Organizer: New NACV Truck Show Has Opened Strong
Media out in force at Volvo press conference at the NACV Show. Photo: Evan Lockridge
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Media out in force at Volvo press conference at the NACV Show. Photo: Evan Lockridge
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ATLANTA. The numbers are not all in yet, but given preliminary figures and his own expert sense of how shows go, one of the organizers of the North American Commercial Vehicle Show was ready to declare it a solid success at the end of the third of its four-day inaugural run here at the Georgia World Congress Center.
In a Sept. 27 interview with HDT, Larry Turner, president and CEO of Chicago-based Hannover Fairs USA, said that he “wasn’t surprised” that the show floor seemed “settled down” by that mid-afternoon. He attributed that to the “ebb and flow” of attendees into different areas of the exhibit hall. “There are a lot of folks concentrated in some of the larger booths, including where cafes are set up, and that impacts the flow of attendees and the look of the show floor.”
While show management won’t release its final attendance figures until next Monday, Turner said that they’re looking to come in at around 10,000 attendees. “That’s not including roughly 5,000 exhibitor personnel and 243 members of the media.” He noted that some 20% of the attendees have been “walk-up registrations, including more today,” which suggests word of the new show is still getting out.
Turner pointed out that the NACV Show was “never attended for 50,000 people.” He said it is “not open to the public.” Rather, its primary registration effort was focused on attracting attendees who “own five or more trucks with [individual] owner-operators welcome as well. The vast majority of attendees are from private and public fleets. We were not looking to compete with the Mid America Trucking Show,” he added. “They have their [own niche] and we think we can coexist.”
He also said that registration had …Read the rest of this story
