Sports Licensing and Tailgate Show
Friday, March 5, 2010 at 5:00PM From January 19-21, the Sports Licensing and Tailgate Show brought licensed vendors, buyers, retailers and industry executives together at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The show served as a great 2010 kickoff for the collegiate licensing and tailgating industries, and showed promising signs for the sister industries in the coming year. Unlike many of those who make the pilgrimage to Las Vegas, most show attendees left as winners!
The 2010 Sports Licensing and Tailgate Show, hosted by ShowProCo, LLC, featured hundreds of exhibitors displaying licensed products. Exhibits ran the collegiate licensing and tailgate gamut with products including Tailgate Tents and Chairs (Logo Chair), Snuggies (Fabrique), new collegiate apparel lines (G-III Sports), tailgate games (Wild Sales) and much more.
From all accounts, exhibitors were thrilled with the response they received from buyers and retailers that visited their booths in droves. We visited with several vendors that are licensed with SMA client institutions that were excited about the direction of the collegiate licensing industry in 2010, and very upbeat about opportunities for SMA client institutions. We have also seen a significant response from show exhibitors about applying for licenses with SMA client institutions for the first time in 2010.
More than 300 guests attended lunch-time events featuring a panel of experts from all walks of collegiate licensing and tailgating. We attended “Inside the Mind of the Dedicated Tailgater,” a panel hosted by Sports Authority founder Jack Smith. The panel offered great insight to key factors that drive the tailgating industry, and how to meet the needs of dedicated tailgaters with product offerings that they can’t refuse.
If the Sports Licensing and Tailgate Show is any indication, 2010 is going to be a great year for sales of licensed products.
The SMA Team
