Steam Cleans Up in Las Vegas
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 7/2/2007
Fifteen thousand attendees were welcomed to the Las Vegas Convention Center June 11–14. The show was Clean '07 and the reason the show was at the LVCC in Las Vegas was the availability of steam ... indoors.
Show Manager John Riddle of Riddle & Associates explained that the biennial Clean show is unlike any other in the country. Exhibitors represent all phases of the laundering, dry cleaning and textile care industry, demonstrating the range of laundry and dry cleaning equipment. Much of the on-site machinery requires steam.
Exhibitor Peter Haggarty of Unipress said: "If we couldn't have live demonstrations, we might just as well send a photo. In fact, our show demonstrations are so effective that many of us take orders for the equipment we bring, and when the show ends, it can be shipped directly to customers."
Only three venues in the nation are both large enough for the 225,000 square foot show and equipped with exhibit halls that can accommodate the 125,000 sq. ft. required to create steam: Orlando, New Orleans and Las Vegas. LVCC Hall C-3 has the steam capability, with pipes able to deliver steam to an overhead loop from which drops are made to the individual exhibitors.
Clean '07 was originally scheduled for New Orleans, but in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Riddle moved the show to Las Vegas. A return to New Orleans is now scheduled for 2009, with the next Las Vegas show tentatively scheduled for 2011.
The only bad news associated with the change of venues to Las Vegas this year was that the move-in, which usually takes six to seven days, was forced into five. Riddle said the contractors and exhibitors worked long hours to move the more than 4 million pounds of freight into place. Aisles needed to be 20 feet wide to accommodate the vehicles carrying equipment. One commercial laundering unit, capable of washing 12,000 pounds of laundry per hour, occupied some 80 feet of trailer space during move-in.
Although the LVCC hall is equipped with steam pipes, it does not produce steam itself. For that, the show manager hired Service Plumbing in conjunction with mechanical contractor Industrial Engineering to bring (and keep operational) two 300-horsepower truck-mounted boilers (one is for backup). The boilers are then connected to the hall's pipes.
Clean '07 is sponsored jointly by the Coin Laundry Assn., Intl. Fabricare Institute, Natl. Assn. of Institutional Linen Management, Textile Care Allied Trades Assn., Textile Rental Services Assn. of America and Uniform & Textile Service Assn. The Las Vegas show represented the 30th anniversary of the jointly-sponsored event.
