5,000 expected at major Showbiz
Expo’s first-time ever in Chicago

The mammoth ShowBiz Expo comes to Chicago in early November for the first time in 20 years, bringing an expected 200 exhibitors and more than a score of top industry speakers and workshops to satisfy every production and technology interest.

Officially called ShowBiz Expo’s Entertainment Technology World, it will be held Nov. 6-9 in 60,000 sq. ft. at the Donald Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.

The show will consist of a four day technical conference Nov. 5-9, and a two day exhibition Nov. 7-8.

Producer is New York-based Mindshares Ventures, better known for its New York and Los Angeles’ DV Shows, and many technically-related conferences held on both coasts.

“We will create a huge buyer and seller marketplace for professionals and prosumers that have never been in the Heartland before,” claimed Mindshare Ventures’ president, Rick Friedman. “It’s about time.”

And so it is. Since a former Chicago husband-and-wife team founded ShowBiz Expo in Los Angeles in 1983, you had to go to either L.A. or New York to attend. And while Chicago has enjoyed a variety of equipment/workshop expos over the past 20 years, none has been on the mega scale of what this show promises.

The 5,000-plus visitors expected from 15 states and Canada will have plenty to keep them occupied. There will be three simultaneous tracks, 18 round-the-clock presentations and panels, product training workshops, special events and screening of the ICG Film Showcase Festival 2003.

East and West Coast experts visiting Chicago for the first time include documentary legend Albert Maysles; screenwriting guru Syd Fields; “The Sopranos'” editor Conrad Gonzalez, ACE; DP Robert Primes, ASC; Hollywood idea man Robert Kosberg; DV expert John Manulis; lighting expert Bill Hoshevnikoff and many others.

Registration is free online. To register and for complete details, see www.showbizexpo.com.

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