4 Biggest Trade Shows of 2014

Trade shows happen every year around the world, and if you’re luck you’ll get your company to pay for your industry conference, and ride on 6 hours of sleep and free drinks every night.

Since I run a trade show display printing company, I thought I would take a look at some of the biggest trade shows of the year by sheer size. These are 5 of the biggest, not just the 5 biggest because I didn’t want to add all car shows or include book fairs which aren’t necessarily the same thing.

1) Bologna Motor Show

The Bologna Motor Show in Bologna, Italy draws a crowd of 1.2 million+ visitors (according to 2006 numbers).

Since the global recession hit, Italy’s domestic car sales have been down 50% since 2007. Because of this the 2013 show was cancelled. Hopefully if the Italian domestic car market improves in 2014, we’ll see a show at the end of the year.

2) Tokyo Motor Show

Tokyo has more to cars than just The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

The Tokyo Motor Show is another huge auto show that drove in more than 1.5 million visitors in 2005. It continues to be a huge show, although 2013 attendance was under 1 million visitors.

The 2013 show started on December 1, 2013 so the 2014 show is expected to be around the same time.

3) International CES

The International CES was the largest ever in terms of conference space and exhibitors. It did not set a record for the biggest crowd with 150,000 attendees including more than 35,000 from outside the United States, but it came close to 2012’s record of 156,000

The premier industry electronics show drew headlines with curved TV’s and wearable electronics. Organizers are looking forward to an even larger show in 2015

4) Comic-Con

Comic-Con is one of the most visible conferences because of its emphasis on popular culture. What started as purely a comic book convention has morphed into all things pop culture with a full embrace of Hollywood’s money.

2012 set an attendance record of more than 130,000 attendees and organizers are looking to top that number in July 2014.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_fair