Halloween Attractions Conventions, Tradeshows, and Seminar page. On this page we will help you find NOT ONLY Haunted Attraction tradeshows but Halloween retail tradeshows, horror conventions, mask and make up tradeshows, haunted house tours, seminars and even major amusement industry tradeshows and events. We update this page often so continue to check back frequently. If you know about an event please email us detailed information!
HAlloween and Atractions Tradeshows
TransWorld’s National Halloween & Haunted Attractions Show St. Louis, Missouri March 2010
The haunted house industry FINALLY has its own haunted house show and it will be held in the America Center in St. Louis, Missouri on March 2010. Prepare for three jam packed days of over 100,000 square feet of haunted house products, amusement products, seminars, education, and haunt tours through one of America's best haunted houses "The Darkness'. This is THE MAIN event of the year if you own or operate a haunted attraction, amusement park or any sort of amusement facilty. The show floor will showcase over 100 vendors from the Halloween and Haunted House industry! Several entertain events are held, annual meetings for the Haunted House Association, tours through several haunted houses like The Darkness and much more. Learn more about this event at http://www.hauntshow.com
The IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) show is the biggest amusement show on the entire planet held every year in November. The show is over 750,000 square feet and offer over 1000 vendors. On average there are about 100 haunt related vendors to choose from. Additionally IAAPA has been producing haunted house seminars each year at their event. If you are in the amusement industry and own any sort of amusement attraction including a Haunted Attraction YOU MUST attend this show!!!! Next years show in November 2010 will be held in Orlando, Florida.
Now held each March and usually in Las Vegas, the Fun Expo is the biggest family fun center tradeshow. The tradeshow features tons of seminars for the attraction industry. Several haunted house vendors have been displaying at this show and in addition Fun Expo has produced haunted house seminars. Fun Expo is held in early March 2010. Fun Expo is a smaller amusement related show with some cool vendors, not many buyers and a big focus on the FEC industry.
MHC is held in Columbus, Ohio each July. Learn from many other haunted house owners, actors and more. MHC has been very aggressive with seminars for haunt owners and now offers a full tradeshow with vendors and more. MHC has become a really nice show with a pretty big tradeshow floor, the most seminars and events of any of the shows offered each year. The show somewhat leans towards the home haunts and enthusiasts more so than just the professional haunt owners however the show features a ton of vendors and events for both home and professional haunters.
National Haunters Convention (Philadelphia, Pennslvania)
This years event will be held on the last weekend of March 2010 and features a small tradeshow floor, haunt tours, and seminars. The show leans more to enthusiasts and home haunters than professional haunted house owners. The show is more focused on trying to lure in local PA and PA area haunt owners to the show. Because there are so many haunts in the area the show planners are able to offer tours through some of the best haunts in the nation. We suggest this show if you are within driving distance.
HauntCon travels each year to a different city so that attendees can visit haunted houses around the country. Hauntcon is held each year in the month of April. This years show will be held in Orlando, Florida. The tradeshow floor is smaller but with some really cool haunt vendors with cool products on display. These shows (MHC, HAUNTCON, etc) do not offer the sheer amount of vendors and massive tradeshow displays as the Transworld Haunt does however because of their cheaper booth prices it opens the doors to smaller up and coming vendors. Typically at these shows you will find stuff you can't find at any other shows and this goes triple for Hauntcon. The awesome aspects of Hauntcon are the show travels from city to city so the haunt tours involve different haunts each year. Most attendees to Hauntcon are usually visiting from driving distance so if you are near Orlando in late April we suggest a visit to Hauntcon.
This is held in Los Angeles in June. Make-up artists, vendors, manufacturers and enthusiasts convene for the make-up world’s biggest gathering to discuss, display, discover and collect the best the industry has to offer.
Canadian Haunters Convention: Haunts from around Canada will visit this show to trade ideas, teach seminars and much more. www.canadahaunts.ca
West Coast Haunters Convention: Another smaller show where haunters will gather to learn new tips and trade ideas. www.westcoasthaunters.homestead.com
Face and Body Art International Convention: FABAIC is the annual Face and Body Art International Convention which takes place in May/June in Orlando, Florida. Painters from around the world gather together to experience the largest face and body painting convention in the US. For more information visit www.faceandbodyart.net
Great Lakes FrightFest: This is another small haunters gathering with a focus on Michigan hauntsevents include demos, door prizes and events for kids of all ages. Visit them on the web at www.greatlakesfrightfest.com
Ironstock: Is a large event for haunters and enthusiasts in the Indiana area with tons of fun events for those who attend including how to events, seminars and events for kids. Visit their website at http://www.theironkingdom.com/Ironstock/
HALLOWEEN RETAIL TRADESHOWS
Transworld Halloween and Party Show: This is the longest running Halloween retail show in America held in Chicago, Illinois on the last weekend of February. The show floor will showcase some of the biggest Halloween retail vendors, seminars, events and much more. www.hcpshow.com
Halloween and Party Expo: This show is held in late January in Houston, Texas and features the largest support from the Halloween retail vendors and showcases major league retail vendors such as Rubies and many more. This is strickly a Halloween retail show for retail masks, costumes, and more. visit them on the web at www.halloweenpartyexpo.com
HORROR and Science Fiction CONVENTIONS
Listed below are several horror conventions where you can go and find awesome Halloween toys, collecables, and meet tons of awesome celebs from some of your favorite movies. If you own a haunted house visiting this shows helps you meet celebs who can be hired to work at your haunted house!
