It's a Zoo Out There

Las VegasAfter occupying three different locations in as many years, the World Wide Pet Industry Assn. thinks it's found a permanent home for SuperZoo.

The 54-year-old show was held for the first time ever at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Convention Center Sept. 21–22. It featured 507 exhibiting companies spanning 88,952 net square feet, compared with 517 exhibitors filling 92,600 net sq. ft. in 2004.

Show manager Caryn Cohan-Bates, WWPIA's director of trade and consumer shows, said pre-registration was up about 6 percent from last year, although attendance numbers weren't available at press time. According to Tradeshow Week research, last year 16,000 professionals attended SuperZoo and its smaller collocator, the California Assn. of Nurseries and Garden Centers' Western Expo (this year renamed Garden Market Expo).

Cohan-Bates said she's not worried by SuperZoo's flat growth, because the real improvement this year came from moving it and the gardening show, a longtime Las Vegas inhabitant, to Mandalay Bay.

The two shows collocated for the first time last year at the Las Vegas Convention Center. SuperZoo moved to the city from Anaheim, where it had been for three years following more than a dozen in Long Beach, Calif. The WWPIA had hoped that the appeal of Disneyland would draw attendees from further around the globe, driving growth in the show.

When that didn't happen, Cohan-Bates explained, the association looked to Las Vegas, with its reputation as an international travel destination.

Exhibitors at this year's show thought the move was a good one.

"With all the good food and entertainment options, Vegas is a big draw," said John Johnson, territory manager for Hill's Pet Nutrition, maker of Science Diet. "Here, you get traffic from all over the country."

Despite new Chinese and Indonesian pavilions this year, Cohan-Bates said the show hasn't yet seen a substantial increase in international participation. "But it's just a matter of time," she added.

The focus this year was on an improved floorplan at Mandalay Bay. Although Cohan-Bates said she liked the LVCC, last year's collocation with Western Expo in the facility's South Hall didn't work well because attendees had to traverse the gardening show to get to the pet products show. Some SuperZoo exhibitors at the back of the hall left the show as a result, although a reported 140 new companies took their place this year.

Exhibitors in both shows agreed that Mandalay Bay offered a more user-friendly layout.

"This year, people come in, and they go left for gardening or right for pet supplies. It just makes more sense," said Jonathan Matteson, director of marketing for Kellogg Garden Products.

But why would pet and garden products be in the same place to begin with?

Cohan-Bates said the idea started when a WWPIA executive met a counterpart from the California nursery association at Reed Exhibitions' Natl. Hardware Show a few years ago. Research showed a 17-percent overlap in consumers of pet products and gardening products.

Still, the two shows are trade-only, and exhibitors acknowledged that there is little crossover between their buyers. Some garden centers sell pet products, and some superstores offer both, but few pet stores carry garden supplies.

Not so in other parts of the world, however. Petindex is one of the fastest growing sections of glee, emap's international garden and leisure tradeshow at the Birmingham Convention Center in the United Kingdom each fall. Last year, Petindex accounted for more than 260 of the show's 1,625 exhibitors. Some 4,425 of the show's 91,466 attendees said pet products were their main interest. A 2003 post-show survey indicated that 70 percent of U.K. garden centers had pet or aquatics departments.

Asked if she anticipated a similar trend here in the United States, Cohan-Bates said, "You have to lead your industry. That's what our two associations are trying to do."

The collocation will continue at least one more year, she added — a statement confirmed by Garden Market Expo.

"It's a good marriage, from a show management standpoint," said Cohan-Bates. "We work really well together."

The shows differ in at least one way. SuperZoo pared back its three-day exhibition schedule to accommodate the two-day Garden Market. But the shortened time frame didn't work for the pet product show, which next year will return to three days, while the garden show stays at two.

SuperZoo is booked at Mandalay Bay through 2010.