IMEX Group hopes meetings conference will have permanent home in Las Vegas

By Richard N. Velotta (contact), In Business reporter

Fri, Nov 6, 2009 (3 a.m.)

Local tourism leaders have long touted the value of bringing meetings and conference planners to Las Vegas because the city leaves a big impression.

U.S. Travel International brought Pow Wow — a convention that brings travel sellers and vendors together — to Las Vegas in 2008. Representatives of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said it was one of the city’s best marketing opportunities because travel professionals could see what they’d be selling.

The LVCVA set up several tours and meet-and-greets for industry officials and world’s top travel and tourism journalists who covered the show. Pow Wow, which specifically targets the leisure industry, returns to Las Vegas in 2013 after stints in Orlando, San Francisco and an as-yet-undetermined location in 2012.

While the leisure market is an important piece of the city’s tourism component, meeting planners on the business side can be even more lucrative. With corporate expense accounts and the entertaining of clients in play, filling rooms in midweek slots, business meetings are another key ingredient to keep Southern Nevada’s tourism wheels spinning.

Last week, the LVCVA joined the leaders of an international meetings planning group to establish what local officials are hoping will be a permanent addition to the city’s convention calendar.

IMEX, a major international exhibition for meetings and incentive travel professionals, will have a version in Las Vegas in 2011.

IMEX officials have a three-year commitment to a Las Vegas show, but they’re hoping it will be a permanent addition.

The inaugural IMEX America is planned at the Sands Expo Center Oct. 11-13, 2011, and is expected to draw leaders in the U.S. meetings industry as well as representatives from convention centers and large hotels from across the country.

“I have long felt that there was a need for a new dedicated and business-focused show in the United States,” said Ray Bloom, chairman of the IMEX Group. “Earlier this year, we began conversations with the industry about the level of interest.”

The show is important to Las Vegas because meetings planners from all over the country are expected to attend. While cities, hotels and convention authorities also will be present to offer proposals to those planners, Las Vegas and its resort community will have the advantage of being able to show and tell with tours of their facilities.

IMEX is collaborating with Dallas-based Meeting Professionals International and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to stage the new trade show.

The main IMEX show has been conducted for seven years in Frankfurt, and the LVCVA and several Las Vegas properties have attended annually to pitch the city and its hotels to convention, trade show and meetings planners.

Chris Meyer, vice president of convention sales for the LVCVA, introduced Bloom at a press conference at the Venetian announcing the new show Oct. 28.

Meyer said IMEX America is a major breakthrough for Las Vegas, which has seen much of its convention traffic evaporate during the economic downturn. Through August, 2009 convention visitation is down 30.2 percent from last year to 3.2 million visitors, according to the LVCVA.

Meyer said he expects the LVCVA and local properties to step up their marketing efforts in advance of the inaugural IMEX show with presentations at the Frankfurt show May 25-27.

Bloom said other industry trade show organizations already have said they would support IMEX America.

“Site, the leading association worldwide for incentive travel and motivational events, will be holding their 2011 annual conference immediately following the first IMEX America Oct. 13-15,” Bloom said. “ICCA, the International Congress and Conventions Association, will be officially supporting the show as well as DMAI, Destination Marketing Association International, AIPC, the International Association of Congress Centres, and ECM, European Cities Marketing.

“We will be working closely with them all on a range of marketing and educational initiatives.”

The IMEX Group plans to open a U.S. office in Chicago.