2020 NACS Show Cancelled, By Convention Authority; Will Now Be Virtual

July 31, 2020 by Dave Haynes

The big c-store trade show NACS, which was set for mid-October in Las Vegas, is the latest high profile, big dollar casualty of COVID-19.

In an interesting development, it was the venue, not the organizer, that did the event in.

“As part of daily communications with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), NACS was informed that the 2020 NACS Show, scheduled for October 11-14, cannot be held due to the ongoing pandemic,” the organization said in a statement.

“It is with heavy heart that we make this announcement,” says NACS President and CEO Henry Armour. “We had worked closely with the health department with jurisdiction, the LVCVA, our official partners, vendors and other stakeholders to develop a world-class ‘city within a city’ that prioritized safety for our attendees and staff. At the same time, there are issues beyond our control that led to this decision.”

“We know that this decision is disappointing to our entire community of retailer and supplier attendees, as well as our NACS Show supporting partner organizations PEI, PMAA and Conexxus,” Armour added. He said that NACS will be directly communicating to registered attendees and exhibitors no later than August 7 to quickly facilitate full refunds for the event.

“Given all the disruption we have faced in 2020, it’s also essential to keep our industry moving forward,” said Armour, announcing a new virtual experience.

“We invested in new platforms that we intended to roll out in 2021 to supplement our robust education and networking offer. We have fast-tracked implementation of this comprehensive series of virtual offerings to support our industry’s pressing need to stay connected and to bring our community together until we are able to resume in-person events,” said Armour.

The NACS virtual experience will take the three most important elements of the in-person event—education, access to new products and retailer/supplier connections—and incorporate them into innovative tools for users to meaningfully engage and improve their businesses.

NACS attracts display, software and mounts vendors from digital signage, who sell into that vertical, as well as service providers – like deployment and break-fix, who work in that vertical. 

The COVID-19 numbers in the Las Vegas – like a lot of the US, unfortunately – are going in the wrong direction. From a local news report Thursday:

State health officials said Thursday that for the most recent seven-day period ending July 29, cases are growing at a 2.3% rate, or 986 cases per day. By comparison, the growth rate for the seven-day period on June 30 was 3.9%, or 644 new cases per day.

Most of those are in Clark County aka Vegas.