Comdex facing ‘double whammy’

Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2001 | 10:50 a.m.

Many big-name computer companies will again be missing from Comdex this year and those who plan to attend will be sending fewer people to meet with clients.

But organizers of North America's largest trade show say all the big companies that have said they were coming will be present.

Producers of this year's show say attendance will be off by about 30 percent when Comdex opens with a keynote address by Microsoft Corp.'s Bill Gates at the MGM Grand Garden on Sunday.

A trade show scaled down from years past will open the next day at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino and the Las Vegas Convention Center. Some booths and administrative offices will be in temporary buildings erected in the Convention Center parking lot.

Booths will occupy about 750,000 square feet of exhibit space, down from the 1 million square feet filled last year, show officials said.

Rick Moore, senior vice president of public relations for Key3Media Group Inc., which produces Comdex, said a 30 percent decrease in attendance at this year's show translates into an estimated reduction from about 210,000 delegates in 2000 to about 150,000 people this year.

About 2,000 exhibitors are expected at this year's show. That's down from the 2,100 last year and 2,050 in 1999.

Moore said the Las Vegas Comdex show experienced a "double whammy" this year with a general softening of the technology industry earlier in the year punctuated with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that further damaged the economy and made some delegates fearful of flying to the event.

"We had heard that a lot of companies that brought 50 people last year may be bringing only about 25 this year, just to save money," Moore said. "A lot of this happened before Sept. 11."

Moore said some of the smaller companies that hadn't committed to exhibiting at this year's show were "pushed over the edge by Sept. 11."

Among the big-name companies that will have booths at this year's show are Microsoft, IBM, Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard, Gateway and Texas Instruments.

But the list of companies that aren't exhibiting at the show also include some big names: Apple Computers, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo.com, Amazon.com and Dell Computers.

Most of them say their plans not to exhibit were in place before the economy went soft and the terrorists attacked.

Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., has never been a big Comdex exhibitor, preferring instead to make major product announcements at California computer shows.

Yahoo.com, Sunnyvale, Calif., also hasn't had a big presence at Comdex, devoting resources instead to wireless communications shows.

A spokeswoman for Sun Microsystems, Palo Alto, Calif., said her company's participation at this year's show is on par with past years. Instead of exhibiting products, Sun conducts seminars and this year will have its presentations at the MGM Grand.

Sun Educational Services, the training arm of Sun Microsystems, is a sponsor of Comdex's Extreme Knowledge Conference, a series of training lectures to develop technical skills.

Dell, one of the keynote sponsors last year, leased meeting rooms in the Convention Center last year. But this year, the company decided against exhibiting on the trade show floor, a plan that changes from year to year based on marketing strategy.

Bryant Hilton, a spokesman for Austin, Texas-based Dell, said the company would have a hospitality suite at the Four Seasons Hotel and reception at the Foundation Room of the House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino.

Hilton said events are planned there because the company is using a Hollywood theme to demonstrate its digital video products.

Hilton said Dell, which is having a profitable year despite a $101 million, 4 cents per share, loss in its most recent quarter ending Aug. 3, decided to press ahead with its marketing plan formulated months ago. The company, in fact, booked so far in advance that it paid the original Comdex rate advertised about a year ago because it wanted to be sure to secure the House of Blues venue.

In the meantime, rates have fallen at several properties around the city as hotels jockey for a shrinking number of customers attending Comdex this year.