World Market Center Las Vegas recently announced plans to launch its first ancillary market – “Gift + Home” – June 13 to 16, 2010. This new event marks the home furnishings campus’ first stand-alone show outside of the bi-annual Las Vegas Market.
According to Philip McKay, World Market Center Las Vegas’ Senior Vice President, 74 percent of current Las Vegas Market attendees already purchase gifts and decorative accessories and market officials believe there is continued growth ahead.
“The new Gift + Home show is a progression in World Market Center Las Vegas’ vision of being a total home marketplace,” McKay said. “The need to service this key industry segment is a natural extension of the diverse offering currently here. We have tremendous momentum in the gift industry and we’ve been steadily attracting gift buyers to Las Vegas Market. We look forward to revitalizing the gift industry by presenting a show that consolidates the best gift resources for buyers regionally, nationally and internationally in a destination like no other.”
McKay added that World Market Center Las Vegas sees enormous potential to provide a meaningful buying experience for the gift sector on a global level. “This stand-alone show will address the needs of retailers and exhibitors alike and will offer current World Market Center showrooms even more added value and ROI with the enormous crossover potential among the existing industry sectors.”
World Market Center Las Vegas executives selected the June 2010 date based on the specific needs and buying patterns of the gift industry. Exhibitors will include permanent showrooms and temporary exhibitors in categories including seasonal, floral, decorative accessories, general gift and others. Additionally, Gift + Home will also be a destination with the upcoming Fall and Winter Las Vegas Markets (Sept. 14 – 17, 2009 and Feb. 1-5, 2010).
The plans for Gift + Home were first announced during the February Las Vegas Market at the Gifted Retailer Roundtable Discussion co-sponsored by World Market Center Las Vegas and Gifts & Decorative Accessories, which featured a first-glimpse at the show launch campaign – a fresh, festive visual expression of Gift + Home.
Participating showrooms and gift retailers alike praised the plans for the Gift + Home event.
Su Sazama, owner and president of fitzsu, a home accessory and gift retailer with locations in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, served as a panelist at this event. “Las Vegas should be a really good pull for gift retailers since it’s always been a great place to have a show,” she commented. “There are so many other things you can do while you are here. Not only is there a good dynamic to have a great time, but there’s also a real natural energy to Las Vegas that makes it ideal for a show.”
World Market Center Las Vegas already has a diverse selection of 250-plus accessory and gift exhibitors including OneCoast, Midwest, CBK and many more. “We are very excited about the 2010 June Market,” said Renee Williams, VP of Sales for CBK. “Any additional Market in today’s environment that will help us capture market share and generate sales revenue we couldn't be more thrilled to participate in. We shared the news with our sales team and they were cheering. We will now be here three times a year. With Las Vegas Market being in September and with our good mix of gift and home decor products, we’ll be more well-rounded and have a better offering for our customers."
“Anytime we have the opportunity to use the facility for a different client segment that will bring in a new mix of traffic we're very enthusiastic,” commented Lendell Glassco, President of Paragon. “We have diversified and consolidated a lot of our regional showrooms, so the opportunity to have a strong west coast gift presence in Las Vegas will work well for us. Las Vegas is certainly in a class by itself with restaurants, hotels and nightlife. People want to come and have good accommodations, great food and great lines of vendors and products to shop for. World Market Center’s buildings are convenient to work so it will be a really good experience for the gift buyers."
World Market Center Las Vegas is already securing special rates at a variety of Las Vegas hotels for the June 2010 dates and a full list of host hotels will be announced soon.