Expanded TSW Exhibit Hall Directory Available
By Janeen Christoff -- Tradeshow Week, 9/6/2004
The gap between exhibition space supply and tradeshow demand may be coming to a close. The rapid growth of convention centers over the last few years seems to have come to a halt just as tradeshow net square footage has ceased its downward slide.
Details on this and other facets of the convention center industry can be found in the just-released 27th annual edition of the Tradeshow Week Major Exhibit Hall Directory.
This year's expanded directory includes details on 672 facilities, 434 in a North American section covering the United States, Canada and Mexico. A new international section of the MEHD this year covers exhibit halls in other parts of the world, adding 238 facilities in 50 countries. It includes analysis of international facilities and highlights some of the largest convention centers and expansion projects around the world.
Of the facilities surveyed in the international section, the region with the largest and the most facilities is Europe, the traditional heartland of the tradeshow industry. Meanwhile, Asia has 1.3 million square meters (14 million square feet) of exhibit space, making it the third-largest region in the world, behind North America and Europe, in terms of available exhibit space. Germany boasts the largest tradeshow facility in the world: Messegelande Hannover, with 496,000 square meters (5.3 million sq. ft.). In terms of exhibit space by country, Germany, with 2.6 million square meters (28 million sq. ft.), is second only to the United States.
Although exhibit hall expansion is slowing in the United States, the space race continues abroad. Asia, Europe and Australia together will add 12 new facilities totaling more than 754,242 square meters (8.1 million sq. ft.) by 2008, and 41 facilities around the world will add more than 393,078 square meters (4.2 million sq. ft.) of exhibit space to existing facilities.
The case is quite the contrary for the foreseeable future in North America. Still, the last year brought the opening of eight new facilities, the largest being the long-awaited Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. From August 2003 to July 2004, nine facilities completed expansions that added 1.5 million sq. ft. of exhibit space, and seven facilities unveiled newly renovated exhibit space.
Several new facilities are planning their debuts in the next year, while 13 venues will complete expansions. The most significant project completion is likely to be Denver's new Colorado Convention Center, which will nearly double its exhibit space to 584,000 sq. ft. by the end of this year.
Although some show managers still struggle to find enough space for their shows in certain cities, facilities have fewer plans to add space and there are even fewer plans for new facilities. Financing problems led the developer of the Osceola County Convention Center in Florida to put the project on hold indefinitely. Preparations for a new convention center in Las Cruces, N.M., have stalled and a new Branson (Mo.) Regional Convention Center has been pushed back two years. Although the industry will not see a drop-off in exhibit space in the short term, plans for the future indicate a slowdown as the industry works to absorb existing space.
