When It’s September, It Must Be Chicago
Diane Taylor -- Tradeshow Week, 7/17/2008 4:41:00 AM
Amy Riley, a convention sales executive for the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, can sound like Ed Sullivan when she talks about the Incentive Travel and Meeting Executives Show Sept. 23-25 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. “It’s a really big show for us,” she said.
The LVCVA will spend almost half a million dollars to sponsor information counters and kiosks, an 80’x150’ pavilion and a major client event “at a location that is kept a secret until they check in,” according to the authority.
Within the pavilion, 44 local hotel properties will be represented, along with 16 more entities such as golf courses and transportation companies. And, of course, there will be a couple of Las Vegas showgirls around.
Why the effort? The Incentive Travel and Meeting Executives Show and the collocated Natl. Premium/Incentive Show, together known as Tradeshow Week 200-ranked The Motivation Show, are considered the major tradeshows for corporate and third-party meeting planners. Property representatives from more than 60 countries will be at the show, all vying for the meetings market. Half the tradeshow floor is devoted to the incentive travel and meeting executives market; the other half to premiums and incentives.
“We’ve been going to the show approaching 20 years,” Riley said, “and we do have positive results in terms of lead generation. We even have planners come to the pavilion with RFPs in hand.”
This year’s participation by Las Vegas properties will be higher than in previous years. New participants will include the Trump, Echelon and M Resort properties.
“We also consider this tradeshow an opportunity to nurture relationships,” Riley said. “We have many people who come to Las Vegas year after year, and we, of course, want to maintain those relationships. The client event is a big part of that.”
Riley noted that many of the dealer meetings, board meetings and reward travel that find their way to Las Vegas are results of the tradeshow. “The numbers can be everything from 25 to 2,000 people,” she added.
Not long after this year’s tradeshow is over, Riley will start distributing information to member properties about the next year’s show. “It’s an 11-month process getting ready for Chicago,” she said.
