SIA.04 SnowSports Show Update

SNEWS will be running regular SIA.04 SnowSports Show updates through late January. We are doing this as a service to the industry to assist retailers, reps and exhibitors with trade show attendance and planning.

Do you have an SIA trade show event you think is worth noting? If you have an event at SIA that’s scheduled, confirmed and more than just an introduction of a new product (as in, entertaining and educational), fire an email to the SNEWS team at siaevents@snewsnet.com.

SIA-negotiated airline and hotel block discounts expire soon
You have until Dec. 24 to take advantage of SIA-negotiated rates on hotel and airline reservations. Head to www.thesnowtrade.org and click on the Travel and Hotel section under SIA.04 SnowSports Show in the Marketplace. You’ll find a complete listing of the hotels that SIA has negotiated special room block rates with, as well as direct links to those hotels making it easy to book online. Additionally, there are special discounts on America West, American, Delta, Southwest and United airlines.

A party worthy of a 50th year celebration
After 50 years in the industry, SIA told SNEWS that the only way the association could think of to adequately celebrate its inception in 1954 was to play host to a commemorative party unlike any event held before. Presented by MASEV Communications, the 50th Anniversary Party will kick off at the end of Day 1, Monday, Jan. 26, at 6 p.m. Registered attendees won’t have to travel very far as the free event is being held in a 150,000-square-foot ballroom at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. The ballroom will be divided into four quadrants each with a specific era highlighted. Attendees will have the opportunity to relive or learn about the ’50s/’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s with video compilations of each era projected on walls and DJs spinning sounds from each respective decade. Iconic personalities, events, products, music and videos will be highlighted in each quadrant. Invited celebrities important to each decade will be present, as will plenty of other industry luminaries. Heck, the SNEWS team might just have to break out our polyester shirts and bellbottoms for this one.

Free food is music to our ears
To help the alumni of the industry “recuperate” from the first day’s 50th Anniversary Party, SIA will host a Day 2 breakfast on Tuesday, Jan. 27, in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. The continental breakfast will kick off at 7:30 a.m. with, we’ve been assured, plenty of coffee and sufficient tasty morsels to put a smile on a sleep-deprived show attendee’s face. During the breakfast, SIA will be holding a special program intended to recognize snow industry folk who have vested their time and energy on behalf of the industry during the previous 50 years.

Buying groups heading to Vegas
Three snow sports buying groups — Sports, Inc., Ski Merchandising Corporation (SMC) and Sports Specialists Limited (SSL) — are heading to Vegas at the same time SIA is going to. For the third year in a row, SMC and SSL will host the buying groups’ own show, Winter Sports Market, scheduled January 24-25, 2004, in conjunction with the SIA Show. For the second year in a row, Sports Inc. will host its members during the SIA.04 SnowSports Show scheduled January 26-29, 2004, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Winter Sports Market is open to specialty retailers that are members of the SMC and SSL buying groups. Sports, Inc. will hold member meetings and retailers will be in attendance during the SIA.04 Show. Members of these three buying groups form a retailing core that primarily sell ski and snow sport equipment and apparel in specialty stores located throughout the United States.