The American Rental Association last week announced that The Rental Show’s 2006 event moved up to No. 63 on the Tradeshow Week 200 annual listing of the top U.S. trade shows. The show in Orlando, Fla., was the celebration of the 50th anniversaries for the American Rental Association and The Rental Show.

“This ranking is a reflection of the continued growth of the rental industry overall in the past several years,” said Allison Box, ARA vice president of association services. “This marks the fourth consecutive year The Rental Show’s Tradeshow Week rating has increased, moving up from No. 81 for the 2003 show to No. 77 for 2004 and reaching No. 75 for 2005.”

In 2006, there were 12,600 total attendees at the Orange County Convention Center — 6,490 rental attendees representing 2,870 rental businesses and 6,110 exhibitor personnel from 744 companies. The tradeshow occupied 330,000 net square feet of exhibit space, an increase of 50,000 net square feet over 2005. All available exhibit space sold out both years.

The Tradeshow Week 200 is the culmination of a yearlong process of compiling and analyzing data on trade shows in the U.S. and Canada by Tradeshow Week magazine. Rankings are based on the total net square feet of paid exhibit space, total number of contracted exhibitors and total professional attendance.

For 2008, The Rental Show will be at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas Feb. 11-14. The city is the top location for Tradeshow Week 200 shows, as it hosts 45 of the ranked shows. Orlando is second with 20 shows and Atlanta — the third city to host The Rental Show— is fifth with 14. In terms of overall net square feet occupied by the top 200 shows, Las Vegas again tops the list. Orlando and Atlanta rank third and fourth respectively.