More than 55,000 gathered last month for the 50th ICSC spring convention in Las Vegas. The sheer scale of the event was breathtaking: the two million sq ft leasing mall where major landlords woo retailers to take space in their malls was three quarters of a mile across, and it often took half an hour to get from one meeting to the next.
And that was just one of two parallel exhibitions: there was also a 350,000-sq ft space devoted to trade suppliers to the shopping centre industry.
ICSC chairman John Bucksbawn, CEO of General Growth Properties, pointed out that the amount of exhibition space had doubled in just one year. But despite the practical problems associated with an event on such a scale veterans insisted it is an unrivalled place to do business.
Keynote speaker was seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong who spoke movingly about his triumphant return from cancer.
And to prove he's still racing fit he then led a group of delegates on a ten-mile ride despite the 100-degree heat in the Mojave Desert.
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