Status Active Inaugurated 1980 | Country USA Location Las Vegas | |
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Genre Licensing, merchandising Venue Mandalay Bay Convention Center Attendance 15,700 attendees, 480 exhibitors | ||
Licensing Expo is the licensing industry's largest annual event.
Contents
A trade show, Licensing International Expo attracts more than 480 exhibitors representing more than 5,000 brands and properties in entertainment, sports, fashion & apparel, publishing, art & design, automotive, animation/anime, home & housewares, and lifestyle.
Exhibitors include consumer brands, film studios, publishing houses and other creative agencies.
Attendees are retailers, licensees, manufacturers, distributors, sales promotion agents and advertising professionals from more than 90 countries.
The show is owned and organized by UBM Advanstar. It is sponsored by the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA), and is affiliated with License! Global magazine.
Overview
Promoted as "The World's Brand & Property Marketplace," Licensing Expo also hosts a three-day, simultaneous conference program called Licensing University.
In 2012, Licensing Expo changed its name from "Licensing International Expo" to "Licensing Expo".
Licensing University Conference Program
Sponsored by the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA), in partnership with Licensing Expo, the Licensing University conference program holds over 25 classes and seminars on a wide variety of industry-related topics. Courses are taught by active licensing professionals and divided into basic, intermediate and advanced levels of content sophistication (one novice-level session is typically offered as part of an introductory, pre-conference workshop). A single-fee enrollment grants attendees access to every conference session.
Every year, selected courses qualify as credit towards earning LIMA's Certificate of Licensing. The Certificate of Licensing (CLS) is a year-long program incorporating 60 hours of classwork with industry experience, and can provide the educative foundation for a career in licensing and merchandising.
Relocation
In early 2008, after nearly thirty years of holding Licensing Expo in New York City, the show's owners, partners and sponsors announced that Licensing International Expo 2009 would be held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Advanstar Communications launched a print and online promotional campaign ("What's Next?") in August 2008. It presented the move as the initiation of a larger facility in a favorable economic environment, which would attract a greater number of exhibitors and attendees with the prospect of more potential licensing deals and lower expenses — thus, a strategic decision consistent with the principles of both Licensing International Expo and the licensing industry itself.