IMEX America 2025 closed October 9 as the most successful IMEX event of any stripe by posting impressive numbers in major categories, according to the tradeshow company.
The October 7-9 event held at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Convention Center welcomed more than 17,000 participants—a record for both IMEX America and its European counterpart, IMEX Frankfurt—and also set records for the biggest exhibit floor, with more than 3,700 exhibitors (a 5% increase over 2024) and the number of buyers (more than 6,000, of which 4,700 were hosted buyers). The buyers participated in more than 90,000 scheduled meetings with exhibitors across the three days of the show, with 77,000 of which being pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings.
“It just shows the strength of our industry,” said IMEX CEO Carina Bauer at the event’s closing press conference. “There are many uncertainties, many challenges, in the world at the moment, but our industry is incredibly resilient. I think if this week shows nothing else, it shows how resilient, how dynamic and how powerful the live, in-person, face-to-face events industry is not just here in North America, but right across the world.”
Bauer said between 75% and 80% of the hosted buyers were from North America and about 20% came from locations outside of the continent.
IMEX Re-Ups Major Agreements
Familiarity breeds success, as the saying goes, and the continuing success of IMEX America has resulted in it reupping agreements through 2030 with all of its major partners:
- MGM Resorts International’s Mandalay Bay Convention Center as the site of the event
- GES as the general service contractor
- MPI for its strategic partnership to power its educational programming for Smart Monday
“We have a lot of stability, a lot of consistency,” Bauer said. “We have amazing partners and we're delighted to be continuing those relationships far into the future.”
Bauer was particularly proud of IMEX America receiving a level three designation for neurodivergent inclusive events, a new designation awarded by the American Psychological Association and the Australian Psychological Society for neurodivergent-inclusive event design.
“They measured not just the exhibition floor, which we have a little bit less control over, in terms of the exhibition booths, but they were measuring activations and other spaces like our Resilience Room…and that level three is the top level of this new standard. We're very proud of that. It's something that our team has worked hard on over the years to improve—[to be] an accessible event in every way, including neurodivergence.”
International Attendance Holds Steady
While international arrivals to the U.S. have decreased due to factors such as entry fees, the increase of tariffs and much more robust arrival procedures and visa costs, Bauer said international attendance was not impacted at this year’s event.
“We know that the leisure visitor numbers are down, but our experience has been very different t0 that,” she said. “Right from the spring, we were in close contact, especially with our intermediaries, who obviously are in direct contact with buyers from around the world, and what we were hearing right from the spring was that despite more general sentiment and despite media attention on the issues, we weren't expecting our buyers or our exhibitors to be put off coming into the US to do their business.
“Ultimately, this is a business show,” Bauer continued, "and people come here for business reasons. And they were still very determined, and also very happy and excited, as they always are, to come to the U.S. and to come to Las Vegas and to come to IMEX America. We really haven't seen any impact from our international buyers and exhibitors at all.”
