Big toys, big money

By Richard N. Velotta

Monday, March 14, 2005 | 10:44 a.m.

What does a city that hosts Nevada's largest sporting event do for an encore?

It opens its doors to what could be 2005's largest trade show.

And, while this week's ConExpo-Con/Agg event probably won't be as exciting as the weekend's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup race, it will pack a bigger economic punch for Las Vegas.

"Our exhibit space is the highest we've ever had," said Dennis Slater, president of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, one of the trade show's owners. "And, we were only stopped by the fact that we ran out of space to sell."

While trade show organizers measure their success on square footage sold, local tourism and convention industry officials look to attendance as their gauge and ConExpo-Con/Agg may be 2005's biggest show by attendance.

Organizers say there are 100,000 preregistered conventioneers for the event that runs Tuesday through Saturday.

Slater said he expects between 25,000 and 35,000 people to register on site, but conservative estimates were made on the International Consumer Electronics Show and MAGIC Marketplace. There were about 141,000 people who attended CES, the largest show in Las Vegas this year.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said based on attendance of 135,000, ConExpo-Con/Agg would have a nongaming economic impact of $188.3 million on Las Vegas.

Organizers of Sunday's NASCAR race said 156,000 people attended. LVCVA officials said it wouldn't have an estimate on nongaming economic impact of the event for at least a week, but last year's 142,600 NASCAR race attendance produced an economic impact of $85 million.

The convention generates more money because it runs longer.

Slater, who helped bring ConExpo to Las Vegas for the first time in 1987, said the show serving the construction equipment, aggregates and mixed concrete industries is popular because it only occurs every three years.

He said about 124,500 people attended in 1999, the largest-ever ConExpo, and 110,000 came to the last show in 2002, six months after 9/11.

Slater said this year's show would have record international attendance, with 20,000 people coming from foreign countries. He said 43 delegations are attending from overseas, representing 120 countries.

"Interest from China, today's hottest market, has been huge," Slater said. "We got a lot of help locally. The LVCVA came to the table and helped us extend the brand in Europe and South America and helped us get visas for people and work through security issues. The internationals love Las Vegas."

ConExpo-Con/Agg is co-owned by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association. The show is being co-located with the International Exposition for Power Transmission, known as IFPE.

The show will include 2,300 exhibitors in indoor and outdoor booths covering 1.85 million square feet -- the size of about 40 football fields. ConExpo's 1999 show housed 1.7 million square feet, which broke all space records for U.S. trade shows. By comparison, CES this year had exhibits covering 1.5 million square feet.