The American trade association AMOA celebrated its 60th anniversary this year and held its 2008 trade show at the Las Vegas Convention Center from September 10-12.
Final figures for attendee shows 3,905, of whom 1,700 were ‘buyers,’ which suggested a strong element of exhibitors and of families. Booths numbered 380, but as some companies took several, the more appropriate figure is 120 exhibitors.
The show marked something of a watershed in US trade shows. The annual set-up is that the manufacturers’ association, AAMA runs its ASI show in Vegas in March, leaving plenty of space for the AMOA in September. This has been aggravated for some years by the huge IAAPA trade show, which moves around the US, but is held in November.
That impacts AMOA more than ASI and while the IAAPA is principally for theme parks, there is a strong coin-op accent within it. So the US trade has been asking the two coin-op trade associations to merge into a joint spring event, especially as IAAPA is due to also go to Vegas in November of 2009.
That will place some pressure on AMOA, which faces a possible major downturn in exhibitors as it will be overshadowed by the much larger IAAPA show in the same city only eight weeks later.
