Going south led to anything but bad news for Coverings 2010, as attendance took a solid step up from last year's event.

National Trade Publications (NTP), the show's manager/producer, reported registered attendance for this April’s event increased 5.1 percent from Coverings 2009 in Chicago, for a total of 23,080.



Jennifer Hoff, NTP president of events, noted a spike in distributor attendance, up 20 percent from 2009, and a rise among fabricators from the previous year by nine percent.

NTP attributed the increases to amore aggressive campaign to build attendance among these sectors, along with help acquaint the sectors with more of the brand prospects, both from overseas as well as on the domestic front.

In addition, a Regional Distributor Pavilion, one of the new for 2010 programs, gave local distributors the opportunity to showcase their lines with direct exposure to architects, designers, builders, remodelers and retailers attending Coverings.

Moreover, nine out of ten exhibitors at this year's Coverings have already secured space for next year's event, set for the Sands Conference and Convention Center in Las Vegas on March 11-14.

"Exhibitors have been applying for space for 2011 at a head-spinning rate," Hoff said. "We see this as one more positive sign for the tile and stone industry."

Hoff noted that other business barometric readings came from Coverings exhibitors; many reported that their meetings with show attendees were extremely productive.

"There was some definite buying and order-taking happening, and apparently discussions about stalled projects being re-booted," Hoff added.