If our local sports books offered an over/under on attendance at the International Consumer Electronics Show as set by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the over would be a lock.
The forecast is for 126,000 people at the city’s kickoff event for what is predicted to be a nice turnaround year for meetings and conventions in Las Vegas. The four-day CES opens Jan. 6 and will feature gadgets galore and some of the top names in the technology world speaking about what’s ahead in the industry.
Even before the Washington-based Consumer Electronics Association, organizer of CES, announced last week that Huffington Post co-founder and Editor Arianna Huffington and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings would present a “fireside chat” as a keynote address for the Leaders in Technology Dinner, a stellar lineup has been planned.
Flamboyant Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is scheduled for the preshow keynote address Jan. 5. Appearances by Cisco CEO John Chambers and Ford Motor Co. President and CEO Alan Mulally, both CES staples, are on tap.
Over the years, Ballmer has eased into the preshow keynote slot that long had been held by his boss, Bill Gates. The Microsoft team has had a penchant for dropping celebrities into their presentations over the years with Shaquille O’Neal and Conan O’Brien among those who have touted Microsoft’s many successes and occasional flops.
When Mulally made his first CES appearance, many scratched their heads over what a Detroit car guy could do to enthuse a bunch of gadget geeks. But he delivered with a preview of the Microsoft-powered Sync, an entertainment and communications system that more and more is viewed as an automotive essential. CES attendees won’t look at Ford the same way again.
One product that seems to be creating a lot of buzz this year is 3-D TV, and several manufacturers have indicated they plan to show off their innovations.
CES is a fabulous stage with a six-figure audience. Many saw their first VCRs, DVDs and TiVos in Las Vegas, thanks to the show. They also got to see O’Brien mock Gates when his operating system crashed during a keynote demo.
Although CES is great theater, it’s just an opening act for the local trade show industry, which is counting on a big turnaround in 2011 to boost the sluggish economy.
It appears that all the pieces are in place for a good kickoff.
January conventions are going to be populated with shooters (outdoorsmen, photographers and hockey players), potato growers, gas-passers (a meeting of anesthesia technologists) and porn stars (the Adult Expo runs at the same time as CES).
The big-attendance events are the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (known as the SHOT Show) and World of Concrete convention, both Jan. 18-21, which will bring in more than 55,000 people apiece.
One of the year’s two World Market Center furniture shows (estimated turnout is 50,000) is Jan. 24-28 in downtown Las Vegas.
And, the LVCVA scored a coup when it was able to squeeze in the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigerating Exposition with its 40,000 delegates Jan. 31-Feb. 2. This is the first time it has come to Las Vegas, mainly because the calendar has been too filled with other big shows to work them in. Authority officials see another window of opportunity for that event in 2016.
Las Vegas is one of the few cities in the country that can manage a convention with six-figure attendance. It’ll be all hands on deck at the Las Vegas Convention Center March 22-26 when the city plays host to ConExpo-Con/Agg, North America’s largest trade show. It comes to Las Vegas every three years and 2011 is one of those years. ConExpo-Con/Agg, a construction industry show, not only is impressive with its 140,000 conventiongoers, but nearly every inch of the Convention Center’s 155-acre campus — including parking lots — is used to display equipment.
The parking lot becomes a forest of cranes because industry sales reps like to show off units that can extend hundreds of feet into the air.
It’s expected demand will be pent up for the Las Vegas ConExpo because so many people who wanted to attend last year’s show in Munich got volcanoed out when their flights were canceled by the dust cloud produced by Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull eruptions.
Other big events are on the convention calendar, but these are the six-figure attendance shows in case you want to warn your relatives that room rates could be higher because of increased demand:
• MAGIC Marketplace, a major fashion exposition, is near the 100,000 attendance level. Recent attendance has been off, but economic signs point to the possibility of a breakthrough. The next show, at the Convention Center, is Feb. 14-18.
• Although it isn’t on the authority’s published calendar, the National Association of Broadcasters convention, which lately has brought in about 115,000 people, is scheduled for April 9-14.
• The Specialty Equipment Market Association automotive aftermarket show (120,000 attendees forecast) comes Nov. 1-4 with affiliated shows at the Convention Center and the Sands Expo & Convention Center.
Bigger planes for WestJet
Canadian discount airline WestJet is joining airlines looking to operate larger aircraft to increase lift to key destinations.
The Calgary, Alberta-based airline announced recently it plans to lease a Boeing 757-200 from North American Airlines to use between two Canadian cities and Hawaii.
The airline announced that between Feb. 12 and April 30, WestJet would use the twin-engine jet capable of carrying 193 passengers between Calgary and Honolulu and Maui and between Edmonton, Alberta, and Maui.
Some analysts think the short-term lease is a test run for WestJet to use larger aircraft on a regular basis some day. WestJet normally operates Boeing 737-700 jets on its routes, including its runs between several Canadian cities and McCarran International Airport.
WestJet joins several airlines that traditionally have used one aircraft type, but are trying a larger, different model to increase profits.
Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air plans to acquire Boeing 757s to operate flights to Hawaii from the West Coast with a service to start in 2012, while Southwest Airlines has modified an order with Boeing to acquire larger Boeing 737-800s instead of 700 series jets. The first delivery of those planes is scheduled in 2012.
Trusted travelers
The U.S. Travel Association is keeping the heat on federal officials to institute a trusted traveler program, which it says would increase the number of trips people take each year.
A survey conducted by the association indicated that eight travelers in 10 support a program that would provide alternate screening measures for Americans willing to submit to a background check and meet other risk criteria.
The online survey, conducted by Consensus Research Group, included a nationally representative sample of 1,000 business and leisure air travelers who have flown in the past two years, are 25 or older and live in the United States. The survey was conducted Nov. 29 to Dec. 10.
According to the survey, respondents said they would take an average two or three trips a year more if the security line hassle were lessened and the system wouldn’t compromise security. The association estimates that the additional trips would add $84.6 billion in travel spending, supporting 888,000 additional jobs.
“Americans are clamoring for a better way and it should be a wake-up call for our leaders in Washington,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the association. “An efficient air travel security screening system that streamlines the process for trusted travelers can strengthen our security and economy. Let’s get to work building the system Americans crave.”
Among other survey findings:
• Having to remove shoes before going through a metal detector received a higher negative response from those surveyed than newly implemented pat-down body searches by Transportation Security Administration personnel.
• Nearly nine in 10 respondents think it’s possible to achieve an air travel screening system that is both secure and efficient, although virtually the same number think if we can put a man on the moon, we can create a passenger security system that doesn’t frighten or inconvenience travelers.
• Three in four air travelers support recruiting more professional security personnel who are trained to use personal observation, dogs and sophisticated computer analyses that have proved to be effective screening techniques in the past.
The association has assembled a panel of industry and security experts and former government officials that will draft and issue a report later this year recommending a system intended to ease the travel experience and minimize the burden on travelers while maximizing security.
AirTran deal
Southwest Airlines has announced that its deal to acquire AirTran Airways for $1.4 billion would close in the second quarter of 2011.
A late-December blog post on the airline’s website said the company has “a little clearer picture of the time frame” for getting Justice Department approval. In November, Southwest announced that regulators had requested more information about the deal.
The acquisition is expected to give Southwest, the busiest carrier at McCarran, the opportunity to enter Atlanta and possibly fly routes to the Caribbean and Mexico.
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