NEW YORK — The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade's (NASFT) board of directors has announced that its Summer Fancy Foods Show will take place July 10-12, 2011, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The move is in response to an expected renovation at the Jacob K. Javits Center, the show's regular venue. The show will continue to take place at the Javits Center through 2010 and is expected to return to New York in 2012.

NASFT hopes to use the relocation to draw new buyers from the specialty food industry to their event. "Washington is ideally located to pull buyers from the South, the Northeast and the Middle Atlantic States," says Ann Daw, President of NASFT.

NASFT, a not-for-profit trade association, which promotes trade, commerce and interest in the specialty food industry, has more than 2,800 member companies.

GURGAON, India — Reed Exhibitions is planning to invest $50 million to acquire at least a dozen brands in India over the next three years, according to the Press Trust of India. Reed plans to acquire at least four exhibitions each year, including three by the middle of March 2008.

Reed acquired two Indian shows, Aluminum India and Componex India, in 2007. The company also brought its Nepcon show, which serves the electronics industry, to India. Reed has been in India since 2006 and plans to organize seven exhibitions there throughout 2008. Reed also plans to invest in improving the exhibition facilities in India.

Reed Exhibitions India currently serves six industries: jewelry, aluminum, electronics, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics.

PORTLAND, Ore. — The National Association of Consumer Shows (NACS) has announced that registration is open for its 2008 Annual Convention to be held June 25-27, 2008 at the San Diego Convention Center.

The event will feature exhibitions, educational sessions and networking opportunities for consumer show organizers. Chuck Underwood will deliver the opening keynote, "The Generational Imperative for Consumer Show Marketing" about the importance of directing specific types of marketing to different generational demographics.

The Annual Convention will also feature an awards program and business meeting during lunch on June 26. Topics for breakout sessions include "Adapting to a Volatile Economy," "Top 10 Must-Haves for Exposition Web Sites," and "The Four Pillars of Event Greening: Creating Sustainable Solutions."

CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County Commissioners have announced that they have made a deal with Chicago-based Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. (MMPI) to build a convention center in downtown Cleveland. The parties have not yet decided between two proposed sites-the current convention center's site or a riverfront location-for the complex, according to The Plain Dealer.

The chosen location will affect the cost and potential size of the new convention center and adjoining medical mart. After selecting a location, design could take up to a year. Estimates from 2005 assumed the facility would contain a 300,000-square-foot exhibit hall, 100,000 square feet of meeting space and a 35,000-square-foot ballroom.

MMPI hopes to build a 500,000-square-foot integrated convention center and medical mart with permanent showrooms. The company also plans to open an office in Cleveland.

MMPI will invest $20 million, and the county will cap the contribution by taxpayers. MMPI plans to run the complex.

The 85-year-old Cleveland Convention Center has 375,000 square feet of exhibit space and 22 meeting rooms. MMPI develops, owns and manages merchandise marts, design centers and market buildings, including the Merchandise Mart in Chicago and the L.A. Mart. The company also produces more than 300 trade and consumer shows and special events, including NeoCon and Design Boston.

LAS VEGAS — The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority and its ad agency, R&R Partners, have launched a new campaign to keep business and leisure visitors coming to Las Vegas even if there is a recession.

At a monthly board meeting on March 11, the LVCVA and R&R marketing team presented a campaign called Vegas Right Now, estimated to cost $11 million to $12 million, that they began working on in the last quarter of 2007 when they started to see some red flags in the U.S. convention and tourism market. The campaign includes an attendance promotion element specifically for the Las Vegas tradeshow sector, which the campaign's developers described as one of the weak spots in a generally strong destination.

Citywide occupancy and room nights sold in Las Vegas from November through January continue to reflect positive, albeit small, increases (0.2 and 0.8 percent, respectively), said Terry Jicinsky, LVCVA senior vice president of marketing.

The combined research of the LVCVA and R&R indicated the negative pressure on the travel market will continue. "Fuel prices are going up, the housing market hasn't rebounded yet and, as we get closer to an election, typically things sort of bottom out," Vassiliadis said.

For tradeshows, the LVCVA convention sales team, led by Vice President Chris Meyer, has expanded its attendance promotion program, which consists of five elements: postcards, domestic and international press events, data mining to provide new lists to show organizer customers, CEU programs through the University of Nevada Las Vegas and on-site promotions for shows subsequently booked in Las Vegas (for example, a Las Vegas booth at a 2008 show in Chicago that's coming to Las Vegas in 2009).

ATLANTA, Ga. — U.K.-based show organizer Mack Brooks Exhibitions Group acquired the Intl. Converting Exhibition series of shows from German organizer nimble shows & media. The parties did not disclose terms.

The events are for the business of paper conversion, the process of using paper to manufacture other products, i.e., envelopes, paper bags, boxes and containers. The flagship biennial Intl. Converting Exhibition takes place in odd-numbered years at the M.O.C. Event Center Munich. It is scheduled Nov. 24-26, 2009. The 2007 show spanned 200,000 square feet, according to Mack Brooks Exhibitions Group Chairman Stephen Brooks.

ICE UK will be in Manchester, U.K., March 4-5, 2009, and ICE China took place for the first time in January in Shanghai.

Michael Boyle, managing director of nimble shows & media, will continue in an advisory role for Mack Brooks, and Franz Hermann will continue as the events' sales director. Both will remain publishers and owners of trade magazines C2 Europe and C2 Deutschland.

Brooks said the acquisition would fit well with his company's portfolio of business-to-business industrial events in Central Europe.

"We believe the event has great potential for further growth over the coming years," he said. "We also see it as a brand that we can successfully export to new and developing markets."