Niche conventions spotlight perfume bottles, dog shows, comic books

An oversized bottle of Joy by Jean Natou sits atop an exhibitor table, sparkling in the light. Just before the show opens, exhibitors are unwrapping collectible perfume bottles, trays and compacts, all with the utmost care.

Welcome to the International Perfume Bottle Association’s 25th annual convention at Tropicana Las Vegas, just one of many niche shows to visit Las Vegas this year.

In 2012, Las Vegas hosted 21,615 trade shows and conventions. More than 2 million people attended expos that attracted fewer than 500 people in 2012, accounting for
40.5 percent of Las Vegas’ convention attendance for the year.

At the Riviera, niche conventions make up 60 percent of the hotel’s trade show business. That’s a business plan, not an accident.

Dave Zweifel, the Riviera’s vice president of sales, said there’s so much competition for corporate meetings and shows that it made sense for the hotel to enter an area that was a little underserved locally.

“I don’t think a lot of people in Las Vegas have really entertained them before,” he said.

On any given weekend, the Riviera could be hosting dog shows, cat shows, dance conventions, comic book expos or dart tournaments — all geared toward a very specific audience. Because of their nature, niche convention planners, Zweifel said, require a good value and a lot of meeting space from hotel partners.

“It’s a market that some have not explored,” he said.

Five to 10 years ago, the Riviera wouldn’t have explored it either. But with added competition from other properties, Zweifel said niche shows can be the right decision for certain properties.

At the Tropicana Las Vegas, which hosts roughly 300 meetings a year, niche shows yield about 10 percent to 15 percent of the property’s sales.

“Association shows have typically a tighter budget, but it’s a matter of picking the right set of dates that work for them,” Gavin Mealiffe, vice president of sales for the Tropicana, said.

Dealing with niche shows can be much different than working with others because they often have many moving parts, operated by people who aren’t necessarily professional meeting planners. Therefore, Zweifel said, host hotels must be more proactive in the planning process than they would be with a large corporate client.

Of the niche-show producers, Zweifel said there’s a certain portion that’s tried and true and then there are entrepreneurs who are new to the game.

“We’re hoping to grow with them,” he said. “We help them get a start and a foothold to grow that show. Obviously it’s mutually beneficial to both of us. As that show grows we benefit economically as well.”

Earlier this year, the Riviera saw perhaps its greenest client.

Las Pegasus Unicon, a convention for fans of the animated series “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” was held at the end of February at the Riviera.

By all accounts, it was a disaster.

The event attracted adult fans of the series, who call themselves Bronies. Writers and voice actors came to the event to participate in fan panels, but before the convention ended, the first-time show producer ran out of money to pay her bill.

“That was an interesting experience,” Zweifel said.

He declined to comment further, but there’s plenty of information about the mishap available online from fans and upset vendors.

Apparently low attendance, disorganization and lack of experience factored in the convention having to be canceled on the last day. Attendees got stuck with larger hotel bills than they had expected, and many vendors didn’t get paid.

“A very small percentage of the market goes that way,” Zweifel said. “And that’s with every hotel. Some groups operate flawlessly and others don’t.”

Although some conventions do go awry, other niche shows are produced by seemingly well-oiled machines such as Creation Entertainment, which has been organizing shows in the fantasy and sci-fi genres for years. CEO Gary Berman created his company as a 13-year-old comic book fan, because “there seemed to be a need for it.”

Creation recently hosted “The Vampire Diaries” convention at the Rio, with another scheduled for September 2014. It’s also set to host a “Supernatural” expo next March and a Star Trek convention in August.

“It’s really a major thing now,” Berman said of shows in his genre.

He’s expecting about 4,300 attendees at his Star Trek expo, which will feature 81 actors. In recent years, he’s seen attendance grow.

“As you might imagine, a lot of our people are experts in computers and have higher-priced jobs and devote a lot of their money to these topics, buying collectibles and going to these shows,” Berman said. “I don’t think that there’s a limit.”

At the perfume bottle association show there didn’t seem to be one.

Member Deborah Washington began collecting bottles when she inherited her grandmother’s collection. Now she owns about 500, and is an active member of the national association, which boasts about 1,100 members.

Roughly 250 people attended the group’s Las Vegas convention, including Ken Leach, who owns Gallery 47 in New York. Throughout his 50-year career Leach’s love of perfume bottles has taken him from caves to castles to find the precious objects. When he was offered the chance to buy the home of the late actress Dolores del Rio, he instead purchased her extensive perfume bottle collection.

Leach also runs the association’s annual auction, and he’s been able to sell bottles for large sums, including one that went for $216,000. Its owner paid $50 for it in 1939.

“Don’t ever throw anything away,” Leach said.

In Las Vegas, it’s not only out-of-state groups hosting niche shows. Local operators, too, get in on the action.

Later this month, the Las Vegas Paranormal Conference is to be held at Palace Station, produced by resident Robert George Allen, owner of the Haunted Vegas Tour. And local Richard Stott founded Anime Vegas 10 years ago, and is expecting 2,500 people at his show in late August.

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at
lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588.
Follow @lscvegas on Twitter.