Vegas Big Draw for NHS Exhibitors

In first year after move, the Natl. Hardware Show features 2,300 exhibitors

By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 5/24/2004

LAS VEGAS—Reed Exhibitions has not released preliminary attendance figures for its Natl. Hardware Show, but it appears that it's outdone industry competitor American Hardware Manufacturers Assn, and exhibitor accounts seem to confirm as much.

The Natl. Hardware Show ran May 10-12 at the Sands Expo & Convention Center. It was the first version of the show Reed produced in Las Vegas after parting with its flagship sponsor, the AHMA, early last year.

The AHMA, which filed a lawsuit in federal court against Reed claiming breach of contract and unfair competition, decided to stay in Chicago and launch its own event, the AHMA Hardware Show. The association's somewhat lackluster debut reportedly drew 700 exhibitors and 15,000 to 20,000 attendees to 200,000 net square feet of exhibits at Chicago's McCormick Place April 18-20.

Final attendance data was not available at press time.

Reed, meanwhile, claimed that its Natl. Hardware Show featured 2,303 exhibitors filling 489,023 net sq. ft. of the Sands. Aisles were crowded and exhibitors seemed pleased with the turnout. "We've had excellent traffic today," said Ian Warner, sales manager for Shoreline Electronics. "This is such an improvement over last year (2003 Natl. Hardware Show) in Chicago."

Kenneth Linde, vice president of marketing for Nikota USA Group, one of the largest exhibitors in the show's hardware section, said the show was "phenomenal." The three-year-old company, which attended but didn't exhibit in the AHMA show in Chicago, purports to be growing its sales by 15 percent per month and wanted to be in the place where it could gain the most exposure to new potential clients. Las Vegas was that place, according to Linde.

"We've already signed up to do this show again next year," he said.

Several exhibitors admitted the heavy traffic was due in part to high vendor attendance. Chris Brunt, of first-time exhibitor Longlite, said he had spoken mainly with other exhibitors on Tuesday. But the public relations opportunity the show offered – a main exhibiting goal for upstarts like Longlite – more than made up for that. "Fox News came and did a spot on us," Brunt said.

Cosco's Bud Burkett, director of advertising and marketing communications for the home and office products company, said he was the first exhibitor to sign up for the Las Vegas show, and didn't regret it. "Our president challenged us to pick the right show, because we didn't want to do both AHMA and this one," he explained, adding that he was relieved to have made the right decision.

"I'm really sad the two parted," Burkett added. "I hope the association will come back to this show."