Seeking to mimic the success of its annual Frankfurt tradeshow, IMEX late last month announced plans to leverage its brand name, the muscle of industry associations, including strategic partner Meeting Professionals International, and the lure of host city Las Vegas to launch in two years what IMEX Group chairman Ray Bloom called "America's worldwide exhibition for incentive travel, meetings and events."
When the three-day show opens on Oct. 11, 2011, at the Sands Expo and Convention Center at The Venetian and The Palazzo, IMEX America will join a growing field of U.S.-based meetings and incentives exhibitions that include the Americas Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition, which Reed Travel Exhibitions will launch in June 2011, and The Motivation Show.
"I have long felt there was a need for a dedicated and business-focused show in the U.S. as there is a gap in the market and a need for a broadly-based show for corporate and association planners," Ray Bloom, chairman of the IMEX Group said as he announced the establishment of the U.S.-based show.
IMEX America said it plans to host 1,500 buyers, 80 percent of whom would originate from within North America. "IMEX America will benefit from the largest-scale hosted buyer program to be delivered in North America, where top meetings and incentives buyers from across the U.S. and the world travel and stay free as our guests," Bloom said.
Organizers said they would create other travel and accommodations packages to attract several thousand more key decision-makers from across the country. "Like IMEX in Frankfurt, IMEX America is a show for the entire meetings and incentive travel industry," Bloom said.
IMEX America already has garnered support from several meetings and incentive associations, Bloom said. "We are already working closely with MPI on a range of global initiatives, including our successful Future Leaders Forum," Bloom said, "and we look forward to developing new strategies for the U.S. market in the coming months."
As it has done with the Frankfurt show, MPI committed to providing educational content for IMEX America. MPI president and CEO Bruce MacMillan said the United States show builds on MPI's relationship with IMEX."MPI was one of the first organizations to become a partner when IMEX Frankfurt was envisioned some seven or eight years ago," MacMillan said. "IMEX Frankfurt's growth to over 9,000 annual visitors has paralleled MPI's European growth, contributing to a rich and thriving European, and indeed global, meeting and event industry."
Among other IMEX America supporters, the International Congress & Convention Association, Destination Marketing Association International and International Association of Congress Centres have agreed to "add their support through a number of marketing and educational initiatives," Bloom said, as has European Cities Marketing, a network of city tourism and convention bureaus.
Additionally, IMEX's inaugural show is scheduled to abut incentive association Site's 2011 annual conference in Las Vegas, which caters to incentive travel executives, while the American Society of Association Executives "will organize dedicated association-led education on the day before the show."
Bloom said IMEX is "confident that Las Vegas will provide IMEX America with a truly outstanding, long-term home."
Rossi Ralenkotter, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority president and CEO, said the conference is a boon to Las Vegas, which is seeking to attract more international visitors and also mend the city's reputation.
Ralenkotter identified internationally inbound visitors "as the growth market for Las Vegas for the next 10 to 15 years. We need to take that market share up to about 20 percent. IMEX America fits perfectly right now," according to Ralenkotter. "We're going to be able to bring the buyers to Las Vegas and showcase our city, our destination. We're going to be able to reach out and bring more corporate meetings to Las Vegas, more events, more trade shows. This is very exciting."
Peter Erickson, managing director of the annual Chicago-hosted Motivation Show, said he doesn't see IMEX America as a threat. "We don't anticipate much impact to our audience of corporate end-users and resellers of incentive travel and motivational meetings here in Chicago," he said. "The Midwest is home to 75 percent of the top full service meeting and incentive companies in North America, all of whom attend our show, and less than 8 percent of our current audience comes from the Pacific and Mountain region in the West."
The Motivation Show is scheduled for Oct. 12-15 next year and will be reformatted to "expand our education and networking offering, while maintaining a full 16-hour exhibit schedule at a reduced cost to our exhibitors," Erickson said.
Erickson said the IMEX announcement is good for the industry "since it provides corporate America with yet another opportunity to meet face-to-face with suppliers from this market, in addition to IT&ME, AIBTM, Incentive Travel Exchange, Elite Meetings Alliance and all of the rest."
Still, the Motivation Show has seen a dip in attendance, as this year's event, held in late September and early October, saw attendee registration fall to 9,131 from 10,467 in 2008. According to Erickson, "While this represents a 13 percent decline, we were very pleased with that total, in view of the current economic climate. Most tradeshows have been down significantly more this year."
Reed Travel Exhibitions last month also announced the launch of a new show in 2011. Reed Travel Exhibitions Meetings and Incentive Events chair Vanessa Cotton in a statement said, "Having consulted with the industry, we now feel it is an appropriate time to announce the launch of AIBTM in 2011.When the global economic downturn hit the industry, and we had to postpone the event, it was always our intention to consider 2011 as our goal for launch."
Announced prior to the IMEX show, Reed Travel Exhibitions said the Americas Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition would be the "first truly large-scale international hosted buyer program in the Americas enhanced by a substantial domestic hosted buyer and trade visitor population."
The event, to be held in Baltimore in June 2011, joins a roster of exhibitions in other cities, including Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Beijing.
Originally published Nov. 16, 2009