Las Vegas, Tradeshows Share a Few Things

Michael Hughes -- Tradeshow Week, 5/16/2005

Las Vegas and tradeshows have many things in common. Both the city and the tradeshow industry grew quickly in the 1980s and 1990s, and a good portion of the city's still-rapid expansion is due to the growth in convention and event bookings.

Among the reasons most often cited for the recent success of Las Vegas as an event city are:

• the sheer amount of exhibit and meeting space available,
• the city's more than 131,000 hotel rooms,
• convenient airline access,
• desert climate,
• and entertainment amenities.

But there's more to the city's success with conventions and tradeshows than those clearly important factors, and it isn't just because attendees and exhibitors believe it's a fun place to hold a show.

Las Vegas' significant booking success probably also has something to do with the fact that the structure and overall culture of the city and high-profile exhibitions have a number of striking similarities.

For one, both Las Vegas and the exhibition industry have been late bloomers. Las Vegas didn't take off as a global entertainment behemoth until the late 1980s and early 1990s. And it wasn't until 2000 that Las Vegas became the No. 1 destination when ranking total number of convention and exhibition bookings, a title it's held ever since. Even into the mid-1990s, Las Vegas was only one of a handful of leading convention host cities.

Similarly, while the exhibition industry has roots traceable to the most ancient marketplaces and 1851's Great Exhibition held in London, today's exhibition industry really didn't get rolling until the 1960s and '70s, well after the emergence of trade magazines, catalogs, direct mail, TV and radio. Companies realized somewhat late the power of exhibitions. In many industries, shows were the new marketing medium before the Internet.

Today, Las Vegas and the biggest shows also share a number of structural similarities. They both embrace the temporary. Typically, show producers and hotel and casino managers are not sentimental about structures, locations and other physical issues. How many industries set up and tear down their key products so often? Even today's largest, most spectacular properties on the Strip could see a wrecking ball in the next 10 to 20 years — if a larger moneymaking concept looks feasible. In the show management world, shows move to the best city and venue for their needs, and exhibitors and attendees jump from show to show based on their firms' rapidly changing strategies. Both thrive on reinvention.

Moreover, both the city and the industry surely know the value of spectacle. Both Las Vegas and the tradeshow experience are larger than life and have a strong element of the unreal. Yes, the strength of events is the face-to-face, personal contact between buyers and sellers, educators and conference delegates. But in truth, shows offer a hyper-reality of fast-paced meetings, accelerated education, hotel stays, expense-account dinners and parties ... not the typical day-to-day experience for most business people. Simply visiting a mega-booth built for a leading firm in a dynamic industry is a unique experience in itself.

Furthermore, tradeshows, like Las Vegas, understand the value of the façade. Shows are billed as an entire industry coming together. And showfloors, with the big companies in the huge booths and the small upstarts tucked away in a corner, are facsimiles of an industry's power structure. But it's not an exact replica, of course.

Shows give the illusion of an entire industry in one place. And, understandably, only positive marketing messages are displayed. There's a significant amount of salesmanship that fuels every level of the events industry — tradeshows are the ultimate sales and marketing medium. By the same token, Las Vegas is the ultimate sales and marketing destination. No city in the United States has ever been built so thoroughly and systematically, on such a scale, with a focus on making money.

Las Vegas also gives the illusion that you are in a real place. That illusion in fact provides what urban planners and architects call a "sense of place."

Investors like both mediums too. While almost any project with a heartbeat in Las Vegas can get significant (even astronomical) funding, show producers and other event businesses may not be valued as highly as most Las Vegas hotel or real estate ventures. But investors are coming back to the events business in an impressive way, as the recent wave of buyouts of show management companies by private equity investors indicates. The merger and acquisition activity is reminiscent of the late 1990s.

Both the show management business and Las Vegas real estate and hospitality companies are prized for their consistent profitability. Each continues to learn about the other's value. Some of the most common research inquiries Tradeshow Week fields come from real estate investors that need to learn about the Las Vegas convention business and outlook.

The historic and continual population migration westward, especially to the Southwest, has played a part in the rise of Las Vegas as an entertainment and business tourism behemoth. It was inevitable that a western city would take the leading convention city title. The city's close proximity to the large Southern California market has been a key attribute. According to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, 27 percent of visitors to the city are from Southern California.

Years back, it was estimated that about 50 percent of COMDEX visitors came from California. Shows held in Las Vegas are really drawing upon the massive and growing West Coast market demographics.

Finally, it's not just a coincidence that one of Las Vegas' biggest moguls, Sheldon Adelson, was first in the tradeshow business before investing in the Sands Expo & Convention Center and the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.

Places and shows are more than just the sum of their parts. There are intangibles that make both successful. The true value of shows, just as a successful Las Vegas property, is beyond the physical space and list of past clients and guests. Both the show and the Las Vegas experience share the fact that their key clients hold the belief that they will benefit in some way by attending or visiting.

Tourists hope to be entertained and maybe win some money. Exhibitors shoot to make progress with their marketing plans and sales goals. Attendees come to learn and source new products. There are no guarantees in either setting, and all of these activities are played out in front of a temporary backdrop.

The future of both the events medium and the Las Vegas business model will be closely linked for many years.