cdXpo keynote address sparsely attended

Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003 | 10:53 a.m.

When Bill Gates gave the keynote address at Comdex Sunday night, hundreds of people filed into an overflow ballroom in the Aladdin hotel-casino to watch a closed-circuit television broadcast of the speech because there wasn't enough room in the cavernous 7,000-seat Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts to accommodate everyone who wanted to see and hear the Microsoft chairman.

When the keynote speaker at the rival Computer Digital Expo (cdXpo) gave her address Monday morning, most of the seats in the South Seas Ballroom at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center were empty.

Gail Whipple, vice president of digital media for IBM Global Services, gave a presentation on how her company is partnering with businesses to solve file-sharing problems with archived data. But fewer than 100 people were there to hear the speech.

"We're committed that even if there's only one person to hear a presentation, we're going to give it," said Conference chairman Jack Powers following the last general session of the day.

Powers led a panel that summarized the first day's sessions at cdXpo Monday afternoon. The turnout for his event: about 25 people.

He said registration totaled between 4,000 and 5,000 for the show. Many of those who registered for cdXpo also credentialed for Comdex. CdXpo organizers originally expected about 7,000 people to attend their show.

"We could have used another 500 or so people," Powers said. "But some of the sessions were pretty well attended."

He said cdXpo sessions led by hands-on technologists who gave "how-I-solved-the-problem talks" were much more appealing to delegates than to analysts.

"Some of the deep-thought strategy sessions didn't do as well," Powers said.

Meanwhile, on the cdXpo trade show floor, 54 companies listed as exhibitors in the convention's program talked business with a handful of people walking the four aisles of booths a couple of hours after the show opened its doors.

Many of the exhibitors were lured to cdXpo's show by lower display rates offered and concern over whether Comdex would even occur, since its organizers were in bankruptcy court earlier this year.

While Microsoft and Dell stood out at the trade show floor at Comdex at the Las Vegas Convention Center, a sea of red banners belonging to Canada dominated cdXpo's landscape at Mandalay Bay.

Pat Fera, trade commissioner for the U.S. Development Division of Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, said his group of Canadian tech companies had exhibited at Comdex for years, but decided earlier this year to move the entire group to cdXpo. When the producer of Comdex filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, the decision to jump shows was put in motion. Fera said he was unclear about American bankruptcy laws and worried that the show would not occur.

"There were three main reasons we decided to move," Fera said. "One, Key3Media (the former producers of Comdex) was in bankruptcy and we didn't know how long that was going to take to resolve and whether there was even going to be a Comdex. Two, Jupitermedia (Corp., producers of cdXpo) made contact with us and offered a number of incentives to exhibit here. And three, it was considerably less expensive to exhibit here."

Fera said Comdex operators wouldn't reduce booth rates, even as attendance plunged from 2000 to 2002. Attendance fell even further this year, down to about 50,000 people compared with the more than 200,000 people who came in 2000, but the booth rates stayed about the same, Fera said.

Fera added that some personnel changes at Key3Media -- which after emerging from bankruptcy became MediaLive International Inc. -- made the transition to cdXpo smoother. Employees who helped the Canadians exhibit for Comdex eventually were hired by Jupitermedia and they helped make the switch easier.

The Lindon, Utah-based SCO Group also received an incentive to jump to cdXpo -- the company's chief executive was invited to be a speaker at the event. But Craig Bushman, director of product marketing for SCO, said most of the company's business contacts have occurred away from the trade show floors. The company has a suite at the Bellagio hotel-casino to schedule meetings with customers attending Comdex or cdXpo.

Hash Inc., Vancouver, Wash., a family-run animation software company, decided to hedge its bets. Spokesman James Hash said the company has booths at both shows.

SCO, Hash and the Canadians concurred that the new show was busy when it first opened, but there may not have been enough booths to hold interest for long.

Jupitermedia, based in Darrien, Conn., announced plans to conduct a technology show to compete with Comdex the day Key3Media filed for bankruptcy. Critics of Jupitermedia Chief Executive Alan Meckler said he was an opportunist attempting to capitalize on the Comdex brand, but Meckler said he was trying to develop a relevant technology show to fill the void because he didn't expect Key3Media to emerge from bankruptcy quickly enough to put a Comdex show together.

Mecker now has signs at Mandalay Bay encouraging cdXpo attendees to mark their calendars for next year. The signs say the event would be staged at the Sands Expo Center Nov. 15-17 -- a three-day show instead of four.

A spokesman for the Sands Expo Center said Jupitermedia has not signed a contract to conduct its show at the convention hall adjacent to the Venetian hotel-casino.

Representatives of Mandalay Bay could not be reached for comment on the status of the show there and the signs announcing the apparent change of venue.