Pool Show Swims Down to the Bay

Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 2/1/2008 2:29:00 PM

Dallas-based Hanley Wood Exhibitions is moving another show to Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. This time, it’s the former Intl. Pool & Spa Expo, now called Intl. Pool Spa Patio Expo. 

Hanley Wood’s confirmation that it had a three-year contract with the South Strip convention center-casino resort followed a similar one last month regarding Surfaces, which will be at Mandalay Bay for at least three years starting in 2011. Surfaces wrapped up last week at the Sands Expo & Convention Center.

Regarding the pool and spa show, Rick McConnell, Hanley Wood’s vice president of exhibitions, said, “We are there (at Mandalay Bay) for at least the next three years, if not longer.”

For the last four years, Intl. Pool & Spa rotated between Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center (in odd years) and the Las Vegas Convention Center (in even years).

McConnell said the move to Mandalay Bay had nothing to do with impending construction on the LVCC and everything to do with the convenience of Mandalay Bay.

“It’s just an overall really good package for the attendee there,” he added, “with the three price-point hotels connected by tram, and all the amenities associated with the property.”

The pool and spa show took a slight dip in size at its most recent staging last November in Orlando. That show spanned 248,400 net square feet and attracted 702 exhibiting firms and 12,422 attendees (including exhibitors), compared with 275,376 net sq. ft., 762 exhibitors and 15,584 attendees in 2006, when it ranked No. 81 on the TSW 200.

Freeman is the show’s general contractor.