ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Anyone who has ever walked the show floor at the annual NACS Show already knows it to be true. At 387,600 net square feet, the NACS Show was ranked as the 47th largest U.S. trade show in 2011, according to the Trade Show News Network's (TSNN) Top 250 Trade Shows in the United States.

Based on total exhibitors, the NACS Show was ranked 27th among the Top 50 shows, allowing NACS Show attendees to take advantage of both a large exhibit space and a wide variety of exhibitors. That is why the NACS Show was recently named the top trade show in the United States for "buying plans" and third overall for net buying influence, according to a national survey of the country's biggest trade shows conducted by Exhibit Surveys Inc. The 2011 survey results were tabulated from more than 30 of the top annual U.S. trade shows.

Specifically, Exhibit Surveys found that 66 percent of attendees at the NACS Show anticipated buying within 12 months of the show. The all-show average was 47 percent. As for net buying influence, or buying power, 92 percent of attendees had the power to make or recommend final purchasing decisions. The all-show average was 81 percent.

The NACS Show rotates between three cities, and all three were in the top five in terms of popularity among the TSNN Top 250 by location. Las Vegas, site of the 2012 NACS Show, was the most popular site for TSNN Top 250 Shows, with Chicago (third) and Atlanta (fifth) also ranking high on the list, according to NACS, the Association for Convenience and Fuel Retailing.

The top trade show based on square feet was the tri-annual CONEXPO-CON/AGG, with 2.4 million net square feet. The top annual show was the Consumer Electronic Association's International CES, with 1.6 million net square feet.

The NACS Show will take place October 7 to 10 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Overall, 22,312 attendees were at the 2011 NACS Show in Chicago, a 1.5 percent increase over attendance in 2010. Attendees came from a record 58 countries and international attendance was a record 1,913 delegates. The NACS Show featured a 387,000-plus net-square-foot exposition floor with 1,333 exhibiting companies. Of those exhibitors, 324 companies were new to the NACS Show.

The 2011 NACS Show also featured three days of general sessions, 53 educational workshops, four training sessions and a category management seminar. The workshops alone drew a cumulative 6,750 attendees, averaging out to approximately 120 attendees per workshop. Reflecting the growing international scope of the NACS Show, select workshops were translated into Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese.