Coverings Attendance Up According to Early Numbers

Chicago, IL, April 23, 2007--As of Thursday afternoon, attendance at Coverings 2007 at McCormick Place in Chicago was over 37,000, up from a little over 33,000 at last year’s show in Orlando.

According to Tamara Christian, CEO, National Trade Productions, “We’re definitely seeing a lot of new faces at the show. A program launched by South Bend, Indiana-based Miles Distributors, brought about 1,000 attendees to the show, 92% of whom had not attended Coverings before."

Floorcovering retailer attendance was up 20%. Architect and designer attendance was up more than 100%. The number of exhibitors reached 1,300, which is about 200 more than the 2006 show. Exhibit space increased at the show, but not signficantly. “We did not want to grow the show over the space available in Orlando, because the show is land-locked in the Orlando facility so we did not want to significantly grow the show in Chicago and then have company’s not be able to get space in Orlando”, said Christian.

It's too early to make the call if the show will alternate between Orlando and Chicago, however Christian said the show is open to the idea. “We will evaluate how everything went, how the exhibitors feel about their experience and then we will make a decision whether the show will return to Chicago in 2009."

Because of the size of Coverings it can fit in only five facilities nationally: Orlando, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans and Las Vegas. Another problem also is that the show, because of the time consuming setup and take down, requires occupying the facility for a total of three weeks.