Dec 27, 2016
Las Vegas Market partners with 28 leading industry groups

Las Vegas Market announced that it has forged new partnerships and extended existing agreements with a record numbers of leading industry associations and retail buying groups for the Winter 2017 Las Vegas Market, Jan. 22-26, 2017. Twenty-eight of the nation’s largest industry groups – including newest partners CRAFT (Craft Retailers & Artists for Tomorrow) and the Real Estate Staging Association – will partner with Las Vegas Market on special programming, tours, educational opportunities, networking events and other membership activities.

“Las Vegas Market is the ideal venue to allow these industry partners to offer added value to their current members and gain exposure among a broad base of potential new members,” said Dorothy Belshaw, president of Gift Leasing and CMO, International Market Centers. “As the leading furniture, home decor and gift destination in the western United States, Las Vegas Market offers these home furnishings and gift industry organizations and their members an ideal venue for national meetings, conventions, membership events, educational programming and recruitment efforts.”

As part of its growing support of the artisanal community, Las Vegas Market has forged a new partnership with CRAFT, a non-profit trade organization that champions the business of handmade American crafts. As part of this new alliance, CRAFT is developing a series of special programming, including a “Meet the Makers” session, for retailers and exhibitors during Winter Market; and Las Vegas Market has become a major sponsor of its American Craft Week, an annual celebration of made-in-the-USA crafts held annually in October. CRAFT members include craft retailers, wholesale artists, craft trade shows, publications, suppliers, museums and associations.

For the first time, Las Vegas Market also will welcome buying members of the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA), the trade association for professional real estate stagers and re-designers. The partnership includes a member networking breakfast in the Paragon showroom on Sunday, January 22 from 8:30am – 10:00am, after the conclusion of the RESA 2017 International Home Staging Convention held in Las Vegas prior to Las Vegas Market.

In addition to these two newest partnerships, Las Vegas Market is expanding long-standing agreements with the Museum Store Association (MSA) and Real Deals on Home Décor for the Winter 2017 Market. As part of this, MSA will host its Western Regional Meeting at the Las Vegas Market, in addition to leading a curated docent tour of the Pavilions at Las Vegas Market. MSA member, Patricia Sampson, manager of museum shops and visual merchandising at High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA, will lead “Top Museum Store Product,” on Monday, January 23, 2017 from 10:30am-12:00pm. MSA is a nonprofit, international association dedicated to advancing the success of nonprofit retail professionals and non-profit institutions.

Through an expansion of a partnership with Real Deals on Home Décor, a rapidly-growing international franchise whose local mom-and-pop shops open exclusively on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Las Vegas Market will host the Real Deals annual national convention in January, with a special member networking event planned for Monday, January 23, 2017. Real Deals, launched a decade ago by five sisters who opened décor shops for fun, started franchising in 2006 and has grown to more than 75 stores in 16 states and four Canadian provinces; the company is rated on of the Top 500 Franchises of Entrepreneur Magazine.

Other industry partners returning to Las Vegas Market include: