Business leader and best-selling author Chip Conley will be an Opening General Session speaker for the NACS Show.
The 2013 NACS Show is set to feature a 392,000-net-square-foot exposition, making it the largest NACS Show expo ever.
This year’s NACS Show will take place Oct. 12-15 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. A total of 1,050 companies are exhibiting at the 2013 NACS Show — of which 150-plus companies are first-time exhibitors.
In other exhibit news, the NACS Show was again named one of the top 50 trade shows based on net square feet according to the Trade Show News Network’s (TSNN) Top 250 Trade Shows in the U.S. At 381,050 net square feet, the 2012 NACS Show was ranked as the 48th largest U.S. trade show last year.
“We are extremely pleased with the strong exhibitor commitment to the NACS Show in 2013,” said NACS Vice Chairman of Convention Pat Lewis, a partner at Twin Falls, Idaho-based Oasis Stop ’N Go. “The near-record retailer attendance in 2012 and the strong attendance thus far in 2013 demonstrate that the NACS Show is an essential part of annual plans for both retailers and suppliers.”
Atlanta, the site of the 2013 NACS Show, was also ranked high in the TSNN Top 250. In a listing of top locations for conventions, Atlanta was tied for sixth most popular convention city.
The top trade show based on square feet was the International CES, with 1.86 million net square feet. The top shows for attendees were SEMA 2012 and AAPEX, which attracted an estimated 135,000 attendees. The complete TSNN list is online at http://www.tsnn.com/datasite-us.
Earlier this week, NACS announced that the NACS Show was rated in the top 10 among U.S. tradeshows in 2012 in three of the four key categories used by exhibitors to measure audience quality, according to a national survey of the country’s biggest trade shows conducted by Exhibit Surveys Inc. The 2012 survey results were tabulated from more than 30 of the top annual U.S. trade shows.
Also, NACS had announced that acclaimed business leader and best-selling author Chip Conley will be an Opening General Session speaker for the NACS Show. Conley is the founder of Joie de Vivre, California’s largest independent hotel company and America’s second-largest boutique hotelier, with over 40 unique and award-winning hotels, restaurants and spas.
Through insights from his best-selling book, Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, Conley will share with attendees how they can motivate employees, customers and investors through peak experiences that address their higher, unspoken needs. The findings from Conley’s landmark book are taught in business schools and in hospitality management programs around the country, and Conley has been an in-demand speaker from the main stage at TED to the creative studios at Pixar to business schools across the country. His job title, chief “emotions” officer, reflects the passion of his newest book, Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success.
Conley has been honored with the top awards in hospitality including the 2012 Pioneer Award, the highest accolade in the industry. The San Francisco Business Times named him the Most Innovative CEO among business leaders across all industries and Joie de Vivre the 2nd Best Place to Work in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley region, an area known for innovative workplaces. In 2010, Conley was invited to speak at TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design), a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation and formed to disseminate “ideas worth spreading.” His presentation is available for viewing online.
“We are very excited to have a speaker the caliber of Chip Conley open the 2013 NACS Show. He will give you the tools to both grow your business and grow as a person, all while achieving that perfect work-life balance,” said Lewis. “The rich content and takeaways from our Opening General Session demonstrate why the NACS Show is so essential to our industry.”
At the 2012 NACS Show, a record number of buyers fueled a 7.2% surge in attendance, which hit 24,056 — the second-highest total ever. The excitement from the 2012 NACS Show has carried over to 2013. Exhibition space for the NACS Show is almost completely sold out, which is unprecedented so far in advance of the event.
Registration and housing is now open at <http://www.nacsshow.com> . Full registration, which includes admission to the general sessions, educational sessions, expo and the welcome reception, is $295 for NACS retailer members and $495 for other retailer attendees. One-day registration also is available ($195 per day for NACS retailer members and $295 per day for other retailers). These super-saver rates are available until July 31. Other rates apply for non-exhibiting manufacturers, service providers, brokers and consultants. Exhibitor registration is also now open.