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The Last Comdex?
linuxwrangler writes "Key3Media Group Inc. which produces the Comdex trade show may be unable to make it's debt payments and could declare bankruptcy. No decision will be made until after Fall Comdex opening on Monday. More info is available at Google News."
Key3Media did the last JavaOne too? Does this also mean trouble for that conference?
"Let your heart soar as high as it will. Refuse to be average." - A. W. Tozer
This is what happens when you throw free passes around like they're AOL CDs. Did anyone, ever actually pay to get into Comdex? Well, I suppose the techies and developers may have had to pay but pointy-haired bosses like me always got inundated with free passes from companies we'd never dream of buying from. No wonder it was never a great show...
The big vendors always pay for the booths. But I always seem to get tickets for free. By knowing someone. Buying something and they throw in tickets. Has not been to hard to scare up a couple for me.
I just think the show got to big to handle.
Theflatline
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
I'm surprised that Windex---er..COMDEX is still around. A trade show generates interest by interesting, if not innovative product.
Between Microsoft's ability to buy, borrow, steal, or kill ideas or product that they haven't considered or cannot integrate into their operating systems, and a general lack of enthusiasm in the PC industry to think of more ideas that could be stolen, it doesn't surprise me that there's little interest.
I really can't contrast COMDEX's imminent demise to successful shows such as Macworld Expo because Apple has a captive audience of vendors that support their products. COMDEX doesn't have such luxury.
COMDEX should rethink its audience. It's pretty obvious that they have just let things ride over the past few years.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
Then I won't feel like I have to go to one just in case I miss something, and they've been going steadily downhill. '99 was cool, '00 was so-so (got to laugh at some fat Linux geek-wannabee pontificating about the reason that his now-dead distro was good was that Windows sucks), '01 and '02 were both lame and altogetner forgettable.
You're using her as bait, Master!
Comdex has so many potential sources for making money!
- All Las Vegas casinos and hotels make insane amounts from comdex visitors - possible investors
- Last year's comdex(the only one I've been to) was full to the brim with corporate advertising - they can charge more for the booths, and everyone will still pay, cause the big companies have to be at comdex - that's where you get a lot of clients, investments and etc.
And really, I don't understand how can they lose money. Comdex is like a gold mine - sure it's expensive to organize and such, but the money they make is almost always much larger then the expenses! Sure, last year's participation was below excpectations(everyone being afraid of terrorists and all), they lost some money there, but surely not enough to push them as far as bankrupcy!
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Not to forget the Casino owners...
Interesting side note regarding Las Vegas hotels. For years now they've measured the level of business by how many people they have to turn away. In other words, when they have a "bad month" in Vegas, all that means is that (citywide) they turned away only 30,000 people looking for accomodations, rather than the usual average of 45,000 (numbers are for illustration purposes only, but order of magnitude is close).
I reckon if COMDEX goes feet up it'll hardly be noticed.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
My dad took me to my first Comdex many years ago. He had received free tickets as a business owner. When we got there my sometimes air-headed dad examined the ticket package, ripped off the "unimportant" parts of the paper, and threw the pieces in the garbage. Taking what he thought were the tickets up to the ticket collecter, we then found out that he had thrown out the ticket and kept the advertising crap that came with it.
"No problem," the nice lady said, "I'll get you new tickets."
I'll venture a guess and say that tickets weren't how they made money. Once the tech downturn hit I'm sure their booth revenue went way down. This doesn't surprise me one bit.
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
Because Key3media is one of the most ANNOYING companies on the planet?
They sent me constant spam for months after the last Comdex I signed up for (free passes, btw) and their remove links never did anything.
Eventually I found the homepage of the comdex project group on they key3 site and sent every member of the group a 700K image with nothing but the word 'remove' in it. (I think I accidentally crashed their mailserver too, it must have been one of those ones that made a copy of the mail for every person as opposed to linking it.)
No more spam after that, but damn, a company does not become liked by harassing people that interface with them! I certainly did not go to comdex after that.
Heh... you think renting out the entire McCormick Place (Chicago) for a week is cheap?
