Now in its 86th year, America’s Beauty Show (ABS) still had some new tricks up its sleeve. The show, which took place March 12 to 14, 2011, at Chicago’s McCormick Place hosted 62,857 attendees and 15,073 exhibitor personnel, which made for a 9% increase in attendance over 2010 numbers. There were 375 exhibitors, 70 educational workshops offering continuing education, and 102 product knowledge classes.

The highlight for many nail techs was the first-ever Shellac & Fashion Fusion runway show. This show marked the first time a nail-focused show has been on ABS’s The Runway (a large auditorium complete with a catwalk).

ABS also upped its digital presence this year, including scannable QR codes on printed materials that took attendees to the ABS Mobile Program (which included easy access to the exhibitor list), plus frequent Facebook (www.facebook.com/AmericasBeautyShow) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/absupdates) updates.

Next year’s show will be March 3 to 5, 2012.

NAILS is now live blogging from select beauty tradeshows. Visit  blogs.nailsmag.com/editor to learn about new product launches first.