Relax, NPE is still in Orlando

A blog post caused a minor disturbance in some plastics circles yesterday, after a political reporter wrote that a plastics show was moving back to McCormick Place. The reference to plastics turned out to be a mistake, and the post has since been corrected. Anyone who saw the original post may have wondered if the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. was having second thoughts about moving NPE 2012 and 2015 to Orlando, Fla. Here's the story: Greg Hinz, a political columnist for Crain's Chicago Business, wrote an item for his blog yesterday headlined "Reilly appears off to good start at McPier." The post updated readers on the situation at McPier, the agency that runs Chicago's McCormick Place convention center, and was the result of a lunch that Hinz had with McPier boss Jim Reilly. The post was largely positive, noting that Reilly "seems to be doing some of the right things that the mayor, governor and Illinois General Assembly hired him to do." Reilly stressed that reforms at McCormick -- all instituted after SPI announced that it was moving NPE away from Chicago -- have succeeded in stopping the exodus of shows from McCormick. "Once the dust settles, cost-wise, I think we'll be very competitive . . . at or below prices in Las Vegas and Orlando," Reilly told Hinz. The confusing part for plastics industry readers was a brief reference in the story to a couple of shows that, thanks to the reforms, Chicago had managed to keep. "...two big shows that had threatened to leave -- representing the plastics and industrial technology sectors -- instead renewed in Chicago..." Hinz wrote. At least one of Hinz's readers jumped on that snippet, emailing Plastics News a link, saying it was proof that SPI had decided to come back Chicago. SPI quickly put a wet blanket on that rumor. SPI President Bill Carteaux sent us this statement this morning: "As announced November 17, 2009, SPI's NPE trade show will be held in Orlando for the next two show cycles: April 1-5, 2012 and March 22-26, 2015." We pointed this out to Hinz today, and he's now added a short addendum to his original blog post: "One correction in the above. I wrote down 'plastics' in my notebook about shows that now are staying in Chicago, but the correct show is 'housewares.' The plastics show is still gone to Orlando. Should have double checked." We're glad to have played a small part in setting the record straight, and perhaps keeping a unsubstantiated rumor from starting to spread. NPE is going to continue to generate a lot of interest from the political and labor community in Chicago. You can be sure that they'll want another crack at winning back the shows, which have been such an important -- and lucrative -- business for the city since 1971. But despite any rumors you hear to the contrary, don't expect that to happen before the 2018 cycle.