Chicago will retain a major telecommunications trade show next year, but may lose it to Las Vegas in 2008.
The Telecommunications Industry Association, representing telecom equipment-makers, and the United States Telecom Association, made up of telecom carriers, will reunite their annual trade shows in June at McCormick Place, after a year of running competing shows.
The groups agreed to combine future shows under the name NXTComm.
That show will be held June 18-21, replacing TIA’s GlobalComm, which had been scheduled here for those dates.
The USTA will cancel its show that was set for next spring in Las Vegas, but the joint group will negotiate with Las Vegas to stage its 2008 show there. Those plans aren’t final.
The sites for 2009 and beyond haven’t been selected, the trade groups’ executives said Wednesday.
The Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau remains hopeful Chicago will retain the show in 2008 and beyond, said Marc Anderson, associate vice president for sales.
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