Future Venues: A New Generation of Space

By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 5/16/2005

Convention centers are entering a new era, shaped by the evolved thinking of their owners and operators. The diverse construction projects unfolding around Las Vegas represent the different aspects, and applications, of this evolution taking place around the country.

The planned renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center represents a new direction in thinking. One of the country's best-known big-box facilities, the LVCC in 2002 got an additional 935,000 square feet in the form of South Hall, created to accommodate the mushrooming exhibits at its flagship shows.

But, while exhibition organizers were grateful for the extra space, some complained the design of the South Hall is hard to work with.

As part of its ongoing plan to stay sharp, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority hired Convention Sports & Leisure Intl. to study the market and recommend where the city should go with its next facility expansion. CSL Intl. surveyed the competitive landscape — as well as some of Las Vegas' existing clients — and returned a verdict that might have surprised some in this bigger-is-better world: The LVCC doesn't need more exhibit space; it needs to reconfigure the exhibit space it has, add some meeting space to the mix and upgrade the whole shebang.

The conclusion takes a cue from other forward-thinking facilities, like San Francisco's Moscone Center, which in 2003 opened Moscone West, a 770,000 sq. ft., high-end, flexible building meant to cater to the meetings and events crowd, particularly from the medical and corporate sectors.

Chris Meyer, LVCVA senior director of convention center sales, is relieved. He said current clients are maxing out the LVCC's meeting space and begging for more.

LVCVA President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter frames the revamp within an overarching plan to draw 43 million visitors (including 8.6 million convention delegates) annually by 2009, filling the 151,000 hotel rooms now slated to be available by then.

To accomplish the goal, the authority will stick to its marketing message (summed up by Ralenkotter as being "about adult freedom ... the freedom to escape"); deepen and expand its reach into domestic markets; develop international markets (specifically, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Japan, all of which have nonstop air service to Las Vegas); attract more, and higher-profile, special events (such as concerts and sports competitions); and "house the brand."

That's where the LVCC comes in. "What we're about now is better serving our customers," Ralenkotter said.

Besides adding 145,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, the project aims to streamline traffic flow through entries, corridors and pre-function space, as well as form a sky bridge linking the center to its monorail stop.

The facility will also get a new identity, in the form of a distinct facade and entryway design, reinstituting something lost when the original building's rotunda was destroyed.

In the three or so years it's taken to go from a glimmer in the furniture industry's eye to a behemoth at the crossroads of interstates 15 and 95, the World Market Center has undergone constant transformation.

What started as an idea for 7.5 million sq. ft. of showroom and design center space for the home furnishings industry — which, coincidentally, would host a tradeshow twice a year — has become a master plan for 12 million sq. ft. of showroom, design and convention center space, next to a major lodging, retail and cultural district.

But first, WMC's priority is to build a better market center. Managers say they've learned from the flaws of existing marts.

"High Point (N.C.) is logistically a difficult market in which to do business," said Brianna Mackey, WMC's director of market operations, during a tour of the WMC given to local members of the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management. "A lot of market centers are converted high rises; they weren't designed to be showroom and tradeshow spaces like this one was."

WMC officials have also pointed to Las Vegas' infrastructure — an easily accessible international airport, more than 131,000 hotel rooms at various price points, a well-developed service industry — as an advantage over its competitors.

In response to higher-than-expected demand, Co-managing Partners Shawn Samson and Jack Kashani have refined their strategy. First, they took the demand as an opportunity to deepen the WMC's focus in the various sectors of home furnishings. Whereas existing marts might have a little of everything, but specialize in, say, rugs or lighting, Samson said the WMC will have lots, and the best, of everything.

Meanwhile, demand for the semiannual tradeshow was growing too. After adding to the plan 350,000 sq. ft. of temporary pavilions — which will occupy a lot on the far north end of the property — the WMC also booked most of the space at the LVCC not already being used by the American Woodworking and Furnishings Suppliers for its AWFSVegas.

