NEW YORK—The 98th annual International Hotel, Motel + Restaurant Show (IHMRS) took place November 9 to 12 at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. IHMRS presented 550 hospitality industry suppliers to 15,996 trade attendees over four days of exhibits and conferences.
The visitor results marked a significant increase from the 13,048 attendees at 2012’s IHMRS, held in the weeks following Hurricane Sandy. “We’ve had everything from hotel owners to senior corporate representatives from all the major brands, so I can’t be more thrilled with the actual attendance and the types of people that we’ve been able to meet,” said Jonathan Benjamin, President, Xeros, Inc.
IHMRS 2013 debuted several new initiatives which included a re-merchandised show floor with five easy-to-navigate categories: Operations, Technology, Food & Beverage, Tabletop, and Green. The Hospitality Green pavilion, presented in partnership with Green Lodging News, featured its own on-floor education theater and a charity initiative with Clean the World’s ONE Project, where attendees assembled 3,500 hygiene kits over three days at IHMRS to be donated to local charities.
The Tabletop pavilion, in partnership with TabletopJournal.com, serviced a fast growing demand among operators for design-driven tabletop products, and included the first annual “Tabletop Challenge” which was voted on by show attendees. The winning design this year went to Gustavo Gutierrez and Tina Delia of Delia Designs, a Philadelphia based design firm.
Foodservice Trends Highlighted
The Food & Beverage pavilion featured dedicated spaces for six upward trends in foodservice, with products, demonstrations, and seminars related to each of these trends—gluten free, yogurt, grab-n-go, baking, locally sourced, and mix & mock. Notable speakers and demonstrators included famed mixologist Warren Bobrow, Chef Kevon William Langley and the Black Culinary Alliance, and Chef Robert Ellinger and his instructors from the Dessert and Pastry Guild.
IHMRS also celebrated the best in hospitality design with two annual industry awards events on Sunday, November 10: the 33rd Annual Gold Key Awards, which recognize outstanding hospitality design worldwide for properties completed or renovated within the past 18 months, and the Editors’ Choice Awards which recognize best new products within the categories of design, equipment & supplies, food & beverage, green, operations, tabletop and technology. From the seven Editors’ Choice winners, the Kenneth F. Hine “Best of Show” Award went to Phillips Collection (High Point, N.C.) for the Bicycle Wall Panels.
IHMRS is sponsored by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA), the Hotel Association of New York City, Inc. (HANYC), and the New York State Hospitality & Tourism Association (NYSH&TA) and is managed by Hospitality Media Group (HMG).
The 99th annual International Hotel, Motel + Restaurant Show will run Saturday, November 8, through Tuesday, November 11, 2014, at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Following a full day of conference and networking activities on Saturday, November 8 at the Hospitality Leadership Forum, the IHMRS will feature three full days of exhibits from Sunday, November 9, through Tuesday, November 11. IHMRS will be co-located with the 5th annual Boutique Design New York (BDNY), a trade fair for presenting manufacturers of furniture, lighting, wall coverings, fabric, seating, accessories, artwork, carpet and flooring, materials, bath and spa for hospitality on November 9 and 10. Collectively, the two shows will present 900 exhibitors and attract some 18,000 industry professionals.
For IHMRS exhibitor information, contact Phil Robinson, show director, at phil.robinson@stmediagroup.com, (212) 754-7920. Additional information for attendees and exhibitors is available online, at www.ihmrs.com.
