ALEXANDRIA, VA -- During the process of relocating the NACS SHOW 2005 from New Orleans to Las Vegas, NACS also undertook an extensive review of the vulnerabilities of holding the event, which is the industry's most important event, in New Orleans. After reviewing all of the options, a decision has been made to move the NACS SHOW 2007 from New Orleans to Atlanta; this show will take place Nov. 7 to 9, 2007, at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Over the last few months, NACS has gathered and reviewed information associated with holding the NACS SHOW in New Orleans, including monitoring planned reconstruction efforts, reviewing safety issues and examining the overall capacity of New Orleans to host a world-class meeting the size and scope of the Show.
The NACS SHOW is always held in the fall, during hurricane season, and holding a show in a city vulnerable to hurricanes would put the Show in a precarious position. There also are concerns regarding the infrastructure in New Orleans and the confidence among attendees and exhibitors in committing to attend the 2007 event in the city.
Based on these concerns, the NACS Executive Committee concluded that it would be "impractical and inadvisable" for NACS to continue to schedule its Show in New Orleans. NACS is not the first to relocate a major tradeshow out of New Orleans in the coming years; the Society for Neuroscience has already located its 2009 annual meeting, which annually draws about 35,000 attendees, from New Orleans to Chicago.
NACS research also indicated that it was vital to continue to include the Southeast in the site rotation plan to not only make the Show easily accessible to retailers in the Southeast, but also for those on the East Coast, as well as from Europe, and South and Central America.
NACS is supporting New Orleans as fully as possible. NACS intends to place other meetings in New Orleans as early as 2007 during non-hurricane season, including the Human Resource Forum, introductory and advanced category management seminars and the Southeast Regional Grassroots Event. In the long term, as other contractual commitments are fulfilled, NACS will also consider opportunities to hold larger events in New Orleans.
New Orleans is rated as a very popular destination among NACS members. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, NACS experienced the strongest pre-registration than any other NACS SHOW in history.
The NACS SHOW 2006 will take place October 8 to 11 in Las Vegas. Registration and housing information will be available online beginning April 1. The Show's Web site provides the most updated information about the NACS SHOW.