Plenty of room to play

Salt Lake City's biggest convention is ready to grow even more.

With a newly expanded Salt Palace convention center, Outdoor Retailer is attracting more people, more exhibitors and more attention.

In fact, the show, which ranks as the 52nd biggest convention in the United States, opened on Thursday with 967 exhibiting companies, a 12 percent increase over 861 companies featured last summer.

Now with 145,000 square feet of added exhibition space, Outdoor Retailer can easily accommodate the 4,005 booths on display through Sunday. And that's the first time the 4,000 mark has been reached in the convention's 25-year history, a 15 percent increase over 3,480 booths last year, according to Lori Jenks, group operations director for VNU Expositions Inc., a Virginia-based company that owns and manages OR.

"We're very proud that Salt Lake has really pulled together and built an expansion for us in less than 22 months," Jenks said. "This is our biggest show in the sports group portfolio."

And the show may help to draw other conventions to Salt Lake City.

Scott Beck, president of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau, said representatives of three prospective conventions are in Salt Lake to see how well the city accommodates Outdoor Retailer's 20,000 attendees.

"We flew them in to see what 20,000 people look like in Salt Lake," Beck said. "When you see the amount of exhibitors that are here and then how the city flows and how it works, it's amazing."

Since the expansion was first announced, Rotary International, the Endocrine Society, the American Cancer Research Society and the National Association of Research Librarians have agreed to make The Salt Palace the site of future conventions.

Beck said none of those organizations could have come to Salt Lake without the $58 million expansion, which was completed in July.

For Outdoor Retailer, more space means Salt Lake City will continue to be home for years to come. On Thursday, Frank Hugelmeyer, chief executive of the Colorado-based Outdoor Industry Association, announced that the association would recommend that OR remain in Salt Lake City through 2010.

In 2004, the twice-yearly show announced it would stay in Salt Lake through 2009 — contingent on the expansion of The Salt Palace and a state commitment to protecting recreational areas.

"We love this city," Hugelmeyer said. "We love this state. It has a cultural fit to our industry. It has the best convention center, closest to the best recreation."

Beck said the expanded Salt Palace has led to $262 million in future economic impact, based on an average convention delegate spending $854.

Allyson Jackson, general manager of The Salt Palace convention center, said the OR summer show feeds $32 million into Salt Lake's economy.

"Because that is such a high number, they are able to use our facility for no charge," Jackson said. "The impact to our hotels, rental cars and restaurants, that more than makes up what we would get in revenue as far as rent because it is such a huge show to the community."

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com