Attendance plunged, but exhibitors say the serious buyers attended Comdex

Monday, Nov. 19, 2001 | 10:54 a.m.

It's been a long time since Comdex hasn't held the crown as Las Vegas' largest convention.

But 2001, the year life in America was changed by terrorist attacks, the giant computer show produced by Key3Media Group Inc., Los Angeles, saw its attendance plunge to pre-1990 levels.

As Comdex 2001 closed its doors in Las Vegas Friday after a six-day run, convention officials estimated that between 100,000 and 125,000 people attended the event that drew 210,000 people a year ago.

Earlier this year, the International Consumer Electronics Show attracted 130,000 people to Las Vegas while the National Association of Broadcasters drew 115,000.

McCarran International Airport staff, who monitor the airport's baggage claim area and taxi stands for long lines and are used to seeing large crowds when the biggest shows come to town, say Comdex 2001's attendance was probably closer to the 100,000 estimate than the 125,000.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said the economic impact on Las Vegas is about $1,351 per attendee, or $168.9 million if the attendance was 125,000 and $135.1 million if it was 100,000.

But although attendance was down between 40 percent and 52 percent from a year ago, exhibitors attending the show said it was one of the best they've had. The reason: The buyers attending this year were the serious customers and not the tire-kickers who often come just to look.

"Last year, it was like Halloween trick-or-treating," said one exhibitor who asked not to be identified. "All people were doing were coming around to get samples of all the free stuff."

But this year was different.

"We got a much better turnout for leads this year," said Ruba Malak of Tek Systems Inc., a Columbia, Md., company that provides staffing for several technology industries.

Many companies sending employees to the show sent fewer representatives, but they had specific goals, Malak said. As a result, the people who visited the booths had serious inquiries.

And, because there were fewer exhibitors with smaller displays -- Key3Media said there were nearly 2,000 at this year's show, compared with 2,100 a year ago with about 750,000 square feet of exhibits compared with 1 million square feet last year -- those present stood out.

Comdex organizers had already planned to place all their exhibits into the Las Vegas Convention Center and not use the Sands Expo Center this year. Because of the low turnout, it wasn't much of a squeeze. Two halls at the Convention Center handled the exhibits, with nothing overflowing into the Las Vegas Hilton next door. The Hilton housed most of the keynote addresses and educational seminars and the kickoff keynote with Bill Gates was at the MGM Grand.

Like attendance overall, international participation was off dramatically. But the global community also saw this year's show as an opportunity to attract quality instead of quantity.

"There are fewer people coming by just to say hello," said Dannie Chiu, marketing officer for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. "We received many more serious inquiries."

Chiu said the international presence was down considerably this year, partially because of depressed economies in Asia and partially because of some delegates' fear of flying after the terrorist attacks.

Comdex officials said international delegates represented about 11.5 percent of the total turnout, or between 11,000 and 14,000 people. Last year, there were around 30,000 people who attended from foreign countries. While they didn't have a breakdown of delegates or exhibitors by country, officials said there were several companies from the United Kingdom present.

Chiu said of the Asian companies, the delegation from South Korea was strong, while only two exhibitors from Singapore attended the show because of travel jitters.

Jin-Woo Jeong, general manager of EIAK of Korea, said there were 67 companies exhibiting from his country this year compared with 45 last year. The reason: Even though the Korean economy is in a recession, most of the high-tech companies recognize their best chance for recovery is to market to customers outside their own country.

Speaking through an interpreter, Jeong said some of the small Korean companies that exhibited feel they have the technology to compete with the best companies in the world.

While delegates attending Comdex were more comfortable not being shoulder to shoulder when walking the trade show floor, they were briefly inconvenienced by another new byproduct of the terrorist attacks -- security checkpoints outside the convention center.

Metal detectors and dogs trained to sniff out explosives were stationed at the doors leading into the building.

Glenn Orchard, an officer with Pro-Tect Security, Las Vegas, which stationed officers at the metal detectors and fed delegates through to the trade show floor, said people were understanding of the procedure and endured lines that got as long as 10 minutes at the busiest times of the event.

Officers even allowed bags through the door as long as they were searched.

The reason the security officers were able to move people through so quickly is that the security checks weren't as rigorous as those at the nation's airports. Besides, Orchard said, most people were familiar with the drill -- empty your pockets of metal objects, put them in a separate container and pass through.

"We're not going to check things as closely as they do at the airport," Orchard said. "If I see a cellular phone, I'm not going to check it out. We just use some common sense. This is a technology show, of course we're going to see cell phones and all sorts of gadgets."

Officers, unlike those in airport security situations, were also able to joke with delegates. One security officer told a surprised delegate to "leave behind any guns, knives, bombs, ebola, anthrax or smallpox viruses."

"We had people telling us this was the best damn airport they've ever been to," Orchard said.

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