Convention center threatens ShowBiz Expo future.

Next year's show gets date, others seem less than likely

The owners of ShowBiz Expo, the largest entertainment industry trade show in the world, would like to have their show in Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world. But that looks increasingly less likely.

A policy of the Los Angeles Convention Center which favors out-of-town trade shows over regionally based shows is frustrating and jeopardizes the future of ShowBiz Expo, say producers Bob and Nalini Lasiewicz.

Michael Collins, vice president of public affairs for the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau, said out-of-town conventions are given priority over regional shows like ShowBiz Expo because such conventions bring in out-of-towners who use area hotels. The hotel occupancy tax is what will help pay for the ongoing $370 million expansion of the Convention Center, Collins said.

Bringing in outside dollars is the whole purpose of the Convention Center, and ShowBiz Expo is an event that "circulates wallets that are already in town," Collins said.

The Lasiewiczs say ShowBiz Expo has grown from a mostly computer-oriented event to one with exhibitors that hawk every type of film production support service from Kodak film to exotic animals to stage curtains. The event has expanded from 51 exhibits and 1,500 attendees in 1984 to 326 exhibits and 18,800 attendees in 1991, they said.

The Lasiewiczs' dream is to make ShowBiz Expo an international event, like the Cannes Film Festival, which will bring in glamour to Los Angeles as well as sleeping room-nights at Los Angeles hotels. But the city's policy may prevent that, Nalini Lasiewicz said.

"On the one hand, you have the city saying they are supportive of the entertainment industry," she said. But, she added, "we still don't have our 1993 date. We're just penciled in."

The Convention Center requires that regional shows, such as ShowBiz Expo, make reservations before national conventions and will not give regional events space until the last minute, Nalini Lasiewicz said. In addition, ShowBiz Expo had to plunk down a $5,000 deposit while no deposit is required of national shows.

It was only by a "freak accident" that they were able to reserve convention space for their June 1992 show, they said.

Charles Wolf, marketing manager for the Los Angeles Convention Center, said he was well acquainted with the Lasiewiczs' problems.

"I'm getting damn sick and tired of these people and their griping," he said. "They think because they're show biz they're something special."

The booking policy of the center is to give priority to the conventions that fill the most hotel beds, Wolf said. "That's the way it is in almost every city in the United States," he claimed.

Collins admitted it is ironic that ShowBiz Expo can't get space at the Convention Center when the entertainment business is one of the things that makes L.A. an attractive destination for both tourists and conventions.

"Many places can talk about palm trees and beaches," Collins said. "We've got the Hollywood sign."

The policy is based on simple economics, he said. A national association convention can bring in as many as 10,000 to 15,000 out-of-towners, which means paying hotel guests, Collins said. The policy's purpose is to bring in those room-nights and "not to circulate local wallets that are already in town," he said.

San Francisco has 30 or 40 conventions a year, while Los Angeles had three this past year, Collins noted. "This town is being devastated by the recession because we have no out-of-town conventions coming into town," he said.

By allowing a local convention to take the space, it "blocks" the center's ability to bring in out-of-towners, and therefore hotel and restaurant patrons and therefore jobs, Collins said.

The Lasiewiczs have taken their problem to City Hall, with no success. First they went to Councilman Mike Woo, who represents the Silver Lake district where their business is located, then to the Los Angeles Film Development Committee.

Last year, film committee head Ed Prelock wrote a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, urging him to find a way to resolve "the logjam" that was preventing the Lasiewiczs from getting space at the Convention Center.

"It would be unfortunate if ShowBiz Expo is unable to carry forth one of its important messages for this industry in 1991," Prelock wrote. "That message has to do with the economic importance of all the businesses, large and small, that are dependent on production activities in Los Angeles. We would not want this show to run into the kind of problem that leads anyone to say Los Angeles is taking the film industry for granted."

Ray Remy, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said that when the Convention Center's expansion to 810,000 square feet from 373,000 square feet is complete, there will be room for both regional and out-of-town shows.

Bob Lasiewicz said the construction has made getting space at the center more difficult.

In response to their complaints, Bradley wrote, ". . . Let me state at the outset that the City of Los Angeles does not want the 1991 ShowBiz Expo to leave our town." However, Bradley went on to write that ShowBiz Expo needed to make a formal application to the Booking Committee of the Convention Center to be changed from Priority III status to Priority II.

But in order to garner that status change, ShowBiz Expo must generate $375,000 of revenues for the Convention Center, a number the trade show has not yet reached, Wolf said.

Still, ShowBiz Expo has space at the center this June, if only by accident, Nalini Lasiewicz said. She said she just happened to call about a date for their 1993 show, when she was told that the United Auto Workers convention, which had been booked for June 1992, had canceled.

Up until a few months ago, the Lasiewiczs were told they could not get Los Angeles Convention Center space in June. As an alternate plan, they booked their show into the Long Beach Convention Center.

But the Lasiewiczs were not thrilled about having the show in Long Beach, noting many studio executives are loathe to travel south of Beverly Hills.

If they had the show in Long Beach, "There would be a perceptual problem we'd have to overcome," Bob Lasiewicz explained. "It did seem kind of strange to have a show focused on Hollywood take place in Long Beach."