Convention wisdom favors Las Vegas

CHICAGO — Las Vegas has strengthened its claim as the king of convention cities, hosting a record number of the largest trade shows in 2005, new industry rankings released Wednesday show.

And Chicago, the U.S. convention capital for decades until it was dethroned in the 1990s, has tumbled into third place behind Orlando for the first time. Looming as the next threat to overtake it, convention industry experts say, is fourth-place New York.

The latest annual rankings by Tradeshow Week magazine come amid intense competition among cities for a bigger share of the lucrative convention business. Both Las Vegas and Orlando, which landed 44 and 26 of the 200 largest trade shows last year, respectively, have doubled their exhibit space in recent years, improving their ability to attract events and gain bookings.

They also reflect Las Vegas’ phenomenal growth and evolution into a world-class city, according to Tradeshow Week publisher Adam Schaffer, confirming that “the Sin City stigma is largely gone.”

Not only did the desert city add six major conventions from the previous year, the size of all its large shows rose by 22 percent to a collective 22.6 million square feet, according to Tradeshow Week. That’s more than a third of all U.S. square footage combined among the biggest 200 shows.

“Las Vegas is almost a nation unto itself” in the convention business now with its abundance of exhibit space and broad appeal, Schaffer said. “Everybody wants to go to Vegas — they want to go a show, shop, eat, be entertained. It seems to have a formula that is working and not really showing any signs of slowing down.”

After ranking second behind Las Vegas for 11 straight years, Chicago hosted six conventions fewer than surging Orlando in 2005. While its total of 20 was up from 18 the year before — the fewest in more than a decade — their combined square footage declined to 6.4 million.