WMC, Sands at odds on shuttle
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, August 22, 2005
Las Vegas — The Las Vegas Furniture Show at the Sands Exposition Center drew nearly 10,000 buyers in four days, its organizer said, despite apparent efforts by the World Market Center to block traffic to the venue.
During the inaugural Las Vegas market, the WMC refused to allow shuttle buses from the Sands show to drop off or pick up dealers at the main WMC building's designated shuttle area.
And anyone looking for directions to the Sands Expo or the connected Venetian hotel was out of luck if he consulted maps in the WMC directories. The two venues were omitted.
Then, on the third day of market, a Las Vegas Furniture Show employee carrying a "Bus loading" sign and directing buyers to a nearby shuttle to the Sands, was told to leave the area by a WMC security official, said Stephan Phelps, president of Triad Expositions, which managed the Sands show.
Phelps said buyers were "quite disturbed" about the extra steps they had to take to find the show. He said he heard complaints from dealers and from Sands exhibitors who said their customers "felt real inconvenienced."
He contended that Triad Expositions had an agreement that would have allowed for shuttle pickup at the World Market Center, but a few weeks before market opened it received notice from the WMC to the contrary. Triad made other arrangements, keeping its shuttle service and people on city streets and sidewalks but as close to the WMC as possible.
Phelps said the Sands show workers near the WMC were there only to direct buyers who sought out the Sands show.
Shawn Samson, co-managing partner of World Market Center, said there never was an agreement between the WMC and Phelps' show. He said the WMC worked with local governments for more than a year to develop a comprehensive traffic management plan for the building.
For safety reasons as well as for managing traffic flow, the WMC plan precluded drop-offs at sidewalks, he said.
In addition, Samson said, "to protect our buyers and exhibitors in any kind of strategic relationships, we have to make sure the operator of any other trade show that wants to be our strategic partner ... has implemented the same high standards and quality of service as WMC."
He said only the Assn. of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers Fair at the Las Vegas Convention Center met the standards.
As for leaving the Sands Expo and the Venetian off the map, Samson said it wasn't deliberate and that WMC used a map provided by a third party. He said he hadn't heard of the incident with the Sands show employee who was told to leave the area.
WMC spokeswoman Dana Pretner later responded that under the traffic plan required by city and county officials, "drop-off on the streets surrounding WMC was strictly prohibited."
"When our security officer noticed a violation of these rules by an individual holding the Triad 'bus loading' sign on the street outside WMC, they responded by reminding the individual of the city rules, at which point the individual left," she said.
Pretner said the WMC had received complaints the Sands bus drivers didn't know the routes.
"Ultimately, Triad's misleading their buyers and exhibitors into believing that they would have shuttle service to and from WMC, and instead dropping off people on the street in violation of the city and county rules of which they were informed in detail prior to the market, is what posed the greatest problem and inconvenience," she said.
Phelps said, "As I know it from every side, we violated no law."
Triad received a letter from WMC attorneys on July 7. It refered to a traffic plan approved by the city and said that. in order to execute the plan, "our client has been advised that non-sanctioned shuttles should not be allowed to load or unload passengers in or near the bus staging area of the World Market Center facility."
The Sands show was loading on the opposite side of the WMC near an area designated for public transportation, not near the sanctioned shuttle area, Phelps said. The area had light traffic compared with other areas around the WMC; passengers walked up a sidewalk to the bus.
As for Triad's advertising, it stated the Las Vegas Furniture Show was providing "free shuttle bus service to all furniture market venues in Las Vegas." It did so, although the service at the WMC was hard for some to find.
O.C. White, traffic engineer for Las Vegas, said the WMC probably had the right to ask the sign holder to leave because the project is still under development and the public areas haven't been turned over to the city.
Phelps said the shuttle issue had "virtually no effect on attendance" at his show, which he said drew "a little less than 10,000" buyers, or close to one-third the number of buyers he estimates attended market.
Samson said there were 62,000 WMC attendees registered. He said "the overwhelming majority" were buyers, but the figure includes exhibitors, sales representatives and others.
Phelps hopes that between now and January, when his show moves to the Rio, Triad Expositions and the WMC will "come up with some form of accommodation, and put this behind us."
