Winning: Good; Losing: Stupid

One of the most fascinating industry stories we rarely get to write involves the seemingly savage behind-the-scenes competition between cities for tradeshows.

There are good reasons why this kind of news rarely comes to light. The CVBs would just as soon not alert their competitors; show managers don't necessarily want their customers to know the extent to which they play cities off one another; and the ultimate losers don't particularly like everyone to know who they are.

Even when we do have an account of such a move in Tradeshow Week, the reasoning often seems suspect.

For instance, we learned last week that ISSA/Interclean USA was breaking its letter of intent to hold its 2008 show in Anaheim because construction delays at the Las Vegas Convention Center suddenly made dates available there. A month ago we reported that Greenbuild Intl. Conference & Expo 2007 would make a last-minute change of venue to Chicago from Los Angeles because LA Inc., the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau, twice changed the dates it already committed to for the show. Last year the Natl. Assn. of Realtors said it would be moving this year's show from Chicago's McCormick Place to the Sands Expo & Convention Center/Venetian Resort Hotel Casino because of confusion over whether a ballroom would be available.

The one common denominator in two of these three instances was that the show in question moved to Las Vegas. Everybody knows that Las Vegas is as good as it gets when it comes to making these kinds of deals. Las Vegas is the city that every other CVB executive loves to hate.

The real question to me seems to be: How can the losers let it happen? Estimates were that ISSA/Interclean USA could have a $28 million impact on a city. Last year, Chicago estimated it would take a $27.9 million hit by losing the 2007 Realtors Annual Conference & Expo.

With $28 million at stake, was there nothing anybody in Anaheim could do to mitigate the fact some space suddenly became available in Las Vegas? Was there nothing anybody in Los Angeles could do to make sure a deal was a deal when it came to reserving space? Was there no way somebody in Chicago could have dodged some hurt feelings over a ballroom that suddenly wasn't available?

Sometimes you just have to shake your head and wonder.