Comdex attendance off 15-25 percent

Thursday, Oct. 11, 2001 | 11:02 a.m.

The parade of convention and trade show cancellations in Las Vegas appears to have ended. Still, there's fallout to the city's economy from trade shows that will be conducted but will have lower attendance.

Officials with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said Wednesday no shows have canceled within the past week, leaving the total of cancellations at 249 and the number of postponements at 13 since the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Those shows would have brought about 78,700 people to the city and created a nongaming economic impact of $98.7 million.

Now, the projected attendance at shows that have stayed on the calendar is being watched.

Comdex, the giant computer trade show in mid-November that is the city's largest convention, is expecting a dip of between 15 percent and 25 percent in show attendance -- about 25,000 to 50,000 people.

Fred Rosen, chairman and chief executive officer of Key3Media Group, which owns the massive show, said around 150,000 people are expected to attend next month's event at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Sands Expo Center, MGM Grand and Las Vegas Hilton. In past years, more than 200,000 have attended the show.

Rosen said the economic downturn in the high-tech industry as well as the terrorist attack on the East Coast are to blame for the anticipated fall-off. But he noted in an interview with CNBC that the show's keynote speakers are still planning to appear. Microsoft's Bill Gates again will kick off the show with his Sunday-night address on Nov. 11.

Another major technology show scheduled in Las Vegas about seven weeks after Comdex -- the Winter Consumer Electronics Show -- had a record turnout of 126,730 people at its most recent show in January 2001. A spokesman for that show said today that organizers have detected no drop in advance bookings and that it is forecasting attendance at 110,000, the same number it predicted when it got the record turnout.

Meanwhile, organizers of the city's New Year's Eve celebration debated whether a fireworks display should be scrapped. But a representative of Las Vegas Events said today the show would go on.

Representatives of the LVCVA, Las Vegas Events and R&R Partners conducted discussions on whether an explosive celebration to usher in the new year is appropriate -- and whether a large crowd involved in a celebration could be adequately protected. Officials in Denver announced this week that Denver would not have its usual New Year's fireworks display.

Las Vegas officials organized a colossal fireworks display for the start of 2001 after being roundly criticized for failing to deliver a big enough bang for the start of the new millennium a year earlier.

Las Vegas Events coordinates the celebration with assistance from R&R, the LVCVA's contracted advertising agency.

Maryanne Beaman, director of programming for Las Vegas Events, said today the fireworks show would go ahead as planned. She said the Denver cancellation was for economic and not security reasons.

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