LAS VEGAS — Officials with the Specialty Sleep Assn. said the group's recent showing at a new home in the World Market Center here was a big success.
The SSA moved up to the 15th floor of Building C to open its new The Future of Sleep showroom. Several bedding producers are on the same floor, making it a bedding destination.
"We had 490 distinct and separate retail buying groups come into our showroom," said Tambra Jones, show manager and SSA executive director. "That is distinct businesses, not individual buyers. If you counted buyers we could be talking well over 1,000."
Jones said she only scanned one badge for each group.
"Considering that this was a new location after years of being on the 13th floor, and we had a number of longtime exhibitors move out, and some first-time exhibitors move in, this was a really rewarding show for our 32 exhibitors," said Jones.
She said most of the exhibitors gave the show a grade of 9 or 10, with 10 representing an excellent show.
Todd Youngblood of Chili Technologies, secretary /treasurer of the SSA, was among those giving the show a good report. "I like the new layout, and the proximity to the other mattress brands," he said. "Overall this was a good move for us."
Since the opening of the first show at the World Market Center, the non-profit SSA has been serving as a "show within a show," and an advocate and incubator for small to medium size emerging and innovative mattress and sleep accessory companies, SSA officials said.
"Many of the permanent Las Vegas mattress/bedding and accessories showrooms started out in our show space," said Dale Read, SSA president. "Under the slogan ‘The Future of Sleep,' we have provided flexible and high traffic show space for companies with new product ideas, emerging technologies and huge growth opportunities."
He said the original owners of TempurPedic showed in an SSA show space in the mid-1990s.
"I first saw gel from a Utah-based company in 1995 here in Las Vegas at an SSA show," Read added. "Many of the accepted technologies we embrace today were first exhibited years ago as a new idea at an SSA show. With this new show space, it is exciting for us to renew our commitment to being a platform for ‘The Future of Sleep.'"
