Chicago has been wrapped in fog as BEA returns to this city for the first time in over a decade, a smaller show than it has been in some time. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Beyond the already-reported reduction in advertised show square footage, almost everything about this year’s show makes you feel small. Even if it were packed, occupying just one part of the mammoth, multi-building McCormick Place convention center sprawl exacerbates the smallness. The main exhibition floor of the West Building that houses BEA is listed at 470,000 square feet — about 15 percent bigger than […]
