Rumper Room

There's no denying Las Vegas' superiority as a convention and exhibition destination. Then again, nobody's perfect.

One of Sin City's weaknesses, oddly enough, derives from its greatest strength: the massive inventory of hotel rooms and exhibit space in an array of publicly and privately managed facilities. This lends itself to the phenomena of outboarding — or "rumping" as Hanley Wood CEO Galen Poss recently termed the practice of an upstart riding on the coattails of a successful show.

Rumping is a growing trend in Las Vegas. With the launch of AccessoriesTheShow at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, New York-based Business Journals threw its hat into the ring of nearly a dozen other fashion tradeshows taking place around Advanstar's MAGIC Marketplace. This spring's The JCK Show — Las Vegas, produced by Reed Exhibitions at the Sands Expo & Convention Center, saw the advent of VNU Expositions' Couture Jewellery Collection & Conference at the Wynn Las Vegas. And the World Market Center, barely open a couple of months, has revealed a plan to fill spare exhibit space with international sections or versions of existing shows in the city.

Some rumping is healthy. Attendees who pay lots and travel far like having several shows to visit while they're in Las Vegas. Certain exhibitors and show managers see banding together with peripherals and forming a week's worth of industry shows as a way to make their own exhibitions more interesting and increase traffic for everyone.

However, others liken rumping to stealing. During a session on outboarding at the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management's Expo! Expo! in San Antonio last December, one Tradeshow Week 200 show organizer said he viewed outboarding as a helpful signal of underserved markets. Another said she wouldn't allow it at any cost and advocated using strict contracts and threatening legal reprisal.

That was when a show manager in the audience stood up and said, "That's all well and good in some places, but in Las Vegas, there are so many hotels, you just can't keep track of them all."

When he was named vice president of sales and marketing for Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Richard Harper said it was MGM Mirage's policy to weigh the value of every ICW ("in conjunction with") event against the damage it could do to the city or a competitor and, simply, do the right thing.

Still, he noted, "You or I could call and reserve a couple suites on our credit card, invite some companies, and hold a meeting during a show. How would anybody know?"

Indeed, that was pretty much what Nike did to the World Shoe Assn. for years — except that organizers of The WSA Show were well aware, and put a stop to it.

But you can't stop the free market. And fighting off competition in Las Vegas is not going to get any easier either.

MGM Mirage now has more than 30,000 rooms to feed into its 1 million-plus square feet of exhibit space — and that's not counting the upcoming mid-Strip CityCentre project. Harrah's recently restructured its sales force to focus regional teams on selling space and room packages across hotels. And, if all goes as planned, the World Market Center could someday be offering rumpers several million sq. ft. of exhibit space, along with on-site management à la German messe.

All this probably won't hurt Las Vegas' bread (Intl. CES, CONEXPO-CON/AGG) or its butter (the thousands of hotel-sized meetings that make up more than half of its convention business). The mega-shows don't have too many other options, and the little ones don't get rumped anyway.

But what would happen if, say, a large wireless show moved into town opposite a large networking show? Would they learn to work together, or resent the competition and swear never to come back to town?

The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, one of the smartest quasi-public marketing firms in the business, could head off problems by taking a cue from the shows involved in the city's Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week.

Instead of waiting for fights to break out and letting the (excuse the expression) chips fall where they may, the LVCVA could use some of its sizable resources to bring together parties of potential mutual benefit and persuade them of the value in joining forces. Although its exhibit hall allegiance is to the Las Vegas Convention Center, the authority has a track record of cooperating with private hotels to bring citywides to town, raising the tide for everyone.

Granted, it would be impossible to convince some people to play well with others — and a little competition is necessary to keep the game fair for consumers.

But, if even a handful of industry weeks emerged from the effort, it would be good for the shows, good for the attendees and, most importantly, good for a city that otherwise could become known as Rumperville.