Licensing Expo returns to Las Vegas next week
After being away since 2019, Licensing Expo, the world’s largest licensing event, is returning to Las Vegas on Tuesday through Thursday at Mandalay Bay Convention Center.
“For more than 40 years, Licensing Expo has served as the gathering place for the global licensing community to network, ink deals and celebrate,” said Anna Knight, vice president for licensing for Informa Markets, the event organizer.
“We are utterly thrilled to share that we are returning to Las Vegas in-person in 2022, bringing with us a new-age format that encompasses the best of in-person connections enhanced by the best that digital has to offer,” she said in a news release posted on its website.
Major brand names such as Coca-Cola, Amazon, NFL, Hasbro and Netflix are expected to attend, with 11,000 people registered for the event and more expected to attend.
“There is nowhere else you can see such a wide variety of brands available for license under one roof,” Knight said in an email interview with the Review-Journal. “It’s a highly creative and vibrant show floor.”
The floor will be filled with more than 230 exhibitors and licensing giants will give presentations on industry trends and information on the licensing industry. Additionally, the expo will offer a variety of events for attendees.
“From keynote presentations to character parades, VR headsets, happy hours and live dance performances, the event truly has something for everyone,” Knight said.
The expo will focus on a theme — location-based experiences — for the 2022 expo. The theme is designed to complement “the changing way in which consumers engage with brands,” the expo release said. “As fans increasingly demand ways to demonstrate brand affinity, the drive to fully immerse into a favorite licensed property becomes the ultimate goal.”
The event is a large economic driver for Las Vegas, with the $292 billion licensing industry bringing in attendees from around the world.
“Most attendees to the event fly in from across the U.S. and internationally, generating tens of thousands of room bookings for the week of the event,” Knight said.
Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com or via Twitter @EmersonDrewes.