January conventions are booming in Las Vegas
When this month’s International Consumer Electronics Show drew a record 170,000 people to Southern Nevada, it turned heads.
But it turns out CES was only the opening act for January as one of the most robust months for convention attendance in years.
This week, nearly a quarter-million people will be in Southern Nevada for 20 events, six of which forecast attendance of 24,000 people or more.
The largest of the mid-January shows opens today at the Sands Expo Center with the annual Shooting, Hunting &Outdoor Trade Show.
The four-day show is the world’s largest firearms event of its kind and Las Vegas’ fifth-largest annual convention.
It’s open only to industry professionals and will include 1,600 exhibitors showing guns, ammunition and a variety of hunting and shooting accessories on 630,000 square feet. An estimated 67,000 people are scheduled to attend.
Another big event just a few blocks away will result from a collaboration between the National Association of Homebuilders and the National Kitchen and Bath Association.
For the second straight year, the homebuilders are staging the NAHB International Builders’ Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center at the same time and location as the Kitchen &Bath Industry Show for Design and Construction Week.
Organizers of both events co-located their shows, meaning registrants from one may attend the other at no additional charge. The tactic, first used successfully in Las Vegas last year, broadens the appeal of both events.
Organizers of the homebuilders’ show expect a turnout of 49,000, while the kitchen and bath show anticipates drawing 24,000 people today through Thursday.
A third trade show is now part of Design and Construction Week — Surfaces 2015. An estimated 25,000 conventioneers are expected for the show today through Friday at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.
The event, formally known as the International Surface Event, is a trade show and educational conference for the flooring, stone and tile industries.
Another home furnishings event has already arrived in downtown Las Vegas and continues through Thursday.
Las Vegas Market Winter 2015 began Sunday at the World Market Center. An estimated 50,000 people are expected to attend the show that displays furniture and home treatments in 5 million square-feet of exhibit space near the Spaghetti Bowl.
The sixth major show of the week is a Las Vegas rarity — attendees don’t have to be affiliated with the industry to attend.
An estimated 25,000 people are expected at the 2015 Adult Entertainment Expo, which runs Wednesday through Saturday at the Hard Rock Hotel.
The event culminates Saturday with the AVN Awards Show, an Academy Awards-styled show for the adult film industry.
Ticket packages to attend the trade show start at $55 and tickets to the awards show range from $175 to $2,500.
January has always been a big convention month for Southern Nevada as organizations look to kick off the new year with gatherings that set the tone for the coming year.
In 2014, January was the best month of the convention year with 631,520 attending shows in the first month of the year. Every year, January, February and March usually are the biggest months for convention attendance in Southern Nevada.
Since the recession, the Las Vegas conventions and trade show industries have been trying to battle back to 2007’s record attendance year. That year, Las Vegas hosted 6.2 million convention visitors resulting in an estimated annual nongaming economic impact of $8.4 billion.
The largest attendance month on record in Las Vegas was February 2008, when 893,982 attended meetings, conventions and trade shows in the city, according to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority statistics.
The authority hasn’t released totals for 2014, but it’s estimated to be around 5.2 million, based on 11-month totals.
While the megaconventions get most of the attention, most of the approximately 21,000 conventions and meetings each year in Southern Nevada draw fewer than 1,000 people.
That’s also the case this week.
Among the small events that are occurring at the same time as the six large shows are the Army Navy Military Expo that ends Tuesday at the Rio with 3,000 in attendance; Balloon Designs, a convention of 200 people at Harrah’s today through Sunday; and the United Transportation Union’s 2015 reorganization meeting at Treasure Island. The four-day gathering of 90 people ends Wednesday.
Falmouth Institute offers culturally relevant education seminars for Native Americans at the Embassy Suites hotel. The five two-day seminars scheduled this week will draw 15 people apiece.
But those events and everything else will combine to attract an estimated 456,161 people to the city this week.
