national”), has been the smallest of the shows, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

After industry officials worked to locate the three shows in Las Vegas in the same time frame, relations among them cooled. Last week, NACE officials allowed the other delegates to attend their trade show, but the other groups didn’t reciprocate.

So how well did the shows do? Sources indicate that more than 115,000 people were in Las Vegas for the three shows, 12 percent below last year’s reported attendance. Although the double-digit percentage decline reflected what the recession has done to Southern Nevada’s economy, it wasn’t as bad as the 25 percent attendance drop in overall convention attendance so far this year.

Peter MacGillivray, vice president of communications and events of the specialty equipment association, said his group saw the same attendance patterns that other conventions have seen: Some of the steady exhibitors decided to sit out this year’s show to save money, and those that did send delegations sent fewer people.

The show had 1,750 exhibitors, well below the 2,000 it is accustomed to having. About 1,500 products were introduced at the event.

MacGillivray, a glass-is-half-full kind of guy, said quality, not quantity, is more important to the show’s producers, and organizers were happy with the advanced registration statistics for the event, which featured 1 million square feet of exhibits and delegates from more than 100 countries.

Show producers have tried new strategies to assure success this year.

Organizers have been working for months to negotiate hotel rates to assure a good turnout, and MacGillivray said the association has met with 40 hotels to establish rates.

It also bargained for discount rates for the Las Vegas Monorail.

For the first time, the organization negotiated convention airfares with Continental Airlines and JetBlue Airways for travel to and from Las Vegas, he said.

The show, normally closed to the public, gave 300 car fans an opportunity to attend by competing to be an industry “opinion leader” who would attend and provide feedback.

MacGillivray said that unlike some major conventions that have considered moving to other cities because the rates charged by local resorts have gotten too high the specialty equipment association is happy with Las Vegas and plans to stay here.

Although the two bigger shows had the numbers, NACE had the high-profile speaker. But the question was what would US Airways Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot of January’s “Miracle on the Hudson” flight, tell a group of auto repair professionals?

Sullenberger’s hourlong presentation was filled with anecdotes and details about his harrowing 208-second ordeal that transformed him from a normal guy to a national hero. His message was everyone needs to be prepared for the day they are thrust into extraordinary circumstances. That, he said, comes with training to become the best you can be.

“Cultivating seemingly ordinary virtues can prepare you for extraordinary acts,” Sullenberger told the packed hall. “I was an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances. But I was prepared.”

He logged 20,000 hours of flight time and continues training and avoiding complacency because “I’ll never know when I might face some challenge.”

His biggest challenge came Jan. 15 when he was the pilot on US Airways Flight 1549 from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, N.C., and on the climb out of New York, the Airbus A320 twin-engine jet struck a flock of geese.

The jet lost power, leaving the flight crew few options. Sullenberger decided to land the plane in the Hudson River, where the 155 passengers and crew were safely evacuated.

Sullenberger said he was comforted by the businesslike approach that he and his first officer, Jeff Skiles, whom he had only met two days earlier, took in handling the emergency landing.

“A leader has to take responsibility for everything,” Sullenberger said. “You won’t hear a pilot say, ‘It’s not my job. It wasn’t my fault. It’s not my responsibility.’ And you must show realistic optimism, and the operative term is ‘realistic.’ It’s not about wishful thinking and all of that comes though preparation.

“When you’re part of a well-trained team, the chances of success are immeasurably better that you’ll get through it.”