The L.A. Auto Show is shifting gears, adding a little glitz and a big dose of tech.

In an effort to make the show more exciting and contemporary, organizers will feature celebrity-owned cars at a new media event, the Motor Press Guild Motoring Invitational. The show will include wheels from celebrity collections, possibly including Jay Leno’s. Another new event, Connected Car Expo, is designed to highlight the new technology in today’s cars.

It’s the most significant set of changes to the show since 2006, when the date for the Convention Center’s auto extravaganza was accelerated to November, putting it ahead of a more influential exhibit in Detroit that sometimes stole the spotlight from Los Angeles.

It was time to bring the auto show up to date, said Lisa Kaz, chairwoman and president of the L.A. Auto Show, who was been with the event since 1987.

“Innovation is key,” Kaz said. “We’ve got to keep growing.”

Terri Toennies, general manager of the show, said she wants the show to stand out from those in other cities.

“Auto shows are very traditional, but now with all this innovation and change … we’re thinking a little bit more strategically because the innovation part is a major part of our world now,” she said.

The L.A. Auto Show will take up 760,000 square feet at the Los Angeles Convention Center beginning Nov. 19 for media and Nov. 22 for the public. Forty-five auto brands are coming to give consumers and the press an opportunity for early looks at the 2014 models.

“For manufactures, the goal is really two-fold: to get media coverage for the brand and get in front of shoppers,” said Brendan Flynn, senior director of marketing and communications for the show. “It’s really two shows in one.”

Toennies was brought on in February. She has organized large-scale events for venues such as the House of Blues in Las Vegas and New Orleans. Prior to joining the auto show, she served as the president, chief executive and general manager of Oncenter, which houses a convention center, theater, arena and exhibit space in Syracuse, N.Y.

“We didn’t need yet another auto or tradeshow person,” Kaz said. “We needed someone different to bring complementary skill sets.”

Toennies said she wants to highlight the glamour and fun of Los Angeles.

“I really like the idea of building the culture of L.A. into the show a little bit more,” she said.

That begins with the Motor Press Invitational, a two-hour classic car show on Nov. 20 that will replace a traditional keynote speaker as the kickoff of the auto show’s media presentation. Organizers are also bringing in food trucks and live bands.

The new tech features will be on view at the Connected Car Expo, a one-day conference followed by a three-day expo. This auxiliary event is designed to bring together technology and automotive companies to offer an exploration of new car technologies featuring speakers such as Ron Medford, safety director for the self-driving car program at Google Inc. It will also include a “fast pitch” competition for entrepreneurs who want to promote their auto-tech ideas, judged by Robert Herjavec of the ABC show “Shark Tank.”

Really big show

Launched in 1907, the auto show has evolved into one of the largest, alongside Detroit’s North American International Auto Show and the New York International Auto Show. The L.A. show used to coincide with the show in Detroit. That scheduling meant fewer car debuts along with less media coverage.

The show rents the Convention Center, while manufacturers rent space on the tradeshow floor and also cover the cost of their exhibits, including lighting, production and displays. Tickets are $14 for adults and $7 for kids.

There will be 50 vehicle debuts this year, at least nine of which will be world premieres from manufacturers such as Mini and Porsche. The latter will unveil its new Macan crossover. The German manufacturer chose the Los Angeles show over this month’s Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany for the vehicle’s global launch.

Flynn credits this move to the growing significance of the L.A. Auto Show as an international trade show and Los Angeles’ car culture. He said prior to the date change attendance from media and the automotive industry was about 4,000, but is now about 12,000 with media from 50 different countries.

The new show dates may have boosted industry attendance but public attendance tapered off. Before 2006, an estimated 900,000 visitors toured the show; last year about 865,000 attended.

Flynn said he expects attendance to top 900,000 and best last year’s number by at least 15 percent.

Bud Ovrom, executive director of the L.A. Convention Center said it’s a main event at the center.

“From a big-picture perspective, it is one of the biggest events we have,” he said. “And we consider this one of our most important events.”