From the Kansas City Star:

...This week, for instance, Lenexa-based Silpada Designs, a national direct sales jewelry outfit, for the first time brings nearly 3,000 of its army of 14,000 independent sales reps to Bartle Hall for the company's annual national conference. Since its founding in 1997 the company's yearly meetings here have outgrown downtown hotel meeting rooms and the Overland Park Convention Center...