MMPI announces next decade of NeoCon

Casual Living Staff -- Casual Living, 4/30/2012 9:00:00 AM

CHICAGO — Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. announced NeoCon's schedule at The Merchandise Mart in Chicago for the next decade through 2021.

"We're pleased to announce the schedule for the next decade of NeoCon shows, leading the contract industry through the year 2021," said MMPI President Mark Falanga. "As it has for the last 43 years, NeoCon will continue to be produced at The Merchandise Mart in Chicago through the next decade and beyond. The Mart's commercial furnishings industry and NeoCon has been the backbone of The Mart's core business for the last 43 years and will continue to be so into the future."

Hosted annually during the second week in June indefinitely, the NeoCon 10-year schedule announcement comes just weeks in advance of the highly-anticipated 2012 show.

NeoCon: Future Dates
NeoCon 2012 June 11-13
NeoCon 2013 June 10-12
NeoCon 2014 June 9-11
NeoCon 2015 June 15-17
NeoCon 2016 June 13-15
NeoCon 2017 June 12-14
NeoCon 2018 June 10-12
NeoCon 2019 June 10-12
NeoCon 2020 June 15-17
NeoCon 2021 June 14-16

All of the major players in the contract industry know the value of NeoCon and have made long-term commitments to being part of the Merchandise Mart. Among the long-term contract industry companies with long-term leases at the Mart include Allsteel, Gunlocke, Haworth, Herman Miller, HON, Interface, Knoll, Krueger International, OFS Brands, Paoli, Shaw, Steelcase and Teknion, accounting for more than 275,000 square feet of permanent showroom space. MMPI has signed more than 120,000 square feet of contract industry
renewals and new leases in 2012. Twenty percent of the Mart's overall business is attributable to its commercial furnishings industry, and its commercial furnishings business and the NeoCon shows are the strongest and longest-running businesses in its portfolio.

"Since first opening in 1930, The Merchandise Mart has always attracted a mix of showroom and office tenants, who have coexisted harmoniously," Falanga said. "The office tenants that are attracted to The Mart, like advertising giants WPP and Publicis, and Internet start-up facilitator 1871, are companies who thrive on the creative energy in the building that the showrooms and shows establish. For eight decades, office and showroom users have together occupied The Mart. Now, like we have been over the last eight decades, we
continue to meet with prospective showroom and office tenants to add to the dynamic mix of companies in the 4.2 million square foot Merchandise Mart."

NeoCon 2012, features more than 1,000 exhibiting companies, 100 CEU-accredited educational seminars organized along 14 different tracks, seven tours of Chicago's vast architectural treasures, 15 association forums, a highly-successful student series of educational programs serving students from design schools through the world, and an expected crowd of more than 43,000 attendees from all 50 states and more than 70 countries around the globe.

NeoCon 2012 features highly anticipated keynote speakers and programs, including Ian Schrager, chairman and CEO of Ian Schrager Co., Richard M. Daley, former mayor of Chicago, Primo Orpilla & Verda Alexander and Contract Magazine's "Designers of the Year," Gary L. Lee, president of Gary Lee Partners. Attendees include architects, interior designers, facility managers and end-users and manufacturer reps and dealers.

"To date, Chicago's hotel bookings for NeoCon have already exceeded last year's numbers," Falanga said. "We are expecting an increase in attendance and a strong show because of the pick-up in business that the industry is experiencing."