The Summer Las Vegas Market featured new product introductions and trends from more than 1,300 home furnishing manufacturers.
The Summer Las Vegas Market was the largest Las Vegas Market to date, occupying more than 3.8 million square feet of both permanent showrooms and temporary exhibit space including furniture, bedding, accessories, lighting, rugs, wall decor, gift products and more.
Surpassing the historical average of 50,000 registered attendees, Las Vegas Market welcomed quality buyers to Summer Market including an increase in Top 100 retailers, a huge influx of first time buyers and more international buyers in attendance.
Dave Palmer, general manager of World Market Center, says, "This Summer Market outpaced the expectations among exhibitors, not to mention delivered so many new facets for buyers and designers looking for the latest in products, trends and education. We had a very strong Market with terrific traffic and very positive feedback for the overall experience our Market delivers for attendees."
Gaining momentum with leading retailers, 75 percent of the Top 100 U.S. Retailers were registrants of the Summer Las Vegas Market.
Las Vegas Market saw more than 10,000 retailers and designers attending Las Vegas Market for the first time. Market officials say this growth translates into expanded, incremental business opportunities and new customers for World Market Center tenants and exhibitors.
The Summer Market also featured a strong global flair, with an influx of international buyers attending their first event. In comparison to July's 2006 Market, international attendance increased by 27 percent, representing 90 countries that participated at the Market.
The worldwide roster of exhibitors included 205 companies from 25 different countries, which translated to 15 percent of the total exhibitor base. The broad cross section of geographic regions represented 33 percent from Canada; 32 percent from Latin America; 25 percent from Asia; and 10 percent were European brands. The Sands Expo featured the greatest number of global exhibits where buyers benefited from a number of trend-setting international companies from Italy, Japan, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, United Kingdom and Australia and much more.
Las Vegas Market also expanded participation of new companies by enlisting a compelling 250 companies from the U.S. and around the world who joined the Market for the first time last week.
"This is our first show and it has been incredible," says Jeff Schmidt of Millenio, El Mundo de Carlos de Anda. "We came in not really knowing what to expect, but this has been better than anything we imagined possible."
Ed Grund, C.E.O. of case goods importer A.R.T. Furniture was extremely satisfied stating, "The best news is the major players are here and that is great. I am seeing more new customers at this show than in previous ones."