Leading hospitality design tradeshow and conference HD Expo experienced a 5-percent uptick in attendance in 2018 year-over-year (YOY). 80 percent of the show floor has already been sold for the 2019 show.
“With more than 875 exhibitors covering 275,000 square feet of show floor space, HD Expo 2018 has surpassed the expectations of our partners and attendees,” says HD Expo group show director Liz Sommerville.
Highlights from this year’s iteration of HD Expo include KALLISTA winning the Best of Competition award at the IIDA/HD Product Design Awards, as well as PolArt receiving the Best of Show honor in the Best Booth Awards. HD Expo 2018 also saw the introduction of the HD/Hilton Box Design Challenge, which saw 12 design firms conceiving a new take on the luxury guestroom. Toronto-based practice Chapi Chapo Design submitted the winning design for the contest, which was judged by hotelier Anthony Melchiorri, Larry Traxler and Leo Eskanazi of Hilton, Alienor Guilhem of Chapi Chapo Design, and designer Bobby Berk of Queer Eye fame.
Featured among more than 30 conference sessions was Green Voice Conversations, a program from NEWH, the Hospitality Industry Network, that focused on how designers can reduce environmental footprints. The NEWH Annual Expo Breakfast and the HD/ISHP Owners’ Roundtable also returned this year.
“The buzz and excitement for this show have been amazing,” adds Stacy Shoemaker Rauen, editor in chief of Hospitality Design magazine and vice president of the Hospitality Design Group. “Attendees are saying this was some of the best content ever presented at HD Expo.”
HD Expo 2019 will take place at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas May 15-17, 2019.