Anyway - most people who goes there are free-riding; the visitor's pass is "supposed" to be 99 dollars or whatever, but you can get it for free ANYWHERE. in fact you can register for it officially on Comdex website too if you do it early enough. They say it's "limited time only" or some such bs, but that's what it is, bs.
Then again, companies are not showing up to trade shows as much as they used to be, or are renting a smaller booth, becomming a smaller sponsor (i.e. from platinum level down to gold level) or not sponsoring at all. (Sponsoring is when you pay them big bux and they put your logo on the T-shirt / booklets / whatever) - the level of sponsorship determines the size of you logo, where it appears, etc.
An example (not Comdex) on the low-attendence is this year's ITC (International Test Conference), which is one of the most important conference / tradeshow / whatever for the ATE (automated test equipment) manufactures. Teradyne, Credense, NP Test (read: Schlumberger) all decided to not show up at ALL; no booth, no seminar, no salesperson, nothing. These are some of the biggest names in the industry. I think the only two big-names that did show was Advantest and Agilent (I'm not sure about Agilent, actually).
As for real paying visitors, they are dropping even more than the companies - Other conferences actually have REAL SEMINARS where people might pay to see, but Comdex, IIRC, never had anything informational.
Besides, the stupid show went downhill way before the dotcom bubble bursted. Back in 99/00 (i can't remember clearly), they had 1/3 of the floor filled with resellers / distributors that sell cases and powersupplies and such. not even nearly related to "technologically innovative." No new technology, no new information, just a big organized garage sell.
I still got the free passes to go there for a few years even after that, but every year figured that it was not even worth my time since nothing would be interesting there. I do eventually want to go to E3, though - that still have lots of steam and seem to be actually getting bigger.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
Maybe a few years ago that was true, but LV has brought a lot of new hotel rooms online. I made reservations last Saturday and got the Riviera for $68. I should have waited, I just checked and now you can get plenty of hotels for less than $50 a night all during Comdex! Stardust $29, Riviera $35, Stratosphere $39, Circus Circus $39, Harrah's $49, Excalibur $49.
http://discuss.extremetech.com/extremetech/message s?msg=22210.3
I think the days of the all in one computer shows in the USA are coming to an end.
You will likely see computer shows that are more closely focused with various aspects of the computer industry in the future; we may end up seeing a show dedicated to hardware, Microsoft may end up doing two Windows World expos per year, etc. Already, the success of LinuxWorld Expo has shown a demand for a more focused computer industry exposition.
back in the early 90's when the show started, it was just about the only place where people could go and see all the new technology that would be coming out in the next year. I remember when Microsoft's big thing was windows NT 3.5 back at what they called Windows World. They debuted almost all of their products at comdex and gave away so much free crap that I could barely carry it all back on Marta (I always went to the Atlanta one until it moved and came back). Then I remember in 98 I think it was, when Linux stepped into the show full force. There was a whole section for Windows, Linux, and Communications equipment. The show was huge and there was so much money floating around that you could literally take home a server if you sweettalked the convention workers enough. The companies literally threw money at the attendants. I never once paid to go to comdex, I always had free tickets or some sort or another, so the trip on a whole gave me free school supplies for the next few years. But alas, the fall '02 comdex was a disappointment. So few vendors, and none of the ones there even mattered. There were more cell phone companies than there were computer companies. Linux was very sloppily represented, and Microsoft just about backed out entirely. The large corporations aren't floating any money these days and it makes the show really dull. The best exhibit there was some guy getting out of a straight jacket on a unicycle (I kid you not). Other places had dancing girls or massages. The technology they were pushing was sub-par and pretty boring. Advancements just aren't coming as quickly as they did before. Maybe it's because I'm used to knowing about things far in advance of their presentation, or because I'm just not looking. But in today's technological world, one can't expect to have the supershows of the past because the internet truly has made them obsolete. No more cheap pens, buttons, or cdroms, but instead a peppermint or two and maybe a business card if the company is really looking to splurge their advertising budget.
COMDEX is obsolete as many here have pointed out already. The better show that many hold out for is CES which is held 7 weeks later and has nearly the same attendence. Computers have already become consumer electronic products. Witness all the MP3 players and digital video equipment, linux based residential gateways and set-top boxes that debut at CES. Comdex is finished.