Miami Beach Convention Center unveils 17 events for 2024

The Miami Beach Convention Center is preparing to welcome 17 events for the second half of the year.

A good blend of meetings and conventions will fill the 1.4-million-square-foot center, said General Manager Freddie Peterson, leading up to its marquee event, Art Basel in December.

Following last week’s Florida International Medical Expo with Informa Markets – the largest show producers in the world – is a comic-book lover’s dream: Florida SuperCon 2024.

The annual event July 12-14 will bring to life cartoons, anime, cosplay, fantasy and more with a forecasted attendance of 20,000. Attendees can meet Ella Purnell, who stars in Prime Video’s series Fallout, and Clifford Chapin, a voice actor and voice director who has worked in anime series My Hero Academia as Katsuki Bakugo.

Following the well-known anticipated events comes a new addition.

“We have a new event rolling in August called Wow Japan [2024],” said Mr. Peterson. “It’s a wonderful immersive Japan experience which really delves into food, culture and business that’ll have about 4,000 people” from Aug. 16-18.

Another annual show Aug. 30-Sept. 8 is the Miami International Auto Show, said Mr. Peterson, with a forecasted attendance of 50,000.

“Two other annuals are America’s Food and Beverage [Show],” said Mr. Peterson. “That’s … about 12,000 people Sept. 16-18, and then there’s been another event that is now co-located with America’s Food and Beverage called Food Hospitality LATAM… . Although they’re separate events, they’re co-located to support one another. That one alone is over the same dates, and that’ll have about 3,000 people as well.”

There’s really great potential as they partner, said Mr. Peterson.

The convention center will be welcoming the second annual Independent Hotel Show from Sept. 18-19, said Mr. Peterson. The show “launched last year … super excited to have them back … about 2,000 people.”

The show’s mission “is to expand its support to a broader audience of forward-thinking, independently spirited hoteliers in North America, the Caribbean, and Central America,” says the Independent Hotel Show website.

The city-owned center welcomes many shows focused on seven vertical categories, said Mr. Peterson: medical and health, finance, tech, education, sports, art and culture, and special events.

The 2024 AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting and OTO Experience (American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery) is a “wonderful conference that’s coming in from Sept. 28-Oct. 1; that’s about 10,000 attendees,” he said. “We talk about the seven verticals, the business focus that we run; this is most certainly one of our most important ones, super excited by that.”

Jewelers International Showcase, the largest jewelry trade show in Miami, he said, takes place Oct. 6-9 and anticipates 8,000 attendees.

Technology continues to revolutionize the world as a new event will be taking place Oct. 14-16.

“This one,” said Mr. Peterson, “I would say kind of fell out of the sky, if you will. It’s 2024 Adobe MAX. It’s called the creativity conference.”

“One of the things that we – or at least I – kind of ping on and have a super focus on is … relationships, partnerships and friendships. In saying that, a third-party provider called JP Johnson had an event here and we hosted it last year called Cisco. That was an IT event.”

“We did such a phenomenal job, and when I say we, I mean, the center, the [Greater Miami] Convention & Visitors Bureau and the City of Miami Beach in hosting Cisco and JP Johnson had such a great event here, they started talking to Adobe a little bit” about its event, which is usually in Los Angeles.

They talked “about maybe trying something different, and here we are. An amazing event, huge on economic impact, global tech event … that has 10,000 attendees. When I talked about the verticals and the business focus, those seven verticals, this hit one of those other verticals on obviously the IT tech front as well.”

Flexibility of the building, said Mr. Peterson, permits simultaneous events. It’s possible to have an event moving in and another moving out, all while a separate event is being hosted.

A side that is often overlooked is the move-in and move-out as “millions of pounds of freight are coming into the building,” he said. “The move out [is] the same thing.”

Also to come are the International Congress of Esthetics and Spa 2024 on Oct. 20 and 21, with 3,000 visitors expected; IntraLogisteX USA on Oct. 22 and 23, with a forecasted attendance of 1,000; World Travel Expo 2024 on Oct. 22 and 23, with 1,200 expected; eXp CON 2024 from Oct. 27-31, with 6,000 expected; Air Cargo Forum and Exhibition Nov. 11-14, with a forecasted attendance of 4,000; and Bio-Stimulants World Congress 2024 from Nov. 12-15, with 860 people expected.

“Two other annuals: Design Miami, which is obviously attached to Art Basel,” said Mr. Peterson. “They are in Pride Park; 6 acres there. That’s Dec. 4-8 that estimated attendance over those dates – obviously guests go back and forth between Design Miami and Art Basel – [of] about 30,000…. our anchor event here: Art Basel… Dec. 4-8. Their estimated attendance is around 77,000.”

It’s always important, he said, to highlight Art Basel, a mega event comprised of multiple events across Miami Beach and Miami.

The convention center’s fiscal year Oct.1-Sept. 30 is on track to set a record, said Mr. Peterson. “We’re going to break another record here of about 82 events, and the forecast in attendance all in is over 500,000. The Convention & Visitors Bureau, the destination, what we do from a venue perspective, the Miami Beach Convention Center, we continue to do just phenomenal across the board.”

Regardless of an event’s size or focus, each has its own impact.

“Every single event,” said Mr. Peterson, “is unique and distinct and it brings its own flavor.”