The North American Expo, held Oct. 6-7 in Chicago, attracted significantly fewer attendees than anticipated. The final figures revealed there were 9,728 attendees as opposed to the 15,000 expected. NEX '98 drew more than 16,000 U.S. and Canadian visitors. Included in the 9,728 were 2,843 exhi-bitors; 2,702 contractors; 1,265 distributors; 1,167 manufacturers reps; 1,362 engineers, architects, builders and other specifiers; and 389 spouses and guests.
"We have been wondering why attendance was so low and thought it may be because both the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show and the National Hardware Show were in Chicago this year," said Inge Calderon, executive vice president of the American Supply Association, one of the NEX partners. "On the other hand, maybe people are just too busy to go to trade shows. I'm sure there were various factors involved."