Thousands of people will come to Las Vegas, a city synonymous with hedonistic excess, next week to watch the cement dry.
It’s been almost 40 years since Steve Hill attended his first World of Concrete event, but he’s never been more excited about a show like this. It’s not just the prospect of seeing the latest truck mixers or watching paver competitions; it is that WOC 2021 will mark the return of Congresses to a city whose economy depends on them and an industry that is struggling to replicate its attractions online.
After decades in the ready-mixed concrete industry, Hill is now the chief executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority, the agency charged with attracting visitors to the Nevada gambling center, and owner of the convention center that will host the Informa-hosted show.
Last year, when the coronavirus closed casinos and exhibition halls, the total number of visitors to Las Vegas dropped 55 percent to 19 million. But while occupancy on the Strip has doubled to two-thirds of its usual level since January, the LVCVA has kept the attendance at zero or “unavailable” every month since April last year.
That should change. Las Vegas lifted restrictions on large gatherings on June 1, and with more than 40 percent of the US population fully vaccinated, event organizers who have struggled with online conferencing for the past 14 months feel confident enough to resume personal fairs.
“The recovery has been faster than we thought or even hoped,” says Hill. With few international visitors flying to Las Vegas and the event being postponed to the busiest time in the construction industry, the 2021 WOC attendance will almost certainly be below the usual 60,000, but it will be an important first show in a pipeline that Hill describes as surprisingly strong.
After the Las Vegas Convention Center used the pandemic hiatus to complete a $ 989 million expansion, Hills leased the venue more than ever starting July 1 for the year. Scheduled events range from the nightclub and bar show later this month to the Water Quality Association meeting in July.
Each of them will matter to Nevada, which estimates that in a normal year, conventions would cost $ 11.5 billion for a state with a gross domestic product of about 178 billion Los Angeles of 50 major metropolitan areas.
Prior to the pandemic, Las Vegas could expect vacationers to hit over 95 percent occupancy in its casinos on most weekends, but relied on convention goers to keep its 150,000 hotel rooms full on weekdays.
Hervé Sedky, managing director of the event group Emerald, has planned 90 events for August, almost all of them in Las Vegas. From the Pizza Expo to the Antique Jewelry and Watch Show, they’ll make for the highest number of events in the company’s history, he says, although attendees are only a third to half their pre-pandemic level.
Las Vegas has followed the example of Florida and Texas, “which really never closed entirely,” observes Sedky, and its reopening has encouraged other cities like Chicago and New York to follow suit.
The Javits Center in Manhattan, which calls itself the busiest convention center in the United States, was converted into a field hospital for Covid-19 patients last spring and has recently become the city’s largest vaccination center. However, it is planned to hold events again until August.
Cities’ eagerness to reopen to trade shows reflects their need to re-launch economies that have been shaken sideways by the pandemic, argues Sedky. “More than 80 percent of the [our] Customers are small businesses. . . Not having a fair is really problematic for them. As we are thinking about reopening the economy, it is important for these companies to get back to business, ”he says.
We had three people discussing whether to wear the mask: We kicked them out
Promoters like Informa and Emerald put many of their events online last year to keep this business alive, but “honestly, virtual exhibitions don’t deliver the value our customers are looking for,” admits Sedky.
The informative content of the virtual shows was received relatively well, he says, but “the part of the online replica of the exhibition area doesn’t work. It’s awful. ”
Emerald dived back into the waters of in-person events with a show in Orlando, Florida for the surf industry in January. Attendance was roughly half what it was before Covid-19, but exhibitors gave rave reviews and reported that they brought in significant orders.
The 3,500 buyers who showed up “weren’t that happy,” admits Sedky: “Their complaint was that there wasn’t enough to see.”
Such experiments have allowed the industry to refine the safety protocols that calm guests who are still nervous about the risk of infection.
Surf Expo had Plexiglas screens on the booths, a no-handshake policy, and health and safety “ambassadors” enforcing a zero-tolerance face mask policy, Sedky recalls: “We had three people discussing whether we should wear the mask: we threw it away. “
Hill’s venue has similarly introduced contactless registration and will conduct food display differently, he says, although several nearby casinos have restarted buffets synonymous with Vegas. However, the World of Concrete 2021 will not require any proof of vaccination from its visitors.
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The pandemic put a strain on the finances of many of the largest companies in the industry. Event revenue from RELX, the owner of Reed Exhibitions, fell from £ 1.3 billion to £ 362 million last year.
But Reed said last month that the vast majority of its customers had carried over their 2020 bookings to 2021, and in March it attracted nearly 3,000 buyers and 170 exhibitors to its Jewelers International Showcase in Miami Beach – 10 percent above normal.
One pattern that is already emerging is that travel restrictions mean domestic shows in the US and elsewhere do better than those that depend on international visitors.
These dynamics are also driving faster recovery in the Las Vegas tourism business, says Hill: With so few Americans flying overseas, more of them are taking breaks in Las Vegas. The number of visitors driving into town to play instead of flying is now above 2019 levels, he notes.
With unemployment still so high in a city disproportionately dependent on visitors, Las Vegas is now stepping up its efforts to withdraw more of them by promoting the daring escapism the city has long enjoyed for gamers and conference-goers alike winds up.
A new advertising campaign running on television channels in the US euphemistically invites visitors to “enjoy the freedom of adults that only Las Vegas has to offer”.
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