Niels Norby, NetSoft Studio, LLC
President, APA - Where Personalization Pros Connect

(July/August 2023) The International Personalization Expo is always exciting. It’s the biggest and best trade show in our industry, and we’re looking forward to the 2024 Expo, Feb. 6-9, at Paris Las Vegas.

We’re not the only ones. Las Vegas hosts 24,000 conventions with 6.5 million attendees annually, which would probably overwhelm any other city. Like any convention location, we’ve occasionally shared hallways with other convention attendees—which is sometimes eyebrow-raising when our meeting-space neighbors are there for an entertainment fan fest rather than a professional conference.

But the other tens of thousands of Las Vegas visitors don’t negatively impact our Expo experience. That’s why I’m not concerned about the location and timing of Super Bowl 2024.

The year’s biggest football game will be hosted in Las Vegas for the first time, which happens to be Feb. 11, the weekend after we meet for the Expo. There’s no city better equipped to accommodate Super Bowl attendees while also catering to the tourists and conference attendees who will be in prior to the game.

Here’s the good news about the timing of Super Bowl LVIII:

• Flight Costs and Airport Elbow Room
  Super Bowl attendees will fly into Las Vegas as we’re leaving or after we’ve left. Even the Las Vegas tourism website says that its “extravagant events and parties” around major sporting events are held during the events. That means we can expect airfare to be normal and any Super Bowl crowds to be in the airport’s arrivals area when we’re departing. 
• Hotel Availability and Pricing
  Our host hotels—Paris Las Vegas and Horseshoe Las Vegas—can’t raise our pre-negotiated room rates even if they wanted to because the prices are locked in when we sign our conference contracts. Our negotiated room rates offer the best deals on the Las Vegas Strip. If you’re planning to turn the Expo into a mini vacation, think about arriving the weekend before the meeting to get extra days in Las Vegas without paying the hotel rates on Super Bowl weekend.
• Food and Entertainment
  The city that considers itself the “entertainment capital of the world” always has tons of restaurants, shows and activities. But, as always, if you have your heart set on seeing a specific performance or eating at an exclusive venue while attending the Expo, you should make reservations in advance—not because of the Super Bowl but because there are always visitors in Vegas looking for in-demand entertainment and food. Check out visitlasvegas.com to plan your after-Expo-hours entertainment.

I’ll put my cards on the table: Attending the International Personalization Expo isn’t a gamble, even with the Super Bowl being played two days later. I’ve attended the Expo for years as a retailer and supplier, and I know this event connects me to everything I need to be successful in this industry. When registration for the 2024 International Personalization Expo opens, don’t hesitate to register, book your flights and reserve your rooms in our host hotels. When February rolls around, you’ll have set yourself up for success—and you might get to engage in some friendly on-site rivalry if your team is one of the Super Bowl contenders that we’ll be rooting for from our couches the Sunday after the Expo.