It’s back to the West as the International Sign Association’s (ISA) Sign Expo 2019 returns to its West Coast home at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas April 23 to 26. As the Sign Expo has grown, it began to exceed the capacity of Mandalay Bay, and an expansion of the venue in the off-year allowed the show to return. “Luckily, they have expanded Mandalay Bay so that they could accommodate us this year,” said Brandon Hensley, ISA’s Chief Operating Officer. “We were excited that the facility has been improving and increasing their space. We’re very fortunate that way.”

The M.O. for any industry event these days is to showcase as many aspects of the printing industry as possible, rather than focusing on one small slice of it. As result, ISA has been continuing its focusing on colocations for the Sign Expo. Late last year, ISA and Xplor announced that XPLOR19 would colocate with this year’s Sign Expo. “We continue to push on our colocations because we’re always looking for partners that make sense from a business standpoint for our attendees to get a feel for something that they’re not directly involved in but may want to kind of go into,” said Hensley. “Especially as we see the print world continuing to merge. Print exhibitors are definitely excited any time we can bring more buyers to the show.” It also allows attendees from the sign and display side of things to have a look at transactional and other traditional commercial print work, and also allows attendees from the commercial print side to see what all the fuss is about in sign and display.

One new initiative at this year’s Sign Expo is Women Leading the Industry (WLI), which ISA is launching in conjunction with Sign Builder Illustrated (SBI). The inaugural session, “The Female Leader: Passion, Empowerment, and Confidence,” to be held on Friday April 26, will comprise a panel of leaders discussing the challenges that women face in the industry. The event, moderated by Ashley Bray, SBI’s managing editor, and the initiative in general are designed to inspire and empower women in the sign, graphics, and visual communications industry. “That’s going to be our kickoff event,” said Iain Mackenzie, ISA’s VP of Meetings & Events. “It’s going to be a year-round endeavor, with more rolled out over the rest of the year.” Specifically, WLI will continue to provide news about women in the industry, ongoing programs that encourage professional and personal growth through specific educational resources, and networking opportunities.