August/September 2010

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NEWSLETTER

2010

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The Alberta Gift Show

Established in 1896, Retail Alberta is a non-profit organization that represents over 1,800 businesses. Retail Week, an annual event hosted by Retail Alberta, provides business owners with useful tools to help them achieve their goals. The 2006 program will include an impressive line up of speakers throughout the day including experts on retail specific topic areas such as staffing and recruitment, store design, display and merchandising, loss prevention and shrinkage, and marketing trends to name just a few. The 2006 Retail Legend and Retail Legend in the Making, will be introduced at the special Monday evening event. Retail Week presentations will take place on February 20 and 21 in the Agricom Building, Northlands Park.

“The independent retailer has never been more challenged with growing time demands and increased competition,” said Brenda Harrison, show manager for The Alberta Gift Show in the statement. “Combining the Alberta Gift Show with Retail Alberta’s Retail Week is a perfect fit and meets our combined goal of helping retailers be as successful as possible.”

Spread out in over 200,000 square feet of space, the Alberta Gift Show features special sections that include Goumet Fare, with over 30 specialty food companies, Body & Soul, offering an assortment of gifts designed to relax and rejuvenate, At Home, showing the season’s newest and hottest home and décor products, and By Hand, where the highest quality handcrafted goods from Canada and around the world are gathered.

George Little Management LLC

“The San Francisco International Gift Fair is more than a tradeshow,” said Mike Dean, president of Western Exhibitors, Inc. “It offers unparalleled opportunities both on and off the show floor. Retailers and suppliers will find all of the tools they need to increase business and expand their industry knowledge.”

Educational sessions at the show will cover increasing profits, using Web traffic and the Internet to your advantage, tips for retail success, holding successful clearance sales, redesigning a store, making the most of your square footage, customer service strategies and more. Also offered will be a free reception and wine tasting.

Urban Expositions

Urban Expositions plans to position the new Las Vegas show as the “Big Kahuna West,” modeled after its Myrtle Beach, S.C., Grand Strand Gift & Resort Merchandise Show, the most successful coastal resort show in the country known widely among industry members as the “Big Kahuna,” the statement said.

In addition to attracting leading souvenir and resort merchandise buyers from all regions of the United States, the new Las Vegas show will also honor the badges of buyers shopping the two other co-located events: Fun Expo (the annual show for the family and location-based entertainment industry co-owned by the LETS Board of Directors, a three association coalition comprised of the Amusement & Music Operators Association AMOA; American Amusement Machine Association AAMA; and the International Association of the Leisure & Entertainment Industries (IALEI) and AMOA International Expo (the annual show for the AMOA). Together, Fun Expo and AMOA International Expo attract approximately 6,000 visitors.

“The organizers of the Las Vegas Souvenir & Resort Gift Show contacted the LETS Board about a possible co-location and after meeting with Urban representatives during the IAAPA show in Atlanta, we felt there was a synergy and excitement that provides unique opportunities for exhibitors and attendees of all three shows,” said AMOA President Jim Pietrangelo in the statement. “Anytime we can expose coin-op product buyers and sellers to different concepts and potential new suppliers or buyers, it’s a positive.”

Set to debut with more than 400 booths, the Las Vegas Souvenir & Resort Gift Show will complement Fun Expo and AMOA International Expo offerings with a comprehensive product selection, including destination, resort and tourist merchandise, souvenirs, T-shirts, beach items, coastal and nautical, lake, mountain and lodge, ski-themed products, destination, resort and tourist merchandise, logo products, shell items, jewelry/fashion accessories, toys/games and more.

“The souvenir and resort merchandise industry has long needed a western region venue and the opportunity to co-locate with Fun Expo and AMOA International Expo offers tremendous cross-market benefits for exhibitors and attendees alike,” added Doug Miller, president, Urban Expositions, in the statement. “We plan to build upon our well established relationships with the industry’s leading national and regional retailers, manufacturers and representatives to bring the same successful show environment to Las Vegas that our customers have come to expect from an Urban Exposition.”

“The retail arena is largely an untapped area for the family entertainment center and location-based entertainment segments,” added Harold Skripsky, chairman of the LETS Board of Directors, in the statement. “The exposure to these kinds of outlets and products will create new business opportunities for Fun Expo participants.”

Urban Exposition has announced plans to launch a new Virgina Beach Gift and Resort Merchandise Show March 4-6, 2007. Held at the brand new Virginia Beach Convention Center, the new annual show will offer retailers from eastern North Carolina to Delaware a convenient, cost-effective resource for their restocking and new merchandise needs, according to a press statement from Urban Expositions.

“From its easily accessible location and strong economy to the new state-of-the-art convention center, Virginia Beach offers tremendous growth potential for a gift and resort merchandise show,” said Doug Miller, president, Urban Expositions, in the statement. “This show will target the vibrant gift and resort business in Virginia Beach itself, as well as other densely populated cities like Norfolk and countless other vacation areas in the region.”

Virginia Beach’s brand new $202.5 million convention center provides the perfect venue for the new show. From its striking architectural design to the latest in wireless technology to easy move-in and move-out accessibility, column-free exhibition space and 2,230 free parking spaces, the new center offers tremendous exhibitor and attendee benefits.

Urban Expositions will focus marketing efforts on attracting gift and resort merchandise retailers from eastern North Carolina to Delaware. The new show will feature more than 400 booths showcasing the perfect merchandise mix for this versatile and vibrant retail audience, including general giftware, resort gifts, souvenirs, novelties, nautical/coastal items, licensed products, boardsport merchandise, swimwear and more, the statement said.