Rest Now: January’s Going to Be Busy

Michael Hart -- Tradeshow Week, 12/19/2007 3:50:00 PM

Enjoying a slow, evenly paced buildup to Christmas? Looking forward to a week or two of rest and relaxation during the holiday season? Good, because if you live and work in the Las Vegas events and exhibitions industry, once the New Year strikes, you’re going to wish you could take a breather.

The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority’s calendar lists 104 meetings and events all over town during the month of January, but that number doesn’t tell the real story: Seven of those are major exhibitions drawing tens of thousands of attendees each; six of them were on last year’s Tradeshow Week 200.

The month will kick off with 2008 Intl. CES, in most years the largest show held in the United States. From Jan. 7 to 10, the giant consumer electronics show will spread out over 1.7 net million square feet in three venues and bring an estimated 148,000 people to town. Some, but certainly not all, will also attend the Adult Entertainment Expo, expected to attract 37,000 people on its own to the Sands Expo & Convention Center. What is better known to most simply as “the porn show” will overlap CES by two days, opening Jan. 9 for a four-day run.

Likely even before CES has managed to get out of town, the Promotional Products Assn. Intl. Expo, No. 55 on the 2007 TSW 200, opens for a four-day run Jan. 18 at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino; followed the subsequent week by World of Concrete at the Las Vegas Convention Center (No. 18 on the most recent TSW 200) with 900,000 net sq. ft. and an estimated 85,000 people.

Then things get serious. In a four-day stretch between Jan. 28 and 31 five major shows, collectively expected to draw more than 100,000 attendees, will open: Surfaces at the Sands Expo & Convention Center (Jan. 30-Feb. 1), Natl. Assn. of Television Program Executives 2008 (Jan. 28-31) and SIA.08 SnowSports Trade Show (Jan. 29-Feb. 1) at Mandalay Bay, and the collocated (for the first time) Photo Marketing Assn. Intl. Convention & Trade Show and MemoryTrends Trade Show at the LVCC (Jan. 31-Feb. 2).

At that point, you can take a break – of maybe one day – before February brings the Shooting, Hunting & Outdoor Trade Show (also known as the SHOT Show) back to Vegas from Orlando (where it was this year), to be joined by MAGIC Marketplace and the WSA Show. They will be followed in March by what is certain to be No. 1 on next year’s TSW 200, CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2008.