New Pool Chief Expects No Big Changes

When Ronda Walker, founder of the Pool Trade Show, officially left the organization on July 3 to pursue new business ventures, the responsibility for leading the funky, unique show, which focuses on youth-oriented fashion lines, fell to its director of operations, Mindy Wiener.

Wiener said Pool would keep its identity as an art-driven, slightly counterculture trade show while also being part of the corporate family of trade shows owned by New York–based Advanstar Communications. It’s also the parent company of apparel shows MAGIC Marketplace and Project Global Trade Show.

Wiener said she could perform this balancing act because she had worked at Pool since October 2004. Walker had recruited Wiener after her 20-year career in fashion wholesaling. Wiener had owned the now-defunct MWC showroom at The New Mart in Los Angeles, and before coming to Pool, she had managed West Coast sales for Sixty SpA, the Italian parent company of Miss Sixty, Energie and Killah.

Wiener will keep her title of director of operations, according to Advanstar. Walker’s job as general manager will not be filled.

As with the rest of the Pool staff, Wiener had had no previous experience running a trade show. She had to learn fast, because Pool has grown quickly. It debuted in 2001 with 50 vendors. For the July 17–19 show at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, more than 200 vendors are aigned on. And for the Aug. 28–30 Pool at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Convention Center, more than 500 vendors will show new lines from emerging designers.

Although the question of who will run Pool has been answered, other questions on its future remain a mystery. Since Pool was purchased for $3 million by Advanstar in August 2005, it has been rumored that the trade show will move its Las Vegas digs. The most common talk was that it would move to the Las Vegas Convention Center in order to be closer to MAGIC. Wiener did not dismiss the rumor in a recent e-mail interview.

“We have yet to announce where our new home will be in 2007,” she said. Wiener also didn’t address what would happen next with her predecessor’s plans for starting an e-commerce market for Pool. The online market would create a space where the trade show’s vendors could sell their designs to retailers and consumers year-round. A demonstration Web site for the market, Pooltradeshow.com, is currently online.

Wiener said her focus for Pool’s upcoming show season would be to keep things simple. “Pool began because there was a void in the marketplace for emerging designers,” she said. “[They needed] to be visible in a setting that focused on their clothing, rather than on how much money they spent on building a booth.”

Most booths for the upcoming Pool shows are expected to occupy a spare 6-by-12-foot space and to be accompanied by minimal signage. —Andrew Asch