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Comdex Pursues Edification Rather Than Entertainment
XarsonX writes "Infoworld has an article talking about some of the changes coming to Comdex this year. Amongst other things, a $50 price tag for uninvited attendants, and less free gear handed out. Is it still possible to get enough free vendor-wear to fill your entire wardrobe?"
If you're living on student loans of course you'd travel to Las Vegas and rent a hotel room, in the hope of getting a free T-shirt, some mousepads and AOL CDROMS. All that stuff must be worth at least $9.75.
So I wonder if cdxpo may take over for comdex then????
http://www.cdxpo.com/
Student loans and Las Vegas? I don't know if it still works but some grad students use to go there for spring break. There were about a minivan worth of EE studetns that would go all put up a bit of money and one guy would deposit it the casino. Then every day he would take out 1/7th and give it back to its owners. From the casino's point of view the guy was a sucker worth a free room and other free stuff. The the students, it was a free trip where they got to camp out in a nice free room.
I still fondly remember those good ol' days where companies used to hand out tons of high-quality free stuff at Career Fairs. At a particularly memorable one, the year before last, I managed to grab the following inventory of items:
Google I'm Feeling Lucky T-Shirt
Cisco foldable stapler
IBM Pen and Glow Keychain
IBM FM/AM radio with earphones
Lucent drawstring laundry bag
Microsoft shitty yoyos which doesn't work
Verizon and Metlife frisbees
SGI funky twisty rubbery thing
Siemens marker set
Comcast inflatable ball
Kodak disposable camera
Broadcom fridge magnet
Honda trendy packpack
Texas Instruments CD wallet
EMC2 T-Shirt
On the other hand, this year most companies were handing out only pens and other cheapo stuff, which I thought was below my dignity to collect.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
They're going to make enemies of the entire industry trying to destroy one of the most revolutinary concepts to come along this century and no matter what happens to the company they're going to walk away with more money than you or I will ever make in a lifetime.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
COMDEX became largely irrelevant because of a change of technology that we're all using right now: The Internet. Prior to the Internet, COMDEX was where every vendor would show off their latest wares to the collected media (literally holding its release until the big trade show), and all of the writers for PC Week, PC Magazine, Compute!, STart, and every other magazine would run to the banks of phones to call in their reports about the new Diamond Speedstar 24x or new MFM hard drive. I remember all of the COMDEX special editions packed full of revolutionary new products. With the internet, however, vendors no longer hold their releases, and vendor information is as easy as http://www.somecompany.com. The Internet changed the world more than many of us realize (because it was gradual), and the decline of COMDEX is just another reality of a "new world order".
I went to the LV COMDEX in maybe 1999 and it was, quite literally, a waste of time. No companies were actually releasing products, but instead it was a bunch of brochures that were less comprehensive than you could find on the net, with representatives that barely knew the product. The halls were filled with end users (i.e. non decision makers) who were more concerned with scoring a 5 cent pen or cheesy bag.
COMDEX will never be what it was again, but if they did limit attendance to decision makers at corporations they might have a chance of getting a niche.