Wednesday, March 16, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.
Chicago's second-largest convention, the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show, is considering moving from the city's McCormick Place convention center and is looking at Las Vegas as a possible new home.
The event, which annually draws around 73,000 people to the Windy City, is the 25th biggest trade show on the continent, according to 2004 Tradeshow Week 200, a listing of North America's top 200 trade shows.
Mary Pat Heftman, senior vice president of convention for the Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association, said high labor costs in Chicago have forced her organization to consider a new site for the show, which has been in Chicago for 56 years.
"Chicago is a terrific convention city," Heftman said. "It's clean, it's safe, it's easy to travel around and it has lots of quality hotels. But there's one place where it falls short."
And that one place is in labor costs.
"And it's not just about the cost of labor, it's crew size requirements," she said. "For example, there are some jobs that require three laborers under union contract rules in Chicago that only require one person in Las Vegas."
She also cited high overtime rates as a problem.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority would love to have the restaurant show, and Chris Meyer, senior director of convention center sales for the LVCVA, said he has had talks with Heftman for about 10 years.
"We'd love to have that show," Meyer said. "It's unfortunate for them that Chicago doesn't have the same type of labor arrangements we have out here."
But Meyer said there are other issues to clear before Las Vegas could open its doors to the show.
"They're looking for a show date in April and May, and during that time, we're absolutely jammed," Meyer said.
This year's Chicago restaurant show will be May 21-24. In Las Vegas, the National Hardware Show, with 50,000 people, is scheduled at the Convention Center May 17-19, the American Institute of Architects, with 22,000 people, is at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center May 19-21 and the 34,000-delegate International Council of Shopping Centers is at the Las Vegas Convention Center May 22-25.
"We'd really like to have them," Meyer said, "so we'll keep the dialogue open."
Heftman said she was urged by her board of directors to get some cost comparisons and evaluate a move. Heftman said she is looking at Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., two cities that could accommodate a show of the NRA event's size.
Van Heffner, president and chief executive of the Nevada Restaurant Association, said snagging the show away from Chicago would be a coup for Las Vegas.
"Las Vegas is on the cutting edge for the restaurant and hospitality industry," Heffner said. "We have fresh, creative concepts and have become one of the leading restaurant destinations in the world, with incredible signature chefs and award-winning restaurants. It would be very prestigious to get this show."
As a member of the National Restaurant Association board, Heffner would have a vote in any decision to move. But he said he doesn't expect to remain on the board beyond May. He said he was aware of the association making contact with the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Sands Expo Center and the Mandalay Bay Convention Center -- Las Vegas venues that are large enough to accommodate the show, which in 2003 had 559,586 square feet of exhibits.
Heftman said the change in the restaurant scene in Las Vegas in the past five years would play favorably for the city. But she cautioned that she has considerable research to complete before making a decision about whether to recommend a move and when.
The labor cost issue has dogged Chicago for years, with city and state government officials promising last year that they would help negotiate changes that would make Chicago more competitive.
Representatives of several unions and the offices of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich haven't discussed specific numbers and Heftman said negotiations have bogged down.
In the meantime, the National Hardware Show, another staple on the Chicago convention calendar, moved to Las Vegas last year. The 50,000-delegate show returns to the Las Vegas Convention Center for its second year May 17.
Heftman said her analysis of whether to make a move would take at least until the end of 2005. In addition to calculating the costs of a move against the savings in labor, she intends to analyze attendance trends of major shows that have moved to Las Vegas and Orlando.
"I have heard a lot of that anecdotally (that conducting a show in Las Vegas results in increased attendance), but I plan to get the audits of those shows to see how they have done beyond the first year after the move," she said.
Heftman said her show has tentative dates in Chicago for another decade, but that it "has some flexibility" in leaving. She would not say for how long the show has a contractual commitment to Chicago.
"We've been in Chicago for for 56 years," Heftman said. "We haven't had a lot of practice in moving shows."
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