“Cautiously Optimistic”
by Admin on Mar.21, 2010, under San Francisco News
That was the buzz-phrase bandied about in the halls of this year’s global retail real estate ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers, not to be confused with the International Civil Service Commission) convention that took place last week in Las Vegas.
I’m just plain-out optimistic (as opposed to the poor chap in this convention photo who it appears would be my polar opposite) because it’s the best way to be.
Take it from Winston Churchill who said “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
And indeed these have been difficult times. While I haven’t found confirmed figures, I’ve heard that this year’s convention attendance was between 33,000-35,000 as compared to last year’s attendance of around 30,000.
Ever the researcher, I checked out Las Vegas Convention Bureau statistics to see how the convention business in general has fared over the past couple of years.
- Year End 2008 reports show that overall convention attendance was down 5.0% over the prior year, precipitously dropping sharply in August 2008.
- Year End 2009 reports show that overall convention attendance was down a whopping 22%.
So reported double-digit growth sure sounds like progress to me. Sing it Elvis!
