Show of the Week: Coverings
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 4/16/2007
Where: McCormick Place, Chicago (rotates)
When: April 17–20 (annual)
Show manager: Natl. Trade Productions
Service contractor: Freeman
Who exhibits: About 1,200 companies involved in making ceramics, stone, tile, carpets and rugs for both residential and industrial buildings
Who attends: About 21,000 retailers, wholesalers, distributors, kitchen and bath dealers, interior designers, architects and contractors
2007 show projections: 500,000 net sq. ft. of exhibit space; 1,200 exhibiting firms; 33,000 total attendees
First year of show: 1978
New this year: Freebies. For the first time, architects and designers attending the show will get two VIP passes — free of charge — for their clients. With the show moving to the Midwest, where there is a high concentration of interior design firms, NTP thought this would be a good way to encourage their attendance.
The bottom line: This year's Coverings will provide the first tough test of Chicago's new work rules. For the last five years in Orlando, where labor rules are more relaxed, it's been easy for exhibitors to have their own teams lay the tile floors that are a major part of the show's 17 million pounds of freight. Chicago labor, despite the local CVB's assurances, typically frowns on letting anyone else do what it sees as its work.
Sources: Natl. Trade Productions; 2006 TSW 200; 2007 TSW Data Book
