Convention Center

The Las Vegas Convention Center is one of the largest in the world and its busy calendar helps set a rhythm for the entire city. Many of the largest conventions held annually in Las Vegas are held during non-peak times, such as in January, and they still completely fill the city almost to its bursting point.

Most of the larger hotels have their own huge meeting areas, and the city will be up to over 9 million square feet of meeting space by 2009, with less than half of that at the one main huge Las Vegas Convention Center.

Location

The current site first opened in 1959 and has been expanded many times since. It started off being mostly across from the Las Vegas Hilton (the International Hotel at that time), but now it stretches past Desert Inn Road to the south. It’s also a stop on the new Monorail system, so it’s easy to reach from nearly every Strip hotel.

Size

After a 2004 expansion, the facility is up to 3.2 million square feet (297,000 square meters), but another expansion is underway that will add about 500,000 additional square feet of meeting space.

A convention calendar

At any given time (except perhaps during Christmas) there are multiple conventions and similar meetings going on throughout Las Vegas. Many of them only have a few dozens participants, but several of the bigger ones have over 100,000 attendees. During those conventions, rooms are hard to find and prices go up. Unless you are attending one yourself, it’s usually best to try to avoid the ones that have over 50,000 attendees because they drive prices up, but not necessarily the fun. The exception to this rule might be the Adult Entertainment Expo in January, but that’s not for everyone either.

Here are the biggest ones planned for 2008:

• International Consumer Electronics Show – January 7-10 – 148,000 attendees
• Adult Entertainment Expo – January 9-12 – 37,000
• World of Concrete Exposition – January 22-25 – 85,000
• Surfaces floor covering Expo – January 30 – February 1 - 40,000
• Shooting, Hunting, & Outdoor trade show – Feb 2-5 – 45,000
• Magic International (fashion) - Feb 12-15 – 120,000
• Associated Surplus Dealers – March 2-5 – 63,000
• Construction Expo – March 11-15 – 135,000
• National Association of Broadcasters – April 14-17 – 140,000
• Associated Surplus Dealers (again) – August 10-13 – 64,000
• Automotive Aftermarket Industry – November 4-7 – 120,000
• Solar (products) Convention – December 1-4 – 100,000

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