By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
A bicycle trade show director who puts on B2B bicycle shows in Chicago and New Jersey has picked Las Vegas for his western United States location after he had the bike show in Ontario, California.
The CABDA bicycle show is scheduled for March 26 and 27 at the Expo at World Market Center in the city of Las Vegas.
Jim Kersten, the CABDA shows director, said Las Vegas is a great destination location that is accessible by air flights from around the U.S. and also by car because of its western U.S. location.
The show’s target audience are bicycle shop owners, with exhibitors ranging from bicycle part manufacturers and distributors to race directors and bike fitters.
This is a business to business trade show, so consumers and the general bicycling public are not allowed in at the show.
There’s some nostalgia for having a bicycle trade show in Las Vegas because the bike industry used to stage Interbike in Las Vegas until 2017 before the show moved to Reno for one year and then fizzled out after that.
But the public LVCVA tourism agency is talking with bicycle industry leaders about having Interbike in Las Vegas in May when the LVCVA and Las Vegas Events put on a Tour de France-branded bicycle event called L’Etape Las Vegas.
The LVCVA even had three staffers at a Bicycle Leadership Conference in Tucson, Arizona two months ago to bounce off the idea of rekindling the Interbike show in Las Vegas.
Kersten is scheduled to have his New Jersey CABDA show January 15 and 16 and his Chicago show February 12 and 13 before he hits Las Vegas for CABDA West in March.
He expects about 200 to 250 exhibitors for the Las Vegas show, with 60 to 65 percent of the exhibitors doing all three shows.