Annual love fest set for CES, Las Vegas

Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004 | 10:47 a.m.

The International Consumer Electronics Show, which opens Thursday after a pre-convention keynote address by Bill Gates tonight, has evolved into one of Las Vegas' most loyal convention customers.

The four-day event, which is closed to the public, will fill the Las Vegas Convention Center and will have exhibits at the Riviera hotel-casino and the Alexis Park Hotel.

To Nancy Murphy, who coordinates convention and meeting sales for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, CES represents an ideal show at a perfect time.

"CES meets at a time of year that is perfect for us," Murphy said. "After the (New Year's) revelers leave, things pick right up with CES."

Murphy said CES also delivers visitors with a good economic profile and because of the newsworthiness of the event, the Las Vegas dateline will appear in publications across the nation.

"There are a lot of major companies that come to this show," Murphy said. "We see the Microsofts, the Panasonics and the Hewlett-Packards and you'll see them with their new products on the 'Today' show and 'Good Morning America.' They fill the hotel rooms and entertain their own clients all over the city."

And CES is one of the shows that has been and is expected to continue to be loyal to Las Vegas. Murphy said CES is on the LVCVA calendar through 2022.

"They're one of our anchor clients and their shows go out as far as our books go," Murphy said.

Other shows that fall in that category have been Comdex, the Men's Apparel Guild in California (MAGIC) fashion shows that appear in Las Vegas twice a year, the annual International Council of Shopping Centers, the annual National Association of Broadcasters, ConExpo-Con/Agg construction equipment show every third year and the annual Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association automotive products show.

The benefits of loyalty work both ways, as show organizers from the Arlington, Va.-based Consumer Electronics Association have a good rapport with Las Vegas and couldn't be happier with the city and the relationship the show has with it.

"The city has been fabulous to work with," said Lisa Fasold, a spokeswoman for the association. "We like Las Vegas because it has the best hotels and they're all close to the Convention Center. We also have great rapport with the freight vendors, the labor unions and the restaurants."

The show's stability has contributed to its growth over the years. The first CES show occurred in 1967 and in 1978, the association began conducting two shows a year, one each in Chicago and Las Vegas.

In 1994, the association opted to have just one show in Las Vegas and it has been that way ever since.

Fasold is conservative in her attendance estimates for this year's show, with 110,000 people expected in Las Vegas over the four days of the event. Last year, pre-registration figures indicated that amount and 117,000 ended up attending.

With attendance of 117,000, CES is easily one of Las Vegas' largest conventions by attendance. But Fasold said the total square footage devoted to exhibits is what's most impressive about CES this year.

The 2,300 exhibits at the show will cover 1.384 million square feet -- the largest CES in history.

"We've about maxed out the Convention Center," Fasold said. "It's larger than the biggest Comdex show in 1997."

In addition to filling the entire Convention Center and two of its parking lots with exhibits, CES will have high-end audio and video products at the Alexis Park and computer game exhibits and competitions at the Riviera and the Stardust hotel-casino. Some of the high-profile speakers, like Gates tonight, will appear in the showroom of the Las Vegas Hilton.

This year's show has more than 100,000 square feet more exhibit space than 2002's event, when CES ranked fourth among Tradeshow Week's Tradeshow 200 list of top U.S. exhibitions. CES was second only to ConExpo-Con/Agg (1.84 million square feet) by exhibit space in Las Vegas shows that year.

Fasold said Samsung Corp. is the largest exhibitor at this year's show with multiple booths, but Panasonic will have the largest booth at the show. Behind those two are Toshiba America, Sony Electronics Inc., Microsoft Corp., Sharp Electronics Corp., Pioneer Electronics USA Inc. and US Electronics.