NACS Show breaks attendance, expo records

Last week’s event tops 25,000 in attendance, including a surge of buyers at the expo, according to the organizers.

Attendance for the 2018 NACS Show and PEI Convention, the leading U.S. event for the convenience store and fuel equipment industry, topped 25,000 for the first time ever, led by a 7% increase in buyers at the four-day show held October 7–10 in Las Vegas.

Overall attendance was 25,159 industry stakeholders from 72 countries, beating last year’s record. A large part of this attendance growth was attributed to a strong increase in the number of buyers—retailers and convenience distributors and registrations from Show partner the Petroleum Equipment Institute—which reached 9,095, a 7% increase over the tally in 2017.

The NACS Show expo also set a record, reaching 431,800 net square feet, up from the previous record-setting expo in 2017 at 425,800 net square feet. More than 1,250 exhibitors participated, including 182 first-time exhibitors in the New Exhibitor area.

Sharing ideas and solutions was certainly a focus on the expo and also in the 64 education sessions and four general sessions.

“No matter where you are from or how many stores you operate, if you take one good idea and bring it back to your business from the NACS Show, your business will improve, and you will be successful,” said NACS 2018-2019 Chairman Frank Gleeson, president of Aramark Northern Europe, Dublin, Ireland.

The 2019 NACS Show will take place October 1–4 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

*PetrolPlaza will soon publish video coverage of the 2018 NACS Show – PEI Convention.