The Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers (AWFS) is celebrating after claiming that its 2007 fair was “the largest, most successful and exciting” show to date.
AWFS Vegas 2007 saw 910 exhibitors occupy 475,857ft2 of exhibition space at the Las Vegas Convention Centre, up 14% on the previous show, with more than 30,000 industry professionals taking in new machinery, technological innovations and making new business contacts over the four-day event.
“Exhibitors in both halls have reported they had great traffic, above anticipated numbers of both leads and sales and most importantly, healthy return on investments,” said Angelo Gangone, AWFS vice-president.
“Space reservations for 2009 are already pouring in, with quite a few requesting increaes of as much as triple the amount they had this year.”
Other noticeable increases at AWFS Vegas 2007 included a 45% rise in the attendance at the Gala Awards Dinner, a 30% rise in entries to the Fresh Wood Student Competition and a 40% increase in products battling for a Sequoia New Product Award.
A judging panel of 16 woodworkers selected the winners in this year’s Sequoia Awards, which included; Hafele America Co, in the Hardware Product Innovation Category; KCDw Software, in the software section of the Product Innovation and Productivity category; and Apollo Sprayers, in the General Product Innovation category.
