3rd big trade show may check out of Chicago

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Chicago's standing as a trade show center faces yet another challenge as the National Restaurant Association weighs whether to take its 2012 trade show elsewhere, according to sources close to the negotiations.

An exit by this McCormick Place star -- a top show here for more than a half-century -- would be a third brutal punch to the city, which in the last week lost two other shows.

The plastics industry trade show, a triennial event, announced Tuesday it will move its 2012 and 2015 shows to Orlando after nearly four decades in Chicago. And the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society last week said it would move its 2012 annual meeting to Las Vegas. Both cited the cost of doing business in Chicago as the major factor in their decisions.

Though restaurant show attendance fell 24 percent this year, to 54,000 exhibitors and potential buyers, the event still pumped an estimated $86 million into the local economy, the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau said. The show is committed to remain here in 2010 and 2011.

Great moments in unionized Chicago.