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Power Products' Chris Fuhrman points to his booth Monday in the new South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Photo by Steve Andrascik.
Gary Shapiro, president of Consumer Electronics, talks Monday at the opening ceremony of the Las Vegas Convention Center's South Hall expansion. The Consumer Electronics Show will be the first to occupy the 1.3 million-square-foot facility.
Photo by Steve Andrascik.
| Tuesday, January 08, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal CES first show for South Hall Expansion added 1.3 million square feet of floor space By HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Chris Fuhrman is happy with his spot in the new South Hall expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center, where his company is exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show that starts today. "Compared to the situation we had last year, it's fabulous, absolutely fabulous," said Fuhrman, marketing director for Atlanta-based Power Products, which develops and markets wireless phone accessories. Last year Power Products was pushed into temporary facilities in the outside pavilion area set up in the parking lot. CES, the world's largest trade show for consumer electronics technology, is the first show to occupy the $170 million South Hall, which added 1.3 million square feet to the existing convention center, bringing the total to 3.2 million square feet. The international show is expected to draw 110,000 attendees, including some 2,000 exhibitors from 110 countries. CES generated about $155 million in nongaming revenue for Las Vegas in 2001, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The South Hall expansion is a "very important milestone" in the 43-year history of the convention center, said Manny Cortez, president and chief executive officer of the authority. "We think Las Vegas is now in a position to become the undisputed leader in convention business," Cortez said Monday at a ceremony marking the grand opening of the new hall. Nearly 4 million people came to Las Vegas last year for conventions and trade shows, generating $4.3 billion in nongaming revenue. The city hosted 33 of the top 200 conventions listed in Tradeshow Week magazine, including Comdex, CES, Men's Apparel Guild in California and National Association of Broadcasters. Las Vegas has come a long way from 1959 when the convention center opened with 119,000 square feet of exhibit and meeting space, Cortez said. It's grown from 10,000 hotel rooms to more than 125,000 rooms. Las Vegas will have nearly 9 million square feet of available space when Mandalay Resort Group builds its 1.8 million-square-foot convention center, projected for completion in 2003. Convention business accounts for about 13 percent of overall visitors to Las Vegas each year, and Cortez said it's not unreasonable to think it'll grow to 20 percent to 25 percent of the visitor base in the next five years. The convention authority allocates about 15 percent of its $49 million sales and marketing budget to conventions and meetings, said Rossi Ralenkotter, vice president of marketing. CES will take 1.2 million square feet of space at the convention center and was one of the shows that proposed a private consortium to provide funding for the new project. That idea was later scrapped when opposition arose from Sheldon Adelson, owner of the 1.2 million-square-foot Sands Expo and adjoining The Venetian. Fuhrman of Power Products said CES organizers did their best to accommodate exhibitors in the pavilion overflow area, but it just doesn't compare with the new facility. "With all three centers now connected, attendees can more easily cover the area, which will increase the probability that we'll see more important buyers," he said.
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