Furnishings Mart Delivers Goods

New market center brings record-setting show to the Southwest

By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 8/8/2005

Las Vegas—During the last week of July, the World Market Center delivered on its promise to bring the home furnishings industry to Las Vegas. Despite their relative inexperience, organizers pulled off the largest tradeshow launch in history.

WMC organizers reported that the July 25–29 Las Vegas Market featured 1,200 exhibitors spanning 1.6 million net square feet, including permanent showrooms. Some 62,000 people registered to participate, they said, including exhibitors — surpassing projections of 40,000. However, WMC spokewoman Dana Pretner noted, "Our verification process was a challenge and was not nearly as comprehensive as it needed to be for our first show."

Large crowds swarmed the newly opened World Market Center on opening day of what is to be a semiannual exhibition, and companies with showrooms were thrilled with the turnout.

"It's been fantastic," said Harvey Dondero, CEO of Broyhill. "We've had a lot of traffic from all over the country."

Tempur-Pedic spokesperson Katie Tabeling said there were people waiting in line to get inside when the company opened its doors.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, before giving the key to the city to WMC Co-managing Partners Jack Kashani and Shawn Samson, called it a "defining moment for Las Vegas. We've diversified our economy overnight."

Chris Meyer, Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority senior director of convention center sales, said, "Between the furniture manufacturers, which we've never seen before, the international furnishings element, which we've never seen before, the World Market Center and their brand new show at the convention center, it's a whole new industry coming to the city."

Meyer was referring to the fact that the World Market Center had so much demand for temporary exhibit space in its pavilions that it contracted 600,000 sq. ft. of overflow space at the Las Vegas Convention Center. In addition, it partnered with Messe Frankfurt to produce Interior Lifestyles, a U.S. version of the company's Heimtextil and Ambiente trade fairs in Germany, alongside the Las Vegas Market exhibits at the LVCC.

Those shows collocated for three days with the Assn. of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers' AWFSVegas, which ran July 27–30.

All told, the WMC and AWFS shows were expected to have a non-gaming economic impact of $109 million on Las Vegas, according to the LVCVA.

Organizers said the collocation made sense, because of the overlap between WMC's exhibitors that manufacture furniture and AWFSVegas' products and equipment for furniture fabrication.

Attendees at the Las Vegas Market and AWFSVegas said they had not visited the other show yet, but said they would like to do so later in the week if they had time.

Not everyone was a welcome addition to the mix, however. The Las Vegas Furniture Show — held at the Sands Expo & Convention Center July 25–28 and featuring 126 exhibitors occupying 239,775 net sq. ft. — was not part of market week in the eyes of the city and the World Market Center. Shuttles running to and from the Sands had to drop off and pick up attendees across the street from the WMC and LVCC.

Meyer said, "If you're piggy-backing off another event, we don't acknowledge you. It will be the same thing during MAGIC Marketplace."

Meyer explained that the LVCVA only supports complementary events that have joint agreements with shows already working with the authority.

Las Vegas Furniture Show organizer Stephan Phelps, president and CEO of Triad Expositions, said he would like to have such an agreement with the WMC, but they turned him down.

Phelps admitted he was there because of the WMC and that his space rates were substantially lower, but added that he was doing his own attendance promotion and expected to draw 10,000 attendees (including exhibitors). He reasoned that the WMC could only handle so much business, and he was helping them out by managing more exhibit space and bringing more buyers to town.

Pretner said the WMC would partner with any show that "shared a common vision and standard ... That's evident in our cooperation with AWFS."

Attendees, meanwhile, didn't seem to care. Suzanne Diamond, owner of dreamland and the Futon Shop in San Francisco, said she had been to all the venues and thought having a citywide furniture week in Las Vegas was "awesome. There's a lot to see."

Buyer Alice Baird, from the Treasure Cottage in Eugene, Ore., said people who are used to navigating the 188 buildings and 12 million sq. ft. of High Point Intl. Home Furnishing Market in North Carolina would think nothing of taking shuttles to three different venues in Las Vegas.

Diamond went even further. "You can walk shows like these," she said. "If you tried to walk High Point, you'd be dead. There, it's appointments; here, it's a show."

As with any launch, the WMC had a few bugs to work out. Long walks between buildings and waits for shuttles in 100-degree temperatures had attendees groaning by the end of the first day.

And the low ratio of attendees to net sq. ft. meant thin crowds in the furthest reaches of the exhibition.

But even exhibitors that complained of light traffic said they were seeing high quality buyers and writing lots of orders. And those that were off-site said they couldn't wait to get into the WMC's permanent space.

"This is going to be huge," predicted Jack Squires, president of Comfor-Pedic, who said he signed on at the Sands because he wanted to get in on the ground floor of the action and committed to exhibit before the WMC expanded to the LVCC.

Like Squires, most exhibitors at the various shows in Las Vegas said they probably wouldn't return to the similar semiannual market in San Francisco. They did, however, say they would continue participating in High Point.

The next Las Vegas Market is set for Jan. 30–Feb. 3, 2006, when it will also take place at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.