Monsterpalooza: This show is probably a cross between a horror show and a haunt related event. You will find the best monster creators in the WORLD at this event, plus several high end collecables, all sorts of masks, monsters, and much more. Plus this event features several horror celebs from some of your favorite moster movies. This show is in April and you can find them on the web here: http://www.rubberroom101.com/monsterpalooza2010/
Chiller Theatre
This is the biggest horror convention on the planet. If you own a haunted house you can go here and meet celebrities who would come to your haunted house, find interesting horror stuff and more. Chiller Theatre must be the biggest horror convention of its kind anywhere... we strongly suggest you visit this one!
Horrorfind will takes place in Baltimore, MD. There are some haunted house seminars, but mostly meet tons of horror celebrities & find interesting horror toys. Visit them at http://www.horrorfindweekend.com/state/maryland/
Weekend of Horrors: In conjunction with Fangoria magazine Creation Entertain produces several events usually in New York, Los Angles, or Chicago. Visit their website to learn more details: www.creationent.com
Mask Fest: Meet tons of celebs and some of the best monster creators in the World. Show is held in Indianapolis in late March. http://www.maskfest.com/
Dragon Con: Dragon Con is a huge event in the Atlanta area with tons of science fiction and fantasy movies, gaming, comics and more. www.dragoncon.org
Comic Con: The biggest horror, science fiction and comic book celebration in the World. Comic Con is held in San Diego, California. http://www.comic-con.org/
When I first started looking into the Haunted House business in 1998 it was a much simpler time. We didn’t have the vastness of the internet to find information. After a long hard search, there was but one choice, the Transworld Halloween and Party Show. It really wasn’t a Haunted House show per se, but a retail show that had a small section dedicated to Haunted House related products. The good thing was they had a pre-show seminar series that dealt with the business aspects of haunts!
We attended for an eye opening experience! Seasoned Haunters shared information on how to successfully create a haunt. There were even some vendors that actually had Haunt related props! I was in “Halloween Heaven”. While the show was enormous, I learned quickly that the focus of the show was for retailers. There were some interesting costumes and props available, if you wanted to buy a dozen with a three dozen minimum. But even that didn’t deter the faithful from attending, and attend we did! The Haunt Section began to grow quickly. More attendees created more vendors. But since the focus of the TW show is retail, the Haunters always felt they were treated like the “red headed step child”. So others decided to tap into that market and perhaps cater to this foundling industry.
Fast forward ten years…. Now we have more choices than ever and easier access to find them; TW, IAAPA, Fun Expo, Midwest Haunters, HauntCon, National Haunters Convention, Ironstock and the list grows…. . So where do you go to experience that “Halloween Heaven” I had experienced so long ago? Some will claim that they are THE convention or show for the industry. Is one better than another? Which should you attend? How do we sort through the confusion to unearth the facts? Foremost it is YOUR focus and needs that should dictate the show or shows you attend.
While most all are referred to as conventions, there are actually differences. In reality there are two basic types, trade shows and conventions. A trade show is an industry gathering whose purpose is to put products and services in front of prospective clients. A convention is a gathering of individuals to discuss or engage in a common interest. Over time the line between them has blurred. Trade shows saw a need to provide additional content and sometimes entertainment to entice their attendees. Vendors looked at the conventions and saw an opportunity to present their products to these like minded individuals. So which is best for you?
You must decide, “…what is my purpose?” Is it business, personal growth, or just entertainment? Are you the owner, manager, an actor, a promoter, a technician? Relatively speaking, those with business related functions will attend trade shows; fan and personal related functions attend conventions. The trade shows focus on business aspects, ways to develop and grow your business. They draw from the owner/operators. Conventions tend to entertain more. They will draw more peripheral people. Individuals who work for haunts or hobbyists with more of a fan interest in the business. It’s easy to tell the difference, in a group, the enthusiast asks what new scare you use, the owner/operator asks what new promotion or advertising you use. The trade show motivates you to build the business; the convention motivates you to enjoy the business.
Following this article is a HauntWorld Event Calendar. It contains info and links to the major shows. If we look at what is available for the Haunt industry and use our basic classifications we see that: TransWorld Vegas, TransWorld St. Louis, IAAPA, and Fun Expo are trade shows. Midwest Haunters, HauntCon, National Haunters, Ironstock and the remainder are conventions.
We see that the major vendors usually attend the trade shows and start up or smaller vendors attend the conventions. Trade shows cost thousands of dollars per booth, conventions cost hundreds of dollars. Trade show sales are in the thousands per transaction which justify the costs, conventions in the hundreds. This may explain why the major vendors focus on the trade shows. A convention may highlight a new company, but can they survive till next year? If they do, chances are they end up at the trade shows.
Let’s highlight some of the shows and what they have to offer.
Trade Shows:
TransWorld Halloween and Party ShowVegas: Halloween retail. Great for your gift shops, costume shops, high end make up, and a great place to find unique products.
TransWorld Haunted Attraction Tradeshow St. Louis: biggest selection of Halloween props, animations, and high tech equipment. Special tours, top notch education, highest turn out of haunt owners and operators. Venders typically work all winter to develop new product exclusively for this show. This year is the first time TW has separated the Haunters from the Party Show. Haunt tours are offered however they are not the focus rather bringing buyers and sellers together.
IAAPA: Biggest amusement show in the world. Products cover the gambit from haunters to major amusement parks. IAAPA show offers suppliers for products you may not find anywhere else on the planet and vendors from nearly every nation around the World. Business related education including some haunted house seminars are offered. Show moves to Las Vegas in 2009.
Fun Expo: A smaller version of IAAPA. Focus is towards the smaller family fun centers or small amusement business owner. Wide variety of products, services and suppliers that can be utilized by haunt owners to expand their businesses such as concession suppliers, insurance companies, theming supplies to high tech equipment. Business oriented education is offered. Haunt vendors are starting to attend this show as they reach out to FEC industry.
Conventions:
Midwest Haunters, HauntCon, National Haunters Convention:
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