...And Gets Company in Accessories Sector
By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 9/12/2005
Las Vegas—The last week of August was, along with scorchingly hot, Las Vegas Fashion Week. The city was taken over by trendsetters attending and exhibiting at MAGIC Marketplace Aug. 29–Sept. 1, and several other Strip shows.
And although show management firm MAGIC Intl. has put a dent in MAGIC Marketplace's competition for its next go-round in February (by acquiring POOL and Project), a Fashion Week competitor of the MAGIC accessories show division is giving the Goliath show a run for its money.
Business Journals' newly launched AccessoriesTheShow-Las Vegas, Aug. 29–31 at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, enticed some former MAGIC exhibitors away, while causing other firms to double, even triple, their presence in the city.
David Warren from the Portland, Ore.-based Mixx manned a booth at MAGIC within the new WWDMAGIC Presents Accessories at the Hilton. At the same time, a few of his colleagues showcased a booth at AccessoriesTheShow, and another at POOL.
"We've got our product in a few places; I guess we'll do OK," Warren said. And because "It hasn't really worked at MAGIC accessories," he added, "chances are good ... that we won't be there (next time at MAGIC)."
Although MAGIC's accessories division and AccessoriesTheShow shared some exhibitors and attendees, both management firms insist that they're not competing with each other.
Britton Jones, Business Journals' president and CEO, said his juried show is a "unique and really refreshing" addition to Fashion Week, adding that his show and MAGIC's accessories division are "really complementary." (The show is a version of the firm's established AccessoriesTheShow series in New York.)
Laura McConnell, MAGIC Intl. vice president and general manager, agreed. "We don't really see it as competition," she said.
Jones said AccessoriesTheShow was thriving because of his firm's hard work, including its extensive market research, and not because of MAGIC's influence. "I think we have been successful in our mission of bringing buyers into town that don't come here on a regular basis."
AccessoriesTheShow drew nearly 3,000 attendees to 300 lines within 14,000 net square feet. Jones said, "If you look at those density ratios, they're very good."
Jones also credited the show's atmosphere. "The environment here is very conducive to the ambiance that we create in our shows," he said.
Although the show is dwarfed by MAGIC, with its 3,669 exhibitors (430 alone in the accessories division), former MAGIC exhibitor/new AccessoriesTheShow exhibitor Bijoux Luck's Maya Arias said she prefers the smaller show. "There's less MAGIC going on," she said. "We're usually with MAGIC, but this is good."
Arias said she likes that AccessoriesTheShow is selective with its exhibitors. It "lessens competition," she said. However, she added, MAGIC Intl.'s reconfiguration of the accessories division within the Hilton "was a good idea," maybe good enough to convince her to double up her Fashion Week presence next time.
