Rosemont, IL – Mia Rampersad, manager of the annual International Home + Housewares Show for the past 24 years, is expected to announce she is stepping down as vice president, trade show, of the International Housewares Association (IHA). With a week to go before opening day of the Housewares show March 7-10 at McCormick Place, Rampersad did not immediately comment on the report that this would be her final show.
Adrienne Tiritilli, who has been assistant general manager of sales and events for McCormick Place, will succeed Rampersad. Tiritilli joined McCormick Place in 2006 as senior director of convention sales and marketing for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority. She was named director of sales in 2008 and assistant general manager in 2011 when SMG took over management of the nation’s largest convention center.
The Housewares Show has been a keystone event on the McCormick Place calendar since it debuted in 1961. The show has also been a perennial member of the TSE Gold 100 list of largest exhibitions in the U.S. It was ranked 11th on the 2014 Gold 100 with 775,000 net square feet (nsf) at the 2013 show. Last year’s event grew slightly to 778,000 nsf and drew 62,000 attendees.
Exhibit space for the 2015 show was declared sold out in December with more than 2,100 exhibitors signed up, including 400 first-time participants.
Rampersad was featured on the cover of the December 2010 issue of TSE and was the interview guest in the issue’s Power Lunch feature. She told TSE columnist Bob Dallmeyer: “I started at Freeman and immediately knew that this fast-paced industry of event planning and trade shows was for me. This is a business where you are never bored, and there is constant evolution, which can be very rewarding.”
Freeman’s sales department was where Rampersad began her career in the trade show industry. She joined IHA in 1991 as operations manager for the Housewares Show and was moved up to vice president in 2000.
She has been active in various industry associations and was a member of the McCormick Place Labor Council.
Reach Mia Rampersad at (847) 692-0107 or mrampersad@housewares.org
