Buyers looking for the latest candy or nutrition bar to add to the product mix may find what they’re seeking under the roof of the Las Vegas Convention Center when the NACS Show 2004 comes to Vegas October 17-20.

Ninety-four percent of retailers who attended the NACS Show 2003 came to see the new products and services available to the convenience channel. With that in mind, careful planning went into the design of this year’s expo to ensure that there would be a wide variety of products and services addressing the needs of attendees.

The expo will feature 1,400 exhibitors filling nearly one million gross square feet of space. Trade show hours are on Monday, October 18, from noon to 5:30 p.m.; on Tuesday, October 19, from noon to 5: 30 pm; and on Wednesday, October 20, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The floor itself is designed to reflect how retailers, wholesalers and distributors shop for products and services, allowing a retail team to efficiently cover the entire expo and giving exhibitors the chance to connect with the right people.

The exhibit floor is divided into six key areas, one of which is Candy and Snacks. The six areas will be color-coded throughout the exhibit hall. Each area will have one color for carpeting, overhead signage and aisle signs to allow attendees to easily navigate the expo floor.

Also, each area of the expo floor has a special place specifically for first-time exhibitors at the NACS Show, which will allow show attendees to more easily check out the newest products and services. Another place to visit to pick up new ideas is the Cool New Products and Video Kiosk, where attendees can take a close-up look at the industry’s most innovative products and services before even stepping onto the show floor.

In addition to the exposition, the NACS Show 2004 will feature dozens of workshops and sessions, including an Opening General Session address by Mary Lou Retton and the spirited Closing General Session debate between Newt Gingrich and James Carville.

Complete details about all the new products, services and educational opportunities at the NACS Show 2004, are available by visiting www.nacsshow.com Those with additional questions may call the NACS Show Hotline at (877) 684-3600.

All the details of the show planning are in place for the event next month, including arrangements for the thousands of pounds of products left over after the show concludes.

Operation Interdependence and The Community Food Bank of Clark County will be the organizations gathering the surplus products and distributing them after the show.

Operation Interdependence is the premier U.S. civilian-to-military delivery system that provides a direct means for people at home to send individual care packages, called civilian rations or c-rats, to the troops on the front lines.

Currently, there is no system for the military to receive and distribute the thousands of care packages being sent to our military men and women from our country. OI delivers these packages without utilizing military resources, which means that servicemen and women can concentrate on their missions and daily duties instead of taking time away to distribute the c-rats.

Care packages come filled with a wide variety of products, including toothbrushes, soap, small tubes of toothpaste, shampoo, queen-sized panty hose (for guns), sealed jerky, sealed peanut butter, packaged small foods, dry drink mixes, pens and pencils. The c-rats are boxed with enough quart-sized Ziplock bags—sometimes the most important gift since military personnel use them to keep valuables protected from sand, dirt and water—to support the entire platoon or other designated group. n