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Attendees visit the Samsung booth during CES Friday, January 7, 2011, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 | 1:46 p.m.
Sun Topics
Las Vegas remained the top U.S. destination for trade shows in 2010, according to a new report released by the Trade Show News Network.
The city hosted 60 of the 250 largest trade shows on the 2010 TSNN U.S. Trade Shows list, despite seeing a decline in trade show attendance in recent years due to the recession. The 60 shows spanned nearly 20.7 million square feet of convention space.
“Las Vegas was built to host events and maintaining our position as the No. 1 trade show destination reinforces the commitment and dedication of everyone who works in the industry,” Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said in the TSNN report.
Orlando took second place with 25 shows and Chicago was third with 22 shows on the Top 250 list.
In addition to having the most trade shows on the list, Las Vegas hosted two of the nation's three largest trade shows, TSNN said.
The Consumer Electronics Show, held each January in Las Vegas, took the top spot as the largest convention on the list with 1,442,000 square feet of floor space at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show had more than 140,000 in attendance this year.
The Association for Manufacturing Technology’s biennial tradeshow in Chicago ranked No. 2, spanning 1,137,375 square feet.
The Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute’s biennial expo, also at the Las Vegas Convention Center, in September, came in at No. 3 with 1,054,505 square feet of showfloor space.
The list of the 250 largest trade shows is available here.
I have participated as both a exhibitor and attendee for years at various shows and Las Vegas is far and away the best value for the money as either. Anyone who remembers COMDEX in the late 80s knows what I mean.
In my mind Chicago was the worst city I ever exhibited in.
Atlanta (in the early 90s) would be my number two choice.
Great work, and props, to the LVCVA and the resorts for saving the meeting industry here in Las Vegas. They did that during a massive dep/recession and while having to deal with our president telling people not to come here ... twice!
There is no place better to do convention/meetings business in Las Vegas, and us doing that right and treating our guest well keeps the lights on.
This is great news but we have room to expand. We all have to come together to ensure costs are controlled and salaries, jurisdictions and regulations don't get to out of control. If we can control these all will prosper.
The hourly workers will make more money through more hours do to more conventions filling the holes in the schedule.