NACS Show 2013 Will Be Largest Ever

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- NACS, the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing, finalized measurements and determined that the 2013 NACS Show expo will exceed last year's show by 10,950 square feet, making it the largest ever in the annual event's history. The 392,000-net-square-foot exhibition space is almost completely sold out, which is unprecedented so far in advance of the event, the organization noted.

The NACS Show will take place Oct. 12-15 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. This year's show will feature 1,050 exhibiting companies, of which 150-plus are first-time exhibitors.

The NACS Show was again named one of the top 50 trade shows based on net square feet according to the Trade Show News Network's (TSNN) Top 250 Trade Shows in the United States. At an exposition space of 381,050 net square feet, the 2012 NACS Show was ranked as the 48th largest U.S. trade show last year.

"We are extremely pleased with the strong exhibitor commitment to the NACS Show in 2013," said NACS Vice Chairman of Convention Pat Lewis, a partner at Twin Falls, Idaho-based Oasis Stop 'N Go. "The near-record retailer attendance in 2012 and the strong attendance thus far in 2013 demonstrate that the NACS Show is an essential part of annual plans for both retailers and suppliers."

Atlanta also made the TSNN Top 250, tying for sixth in the list of most popular convention cities.

Earlier this week, the NACS Show was rated in the top 10 among U.S. tradeshows in 2012 in three of the four key categories used by exhibitors to measure audience quality, according to a national survey of the country's largest trade shows conducted by Exhibit Surveys Inc. The 2012 survey results were tabulated from more than 30 of the top annual U.S. trade shows.

It remains to be seen if this year's show will surpass the 2012 NACS Show’s attendance, which surged 7.2 percent to 24,056 -- the second-highest total ever.

As CSNews Online previously reported, NACS also began releasing speaker and events information for this year's show. Business leader, motivational speaker and best-selling author Chip Conley will serve as the opening general session speaker at the convention.

Conley is the founder and chief "emotions" officer of Joie de Vivre, California's largest independent hotel company and America's second-largest boutique hotelier, which has more than 40 hotels, restaurants and spas.

The 2013 NACS Show will also feature three days of general sessions and 53 educational sessions. The general sessions will be translated into Portuguese, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, and select educational sessions will be translated into Portuguese and Spanish.

Full registration for the NACS Show is $295 for NACS retailer members and $495 for other retailer attendees. One-day registration is available at $195 per day for NACS retailer members and $295 per day for other retailers. Super-saver registration rates are available until July 31.