Then, the pair announced earlier this year that they had signed on Messe Frankfurt — producer of Ambiente and Heimtextil, Germany's two largest home furnishings trade fairs — to produce Interior Lifestyles, a show-within-a-show featuring samples from the international market, alongside the Las Vegas Market.

The plan doesn't stop there. Samson said he is in discussions with other international organizers to host similar shows at the WMC, coinciding with major tradeshows elsewhere in town in industries beyond just home furnishings. For instance, if a large, well-known tradeshow for widgets is taking place at the LVCC, the WMC could host a U.S. offshoot of Europe's biggest widget fair at the same time.

Asked whether he's afraid the strategy will be seen as simply coat-tailing on successful shows, Samson said he would first try to cooperate with the managers of the existing shows.

"Our goal is to raise the profile of the top U.S. events that take place in Las Vegas by bringing international brands to the city," he said. However, if these show managers, many of whom are already expending great effort to enhance international participation, are unwilling to cooperate, Samson said the WMC would still pursue the strategy.

"We are the only organization in Las Vegas that is both a facility operator and a show management firm," Samson pointed out.

Hotels have always been major players in Las Vegas, and recently, one smaller player — the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, whose Pavilion Convention Center expansion opens May 20 — is flexing its muscle. Although the project represents 60-percent growth for the center, it brings the facility's total meeting and exhibit space to just 160,000 sq. ft.

With upscale furnishings, the Rio's convention center follows in the tradition of hotels like the Hilton Las Vegas. But Reina Herschdorfer, Rio's executive director of sales and pavilion operations, says flexibility is just as important as luxury. Air wall tracks allow each of the four ballrooms to be configured into meeting and event spaces of different sizes.

The new Amazon room, for instance, can be opened up into a 40,000 sq. ft. exhibit space, or broken down into a smaller exhibition surrounded by as many as 20 meeting rooms. All told, the hotel now has a possible 80 meeting rooms ranging from 300 to 2,300 sq. ft.

"We've found over time that many Las Vegas facilities don't have enough breakout rooms" to cater to the corporate market Herschdorfer said.

She added that accessibility for clients from the front of the house to the back of the house was also important in the expansion's design. Parking and loading docks are all on ground level, along with the pavilions themselves.

The expansion puts the Rio in a tie with Caesars Palace for 14th-largest hotel exhibit hall, according to Tradeshow Week research.

Herschdorfer said the hotel will use its new space to accommodate existing association and corporate clients, like Women's Wear in Nevada and the Gartner Group, in addition to pursuing new markets.

Rising into the sky just next door to the MGM Grand Hotel & Conference Center's 210,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, 315,000 sq. ft. of meeting space and 5,034 rooms are the Residences. Touted as the "first condominium-hotel complex on the Las Vegas Strip," the project, built in collaboration with Turnberry Associates, will add a 40-story tower with 576 luxury units to the 116-acre lot east of the existing conference center.

Former MGM Grand Vice President of Sales Richard Harper (now vice president of sales and marketing for Mandalay Bay) said he believes the Residences will have a trade-show-industry application.

"Think about it. In the tradeshow world, you're here for how long? As an organizer, it could be two weeks. I would think being in a residential environment, but having all the amenities of a hotel would be very appealing."

MGM Mirage's plans for Strip residences don't stop there. The company is developing Project CityCenter on a 66-acre site between the Bellagio Hotel & Casino and Monte Carlo Resort & Casino.

Developers haven't yet determined the details of the project — cost, timeline and the amount of exhibit space are still to come. However, Alan Feldman, MGM Mirage senior vice president of public affairs, said he expects there to be between 20,000 and 150,000 sq. ft. of meeting space in each of the center's three hotels.

What is certain is that the space is being conceived as an urban residential environment. In addition to 1,650 hotel-condominium units — and the usual casino, restaurants and entertainment venues — it is expected to include neighborhood features like a grocery store.

"I think it's going to set the stage for Las Vegas for the next 30 years," Harper noted.