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Last day: 27-03-2010
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WSA Show, Las Vegas, February 2009
Source: Expo-port ReporterWSA Show, Las Vegas, 2009 – the World Shoes + Accessories Show saw a drop in the visitors numbers by 18% this year, as was expected because of the recessionary economy but the show organizers interpreted it bravely as just a nominal plummet considering that the situations could be worse. This is quite true as there is considerable cost-cutting and layoffs in the strength of the buying staffs. Overall, the show was a success in providing a good platform of interaction to the buying and selling traders. A new look and feel was devised for the Feb show in order to give an idea about the future expectations from the show to the people.
WSA show for the footwear and accessories in Las Vegas was held from February 12 to 14 at two venues simultaneously at Mandalay Bay Convention Center and the Sands Expo Center. WSA show is a semi-annual event in Las Vegas. It is considered to be a very significant event when it comes to footwear, handbags and accessories. The event generally gives a feel of the comprehensive viewpoint in the footwear industry. This year, too the expectations were more or less met well although many people were not so expectant in the recessionary atmospheres. The visitors came from all over the world. 40% people came from East and Central USA. 35% came from the West and 25% attendees came from other countries. The direct recruitment staff of the WSA’s Retail Relations was credited for the exceptional international attendance gains since the Summer show in 2008. Much of the visitors were from Mexico, Colombia, Japan, Venezuela, France, Germany, Costa Rica, Indonesia and Bulgaria. In February 2009 there were exhibitors from 95 countries. There were 1500 exhibiting companies and thousands upon thousands of brands.
Segregation and Formulation:
The Collections at WSA was an exclusive premium footwear and fashion jewellery show in The WSA Show. The Collections featured 350 luxury footwear, handbags and jewellery designers from all over the world. The setting of this show was totally upscale. Materials at WSA, was a dedicated area inside The WSA Show. This expanded the dimensions of the industry by inclusion of the supply chain by focusing on materials, design, components, technology and sourcing channels apart from the finished products. This was pretty good because the traders and brand and retail leaders came in direct interaction with the suppliers. The ease of accessibility increased the prospects of better business and supply chain management. Jane Feigenson, Director of corporate events, Clarks, said, “The response was outstanding. We were pretty much busy the entire show. Despite all the doom and gloom, there was a glimmer of hope.”
New Format for Better and Snappier Future Shows:
This year a new format was presented wherein The Collections at WSA ran alongside The WSA Show in its new, three-day format from February 12-14 at the Venetian Hotel. The Collections at WSA and Materials at WSA in all drew 24,270 participants. The people came from all over the USA and other 106 countries. In all, there were 87 new exhibitors displaying 150 designers and brands and industry category leaders like HH Brown, Nine West Footwear Group, Brown Shoe, Geox, Skechers and Steve Madden. There were present many other preferred brands like Tracy Reese, Miss Sixty, Ilse Jacobsen and Luxury Rebel. But the organizers took a fresher approach towards the numbers when they took to better interpretations of the numbers instead of just quoting them. Diane Stone, the show’s chief operating officer was quoted in the official reports as saying, “The creativity and innovation of the footwear sector were clearly evident despite the economic challenges and many were pleasantly surprised by better than expected results. You can’t talk about numbers without analyzing and understanding them, especially in this economy. Tradeshows are smaller due to cost containment and layoffs and retail and construction industry events are down the most. Given the fact that buying staffs are drastically reduced, travel is curtailed, and stores are going out of business, we’re fortunate to be down only 18%. But numbers never tell the entire story.” The new show format was applauded by many. Many premier brands like Havianas and Clarks, which showcased their signature brands like Bostonian, Indigo, and Pr!vo were happy with changes. They reportedly found the new layout working significantly towards bringing better prospects for their businesses. AJ Majumdar, Director of Sales, Havianas commented, “We’ve been very pleased with the 'quality' of clients. We've also moved to a location that has better brand adjacencies, which has proven to be very good for us.”
The next show is scheduled for July 31 to August 2, 2009.
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