Chicago’s Trade Show Industry Takes a Hit

Chicago’s Trade Show Industry Takes a Hit

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Chicago hosted fewer large trade shows in 2005 than in previous years. Tradeshow Week magazine reports the city is now third in the nation behind Las Vegas and Orlando.

Heywood Sanders is a trade show industry expert. He says Chicago has lost some standard events and current expansion plans will only go so far.

“Even as McCormick Place is in the midst of an expansion that will get it almost a half million square feet of additional exhibit hall space, Las Vegas is spending well over $700 million for an expansion of its own. So the space race continues,” he says.

A spokesman for the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau says the city’s booking patterns are cyclical and that more events are being scheduled for 2007.