LVCVA, Show Managers Heading to China

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 3/21/2005

The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority and the U.S. Commercial Service are organizing a second overseas trade mission for a handful of their show management clients. The two groups, which hosted a Sao Paulo, Brazil, trip in September, will take representatives from a dozen of the industry's largest exposition companies to Beijing and Shanghai, China, May 22–June 3.

The mission was created with the objective of attracting new international attendees and media attention to Las Vegas-based shows and, according to Jim Boney, sector manager for the USCS, "it makes good sense. They got a lot of play in Brazil."

Mission participants will again include representatives from the Consumer Electronics Assn., Natl. Assn. of Broadcasters, Reed Exhibitions, Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute, Specialty Equipment Marketing Assn. and CONEXPO-CON/AGG Show Management Services.

Management firms sending representatives for the first time include Advanstar Communications, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Assn. and VNU Expositions.

Feedback from Brazil mission participants led to adjustments in the mission's format, including visits to two cities instead of one and the decision to take two trips per year. Favored future destinations of the Sao Paulo participants included Eastern Europe and a second trip to Sao Paulo, with a side trip to Campinas, Brazil.

During their upcoming visit, the show management firms are expected to meet with Chinese business organizations, and officials from the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

The trips are smart business for all participants, said Chris Meyer, LVCVA's director of convention center sales. "I'm investing in the well-being of my clients. I couldn't think of anything better to do," he said.