Convention Center expansion touted as competitive tool

Thursday, Feb. 4, 1999 | 10:41 a.m.

Promoters say the newest local Convention Center expansion will help the city keep pace with competitors snapping at the heels of Las Vegas -- the nation's trade show industry leader.

The $85 million, 1.3 million-square-foot expansion, expected to be completed by spring 2000, also will lock in three of the city's most coveted trade shows for several years. The reason: The shows themselves are contributing to the construction cost in lieu of paying rent.

Because each show is contributing a different amount and uses a different amount of square footage in each show, the length of the free rent period varies.

But Rossi Ralenkotter, vice president of marketing for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said the agreement effectively locks up the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Men's Apparel Guild in California show and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association Super Show for at least three years.

All three were members of a consortium that is contributing $50 million to build the LVCVA's first two-story exhibit hall on what is now a parking lot south of Desert Inn Road.

Other members of the consortium, Reed Exposition Service and Miller-Freeman, produce a number of smaller trade shows that also will be locked into Las Vegas contracts for years to come.

The city's largest convention, the Comdex computer show, "isn't going anywhere," said LVCVA President Manny Cortez, primarily because Las Vegas is the only city that can accommodate a show of that magnitude. Room availability is a bigger factor than convention square footage for Comdex.

The LVCVA strategy was outlined by agency executives in a meeting Wednesday with the editorial board of the Las Vegas Sun.

Agency executives acknowledged that other cities also are expanding their convention centers and will constantly attempt to wrest major conventions away from Las Vegas. That's why attracting the sporting goods Super Show was such a coup.

Organizers of the show conducted annually in Atlanta announced in December that it would move to Las Vegas for at least three years beginning in 2001. In the past, the January trade show has drawn about 100,000 participants. When the event arrives in Las Vegas for the first time, it will begin moving in shortly after the CES moves out.

Cortez said the challenge now is to keep existing shows in place while attempting to lure others to the city. In 1998, Las Vegas played host to 32 of the top 200 trade shows in the nation. That number was up from 22 in 1993.

The Convention Center's expansion to a total 2.9 million square feet not only helps keep Las Vegas in the hunt for massive shows, but it also allows the LVCVA to schedule multiple exhibitions at one time.

Attracting more convention business is one-third of the LVCVA's formula to fill hotel rooms -- the primary mission of the agency. The other elements of the strategy are to beef up marketing of special events and to target international visitors in a bid to generate new customers.

While the number of conventions in Las Vegas climbed in 1998 over the previous year, the total number of visitors at conventions fell. Part of that, Ralenkotter explained, is that some shows have established a cycle of visits to the city and 1998 was an off year for some big shows. An example: the ConExpo-Con/Ag construction equipment show, which meets in Las Vegas every three years and will be here next in March.

Executives said they are conscious of criticism the agency has received from several sources. One of the most vocal critics has been Sheldon Adelson, who operates his own convention facility, the 1 million-square-foot, two-story Sands Expo Center.

Adelson has said the LVCVA and its advertising agency of record, R&R Advertising, have been slow to respond to advertising the changing Las Vegas experience. The city has become a dining, shopping and entertainment capital as well as a gambling mecca as it redefines itself to draw more tourists.

Adelson has said the LVCVA must focus more on marketing to high-end visitors as that transition occurs.

But Jan Jones, chairwoman of the LVCVA's board of directors and the mayor of Las Vegas, said it's the agency's responsibility to market for the entire city and not just high-end properties. She said about 60 percent of Las Vegas' rooms are still low-budget accommodations.

The latest LVCVA advertising blitz concentrates more on some of the new properties as well as the dining, retail and entertainment amenities that exist in the city.