McCormick Place West on Schedule
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 4/2/2007
Chicago's new McCormick Place West building will open in August and to fill it, sales people are focusing heavily on association business. Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau Executive Vice President Mark Theis said, of the 66 meetings booked in the new building through 2018, about 70 percent are association events.
On the books for this year are six events. One is the Natl. Confectioners Assn.'s Sept. 17–19 All-Candy Expo, the first citywide meeting to be held in the building. The show, which expects 18,000 attendees, was formerly held in McCormick Place in June.
However, Theis noted that the addition of McCormick Place West allows the CCTB to aggressively attract new business. He said 70 percent of its bookings are new business.
Besides All-Candy Expo, events scheduled in the new hall include first-time customer American Academy of Neurology, which will hold its 2008 Annual Meeting April 14–17, with 10,000 attendees; the Direct Marketing Assn. Annual Conference & Exhibition, Oct. 13–18; and GlobalShop 2008, March 19–21.
McCormick Place West will offer 470,000 square feet of exhibition space and 250,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, giving the entire McCormick Place complex a total of 2.7 million sq. ft. of exhibition and meeting space.
