SIA’s Mile High Summit - 2010 Tradeshow Preview

mike lewis

• November 11 2008
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After 37 years in Las Vegas, Snowsports Industries America (SIA) is moving its annual trade show to Denver, Colorado in January 2010. While the snowboarding industry gets ready for its last hurrah in Vegas in ’09, SIA is already gearing up to ensure the transition to the Mile High City is as smooth as possible and benefits the snow industry by offering better values, service, and a mountain focused environment for retailers and manufacturers.

Transworld Business made the trip down to the Denver Convention Center on November 6, 2008 for SIA’s Mile High Summit, where the group made its case for the move to Denver and gave us a sneak peak at the facilities.

SIA president David Ingemie giving the run down on why they believe Denver’s the best fit for their trade show. Ingemie and SIA addressed concerns about transportation (made it sound easy both via ground and air), rooming (over 8,000 rooms in walking distance), entertainment (central Denver is blowing up), and on snow possibilities.

SIA kicked the well-attended meeting off with a lunch and stats on the convention center and city. SIA draws about 20,000 attendees and 450 exhibitors representing nearly 1,000 brands. While this seems fairly large, it doesn’t make it a big player by Vegas standards. However, on the Denver scene, these numbers are big enough to give us some serious clout. One of the main reasons for the move is that we’ll be the only game in a town whose population is all about the mountains.

Ah, stats. In 2010, SIA will be the only trade show in the Convention center which features 584,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, 63 meeting rooms, two ballrooms measuring 50,000 and 30,000 sq. ft. and a 5,000 capacity theater.

The Convention Center’s trademark blue bear peeping the lobby. One percent of the center’s initial budget went to art including features like laughing escalators.

Scoping the specs in one of the six 100,000 sq. ft. exhibition halls.

There are a ton of large, naturally lit spaces in the convention center. Take a look outside that window…

You wouldn’t see a building wrapped like this in Vegas.

One of the deciding factors for SIA in the Denver move was the site’s environmental focus. They’ve got a deep list of eco-initiatives rolling already.

Tyrant Snowboards’ Ryan Taylor and Ronnie Jackson made the trip out from their home base of Las Vegas to check the future digs.

The 5,000-seat Wells Fargo theater can be partitioned off to host three events at the same time.

Centerplate handles the vittles at the convention center and they definitely know a thing or two. The service level was turned up for the walk-through and Kobe and crab cake sliders among other offerings did not disappoint.

DaKine’s East Coast Sales Manager Tim Weisser agrees.

For more information on the show go to snowsports.org or visitdenver.org/sia.