2014 NACDS Total Store Expo exhibit space almost sold out

In mid-January the National Association of Chain Drug Stores announced that it had sold 90% of its exhibit space for the 2014 NACDS Total Store Expo, eight months ahead of its August meeting. This year’s trade show is slated to take place August 23-26 at the Boston Convention Center in Boston, Mass.

Approximately 5,800 attended the inaugural four-day trade show last year in Las Vegas. A survey of attendees from the 2013 show revealed that 92% planned to attend the 2014 meeting.

“The inaugural NACDS Total Store Expo really hit the mark with the value and high-caliber opportunities that the event provided for attendees,” said NACDS President and CEO Steven C. Anderson, IOM, CAE.

Combined concepts

Last year’s NACDS Total Store Expo combined the association’s NACDS Marketplace Conference, NACDS Pharmacy & Technology Conference, and NACDS Supply Chain & Logistics Conference into one new event. The concept enabled business partners to work together creatively across departments and functions in a perspective that takes in the entire store.

At this year’s event, NACDS Total Store Expo will offer business and insight sessions geared to specific disciplines - such as the front end of the store, pharmacy, technology, and the supply chain - as well as some that cross the borders of health and wellness, according to Jim Whitman, vice president of NACDS.

“There was a great deal of enthusiasm for last year’s meeting. Ninety-two percent of the suppliers said that one of the main reasons that they planned to return [in 2014] was because their customers were going to be there,” said Whitman. “That is the best indication of the success of the concept of the expo, which we are going to build upon.”

Mix and meet

The Total Store Expo provides opportunities for manufacturers to meet with buyers and for retailers to meet with specific sale contacts on the supplier side.

“The richness of the conference is the ability to have other kinds of meetings, such as a retailer meeting with the pharma person, the supplier, the front-end person, to talk about opportunities or initiatives with the broader counterparts on the supplier side. That opportunity doesn’t happen a lot at corporate headquarters,” Whitman said. “So attendees can accomplish buying and selling agendas as well as tactical and strategic agendas that would encompass other disciplines within each of the companies.”

Registration for the meeting opened in January. The preliminary program will be available at the end of February at tse.nacds.org.