A return engagement in Vegas
When the Clean Show last played Las Vegas, it broke all
previous records for size and participation. The attendance
records set that year still stand as tops in the show’s
26-year history.
With over 530 companies planning to fill
more than a quarter-million square feet of exhibit space, the
Clean Show’s return engagement at the Las Vegas
Convention Center, which opens Aug. 11, will be nearly as large
as that 1997 show. The heads are yet to be counted.
Those heads will witness a drycleaning
industry that has undergone much change in six years. At the
1997 show, liquid carbon dioxide cleaning still seemed more
science fiction than fact. Men in white lab coats demonstrated
a “beta” machine at that show. Whatever anyone
thought of the machine, it was not for sale. Today, liquid
carbon dioxide machines are operated by regular drycleaners in
everyday drycleaning plants, no white lab coats or PhD’s
required.
That 1997 show saw the introduction of
another novel concept — an encyclopedia of drycleaning
knowledge packed into a single CD-ROM. IFI introduced its first
CD-ROM at Clean ’97, placing a wealth of information just
a few keyboard clicks away. This year, IFI will unveil Version
4 of that CD.
A scan of the exhibitor listings of the
1997 show found only one company offering “tensioning
equipment” for finishing. This year, it will be hard to
find a company involved in finishing that does not have
tensioning equipment on display. In fact, the listings for the
2003 show look like it’s going to be a big year for
finishing equipment, with many companies bringing out new,
improved and innovative models with words like
“automatic” and “robotic” peppering the
descriptions of their latest offerings.
As the industry has changed since its last
Vegas show, so too has the host city. Las Vegas averages 6,849
new residents a month and construction projects are ongoing.
Since 1997, the city has added wider landscaped walkways along
The Strip and pedestrian bridges over Las Vegas Boulevard. New
hotels have arisen to accommodate the ever-growing number of
visitors — more than 35 million last year joined the 1.5
million permanent residents in this fast-growing city.
The tourist industry is big in Las Vegas
and the city doesn’t miss a trick to make guests’
stays enjoyable. Those staying at a Park Place Entertainment
Group hotel — and that includes all but one of the
official Clean ’03 hotels — can actually check in
to the room at the airport while waiting for their luggage.
Also, guests of PPE hotels can charge interchangeably at any of
the other PPE hotels. You can stay at the Hilton, have
breakfast at Bally’s, lunch at Caeser’s Palace,
dinner at the Flamingo and drinks at the Hilton — and
charge it all to your room.
Don’t worry about walking from one
hotel to the other in that hot desert sun. The Clean ’03
shuttle will provide complimentary service on show days between
all the official hotels and the convention center.
The Clean Show, of course, will not be the
only show in town. Top acts playing during Clean Week include
Celine Dion, Gladys Knight, Rita Rudner, and the perennial
Siegfried and Roy. The musical “Mama Mia,” based on
the music of Abba will be on stage as will be two Cirque de
Soleil productions.
There should be at least one celebrity
siting within the exhibit hall. The actor Sherman Hemsley,
famous for his role as TV drycleaner George Jefferson, will be
appearing at the Cleaner’s Supply booth, greeting
real-life drycleaners and perhaps explaining how George
Jefferson succeeded in drycleaning during the polyester
’70s.
There’ll be TV nostalgia of another
kind for those who visit Star Trek: The Experience at the
Hilton Hotel where trekkies can travel through space and time
aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. Remember — it’s only
science fiction. That stuff never becomes reality, right?
Don’t forget to come back to earth
for some serious business. The registration booths for the
Clean Show will be open on Sunday afternoon, the day before the
show begins, and each day thereafter. Those who haven’t
pre-registered will have to pay $70 for a badge that will get
them into all of the seminars and four days of exhibit viewing.
Things get underway Monday morning with
the first round of educational sessions by the show’s
cosponsoring trade associations. The old format of having a
keynote speaker and an opening general session was abandoned
two years ago at the New Orleans show and it’s not coming
back this year. Attendees will get straight to business with
the seminars targeted to their specific interests by their
trade groups.
A ceremony to open the exhibit floor will
take place at 10 a.m. on Monday. On subsequent days the hall
will open at 9 a.m. with final closing at 3 p.m. on Thursday,
Aug. 14.
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