Spook Show Now to Haunt a New Home

Northfield, Ill.-based Trans-World Exhibits is moving its Intl. Halloween Costume & Party Show and Natl. Haunt & Attractions Show from the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont to the Sands Expo & Convention Center/Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas starting with the March 16–19 edition.

It has nothing to do with Rosemont, said the organizer of the annual two-show trade event for the Halloween business, and everything to do with America's favorite spooky holiday.

"It's staggering. The Halloween industry is over $5 billion in retail sales" annually in the United States, said Transworld CEO Joe Thaler, citing data from the Natl. Retail Federation. "Sixty percent of consumers will celebrate Halloween this year in the U.S. The only reason it's not the largest holiday (Christmas is), is because it's not gift-giving."

The 2007 Intl. Halloween Costume & Party Show and Natl. Haunt & Attractions Show filled 186,494 net square feet with 594 exhibiting companies and 8,903 professional attendees (not including exhibitors) this year at the Stephens Convention Center. Thaler said it had simply outgrown Rosemont after 23 years in the city.

So, why not move to McCormick Place in nearby downtown Chicago?

Two reasons, according to Thaler: First, exhibitors are hungry to tap new buyers, mainly in the West, that TransWorld believes Las Vegas will open the door to; second, the company was looking to make a dramatic change, and Sin City fit the bill.

"It was time to step it up and move it to a more festive place like Las Vegas," Thaler said. "We have a very festive show. If you walked through the Venetian, through the casino floor, and onto our showfloor, you wouldn't see a drop in the energy and action."

This is due in part to the animatronics, light, noises and smoke coming out of the Haunt & Attractions show.

At least one person fears that's the very part of the business that risks being hurt most by the show's move to Las Vegas. Leonard Pickel, editor of Haunted Attraction magazine and partner in dark amusement consultancy Prion, said, "We're concerned, at least for the haunted house side. The majority of people that own haunted houses are on the East Coast, and in the central U.S."

Although he produces a much smaller (albeit competing) conference and exhibition specifically for haunted attractions, Hauntcon, Pickel is also a steadfast exhibitor in TransWorld's shows. He believes many people from his segment of the business will go to the Las Vegas show the first year or two to visit the city.

But over the years, the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, across the street from the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, had become a "hangout, the place where the haunted house people would gather and network. It will take years for that to gel in Vegas," he said, adding that the new location's vast array of hotels and entertainment options would likely scatter people all over town.

Pickel, who is also executive director of the nascent Halloween Vendor Coalition, estimated there are between 3,000 and 5,000 October seasonal attractions in the United States that charge $10 to $15 per person for the average 15,000 visitors they attract yearly, according to his research.

Hauntcon 2008 is scheduled April 24–27 at the Houston Grand Plaza Hotel. Last year's convention in Dearborn, Mich., drew about 50 exhibitors.

Thaler said he is holding rooms in 11 different Las Vegas hotels, in order to provide participants with a variety of price points to choose from. "The Venetian gave us a good price, but it is high compared to the other places around there."

Christopher Stephens, general manager of the Stephens Convention Center, which has 845,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, said the dates formerly occupied by the Halloween shows are still available, but he is in negotiations to fill them.

"Absolutely, we're sorry to see them go," Stephens said, "but they're still a good client. We've enjoyed a long-time friendship that will continue."