Europe, meet Vegas
WMC deal brings shows to U.S.
By Susan M. Andrews -- Furniture Today, February 28, 2004
Las Vegas — Visitors to this July's Las Vegas market will get a 200,000-square-foot taste of two big European textile and home décor shows, Heimtextil and Ambiente.
An alliance between the World Market Center here and Messe Frankfurt Inc., the U.S. division of the Germany-based organizer of Heimtextil and Ambiente, will bring trend presentations and exhibitors from the shows to Las Vegas.
Messe Frankfurt President Roland Bleinroth said the exhibition, called Interior Lifestyle USA, will feature elements of both shows, combined into "a great new trend pavilion unlike any ever seen before, and certainly beyond anything seen in the United States."
Shawn Samson, co-managing partner of the World Market Center, said the WMC has added 200,000 square feet to its temporary space at the Las Vegas Convention Center to accommodate the Interior Lifestyle show, bringing the total space to 2.5 million square feet. The first Las Vegas Furniture Market is set for July 25–29.
"This will make us the largest single debut of any trade show in Las Vegas history and the largest inaugural home furnishings market as well," Samson said.
"This is exactly in line with our vision, which was to create an international venue in the United States. The U.S. is such a large consumer market, but all the international shows have taken place elsewhere, in part because there has been no infrastructure large enough to handle them here.
"Also, in our research to determine the best possible market configuration for Las Vegas, over and over buyers point to the international shows as being the cutting edge for the fresh, new and different things they look for," Samson said.
He added that since the Heimtextil and Ambiente exhibitors have their own buyer followings, he expects the Interior Lifestyle USA presentation will bring "a new wave of international buyers" to the July show.
In the trends pavilions, which Las Vegas will bring from the two European shows, a trade show names a designer or panel of designers to select products from among the show's exhibitor base that support what they believe are the directions developing in a market. The products are then integrated into themed presentations.
"Given the short time period leading to the first event in Las Vegas, we are being modest in our expectations for exhibitors, although we do expect to see Heimtextil and Ambiente exhibitors joining us for the initial show," Bleinroth said. "We are very excited to be part of this Las Vegas platform, and next year and in the years to come as we continue down this road, it will be easier logistically for our international exhibitors to be here."
Product categories at Interior Lifestyle USA will include design-oriented home furnishings, decorative accessories, upholstery fabric, home textiles, curtains and draperies, wallpaper and wall coverings, carpets, floor coverings, decorative home lighting, crystal, glass, tabletop, porcelain, seasonal articles and decorative art.
