California Apparel News

The apparel trade show scene in Las Vegas is stacking up to look like a game of musical chairs.

Various sources have confirmed that Project Global Trade Show will be moving in February from the Sands Expo & Convention Center to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, a 1 million-square-foot venue where Project has been held in the past.

Meanwhile, the Off-Price Specialist Show, which has been using a lower floor of the Sands Expo for its biannual event, will be moving up a level in August 2010 to occupy the space once held by Project.

And ASAP Global Sourcing Show, which had only seven booths at its most recent trade show, is re-evaluating the future of its event now that its contract with The Venetian hotel has expired, said Jerome Yuan, show manager and son of the show’s founder, Frank Yuan.

Furthermore, rumors have been circulating that the MAGIC Marketplace, which is the largest of all the apparel trade shows and is held twice a year in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center, might move sections of its show to the Mandalay Bay with Project. Both shows are owned by MAGIC’s parent company, Advanstar Communications Inc. MAGIC spokesperson Kathleen Flaherty said the company would not comment on that rumor.

Advanstar executives would not confirm that they are moving Project to the Mandalay Bay, either. But Michael O’Keefe, a sales executive at the Las Vegas Convention Center, confirmed that MAGIC was planning to move Project to the Mandalay in time for the February show. Also, an anonymous source at the Sands Expo said Project was not scheduled to return to the large convention hall in February.

One of Project’s exhibitors, Michael Geller, president of Paige Premium Denim in Los Angeles, said he had been told the show would take place at the Mandalay Bay.

Project’s move is good news for David Lapidos, vice president of the Off-Price Specialist Show. “We are now in what was built as a parking lot,” Lapidos said. “We will be moving up where Project was, in a space that is first-class.”

At 2 million square feet, the LVCC has more exhibition space than the Mandalay Bay, which has 1 million square feet of exhibition space.

For the last two season—August and February—MAGIC has occupied the north and central halls of the LVCC. In previous seasons, it also occupied the LVCC’s south hall.—Deborah Belgum