Thursday, June 27, 2002 | 11:18 a.m.
The newspaper industry's top technology trade show will be merged with an operations conference next year and will be conducted in Las Vegas.
The Newspaper Association of America announced that its Newspaper Operations SuperConference, normally staged in January, would be conducted at the same time as NEXPO, the association's June technology show. The NAA, which concluded its NEXPO convention in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, plans the joint conference in Las Vegas June 16-19, 2003.
The combined conference is scheduled in Washington, D.C., in 2004, and it has been recommended that subsequent shows be shifted to an early spring date and scheduled in the northeastern United States.
NEXPO, which was 124th on the Tradeshow Week 200 list of the nation's top trade shows, is expected to draw 11,000 people to Las Vegas next year. The event is planned at the Las Vegas Convention Center, but a site for the Operations SuperConference has not been announced.
Meanwhile five unrelated trade shows have signed long-term agreements to exhibit at the Sands Expo Center and The Venetian Congress Center.
Shows that have signed include the International Tile and Stone Expo with an expected attendance of 25,000, the International Security Conference and Expo (11,000), the International Vision Expo West (12,000), the Billiards Conference of America (5,000) and Informex (3,000).
The security conference, which met at the Sands in 2001 and at the Las Vegas Convention Center this year, is 166th on the Tradeshow 200 list.
Eric Bello, vice president of sales for The Venetian hotel-casino, said the shows have varying contract terms and that the company is in the process of negotiating long-term deals with each show.
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