Pool Trims Size, Gains New Business
Pooltradeshow had a new look, new location and trimmed-down footprint at its Feb. 17–19 run at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Show Director Stephanie Seeley said she hoped the updated look would provide a boost for new business. There were more than 200 vendors at the trade show. It was a slight decline, Seeley said.
This season, Pool debuted Cash + Carry, a mini-show where independent fashion and crafts labels sold designs directly for cash. It was intended to be reminiscent of a crafts show for consumers. Pool also hosted a mini-show called Emerging Concept, which showcased the wares of new designers in a common exhibition area.
Pool cut some buyer lounges from its site plan and whittled down its aisle size from 14 feet wide to 9 feet wide. The sleeker aisles and smaller lounge space are more in tune with a business culture navigating tough times.
“People just want to do business,” Seeley said. “They don’t want to stay here for an inordinate amount of time.”
(The show retained its trademark sense of fun, however, with a Ping Pong table and TV equipped with Guitar Hero in the lounge.)
Keeping a lean trade show presence also was important to many vendors, such as Chris Gorog, chief executive of San Francisco–based Tevel Industries. This season, Gorog hired only one worker to staff his booth: himself. It was a different situation compared with the August 2008 Pool show, at which he worked with a staff of five. He claims to have cut 75 percent of his trade show costs by traveling solo.
Similar to the larger MAGIC Marketplace show, many vendors were pleasantly surprised by doing good business in a poor economy. Cody De Backer of Los Angeles–based label Grn Apple Tree estimated that his label’s sales increased 15 percent compared with the February 2008 show, where his label exhibited at MAGIC’s S.L.A.T.E. He claimed that 60 percent of retailers visiting his booth wrote orders. He estimated that 80 percent of those retailers wrote Spring and Summer orders.—Andrew Asch
