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Comdex Canceled For 2004
Stephen Shankland writes "Comdex is canceled -- at least for 2004. The once-imposing tech event lost out to trade shows for specialized niches and consumer electronics, but the Comdex organizers want to bring it back in 2005, according to an executive quoted in our story at CNET News.com."
The 90's are truly dead....
I for one think this is a good move. Regroup and try to make it better than ever for 2005. I've attended the last 3 or 4 and have see it slowly losing the spark it once had.
I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.
This is an outrage, where am I supposed to get my stress balls, beeping rubber balls, and caffeinated mints from this year!!!
Is there a way to bypass the conference go right for the swag?
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That is interesting, it was cancelled 2 years ago, but was brought back almost a month after its cancellation. I have always looked forward to Comdex and are personally downtrodden that it is gone(for now anyway). Budget issues are always a problem when it comes to huge conventions such as Comdex, Networld Interop, and Brainshare. Renting out a convention center and providing programs and conferences for the attendees can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Especially with times being as they are, I can understand why this event might have been cancelled even though the press release did not cover the reason...
Comdex cancelled , yet geeks dressed up like mr spock live on at star trek conventions. God really is cruel.
Easy guys, I put my pants on one leg at a time. The difference is after I put on my pants I make gold records!
Since we now have a Comdex story topic and now Comdex, maybe this is a good opportunity to revamp? Adding a Gentoo topic, for example, or a casemod topic?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
The article claims that "security jitters" are keeping corporate types from travelling, thus hurting attendance. Is it possible that the TSA's reign of terror against airline passengers is more responsible?
Have you read my blog lately?
for the /. nerds to leave the basement.
...booth babes. They gotta eat.
I went to Itec not long ago and will never attend again. it was 1/5th the size from 2 years ago and everyone had this desperate "please talk to us" look on their faces at all booths.
shows in general are pretty much useless.. overpriced tickets to see a talk by someone who is going to rehash what they said for free online and you already read, and the schwag has turned into crud.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Comdex was more than a place for tea and crumpets, it was a place where average Joe IT could come, check out the babeage, get the toys, drool at the pundification, and check out all the cool techtoys to recommend to their bosses. It was the engine of the soul of IT.
.dotcom kabloom, Comdex bosses thought they were finally in the uppity ranks, and closed it all off except to 'vips' and other fortune50-exclusive folks. No more parties, just drivle from the big guys. They took out all the reason to go.
About the time of the
Then again, they were innovators in showing the rest of the industry how to commit suicide by banning their customers and throwing away their products. Too bad there's nothing left to part out.
I don't care what happens as long as I can get my webcast fix of keynotes at Macworld and the WWDC. Anyway, doesn't admission to these kinds of things cost ~$1500? I can see why, at this price, no one would want to go...
Comdex lost track sometime in the 90's but the real end was in 1995 when it was sold to Softbank.
It went from being a twice yearly Mecca to being a monthly, or bimonthly travelling international 'Disneyland' for marketing.
Prior to the infiltration by 'Windows World' it had been the hard core contact point for developers, implementors, and users, all feeding and grooming the craft (with the spice of some good natured marketing).
There is a real need for what Comdex was just as there is still a need for the every other year show of photographics at Photokina in Koln Germany.
Let Comdex lay in it's grave, quiet in silent repose, and start something unique and alive in the spitit of the original Comdex.
Does the declining attendance reflect the fact that employers are less willing to waste/invest money sending people to "Gee Whiz" conventions?
-PM
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In other news, check out the interview with Boucher linked on that page. At least he seems to actually be thinking about these things, instead of just following orders.
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Has Netcraft confirmed it yet?
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Blame it on [choose]MS/Apple/Linux!
The passing of Comdex kinda reminds me of when the Playboy Clubs in North America closed down back in the early 1980s (I think). It's the passing of an era, which in itself is not a bad thing. Things change and evolve and there's always the next big thing on the horizon.
;-) Buh-dump dump!
Comdex was killed by a number of things. The internet makes physically attending shows less necessary. Not only that with so many thousands of IT jobs sent overseas, many of those who might have attended in the past are no longer in IT at all. And the current generation of technology (I know, not well defined) has matured somewhat. There just isn't much in the way of mind blowing, paradigm shifting technologies that demand a Comdex. And heck, the consumer tech oriented shows like CES or E3 are more fun!
Will Comdex really be back? Who knows? I won't cry if it isn't because when the time is right, something new and exciting will arrive on the scene. Afterall, the Playboy Club is still gone, but now we have Hooters!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
You sly dog: you got me monologuing! - Syndrome
Ten years ago, computer shows used to be a lot of fun. Vendors had interesting displays, they had non computer related activities, they handed out lotsa cool wampum (swag). Last five years have been BORING at best. I just stopped going. I can get all the product information I need off the web. If vendors can't provide the carnival enviroment I need to make me want to go, well, fine. Comdex has left the building.
I used to exhibit at Comdex in the late 80s and early 90s and it was fun back then, with the exception of the facist Interface Group organization that used to run the thing and would take advantage of everyone they could. Exhibitors would pay years in advance to get a good space and then other people would show up at the last minute with cash and IG would give them premium exhibit space. It was a huge sham. I stopped attending years ago when it got so big that you needed a passport to get from one side of the convention to the other.
I'm sure locals in Vegas are probably thrilled. Most of them hated Comdex anyway.
People might give security as an excuse, but it's a big fat lie. It's all about the bucks. Trade shows are simply a waste of money in this day and age.
sulli
RTFJ.
Just hold it in India. What better representation of the Tech/IT industry could there be.
Has anyone heard about whether or not the AVN awards will follow suit!?
You're confusing Comdex with January's CES, which is always the week leading up to the Adult Video News (Porn's Oscars) in Vegas.
(It frightens me that I know this...)
My problem with Comdex was that it wasn't a particularly attractive show. Because most tech on display was heavily influenced, in my opinion, by Microsoft work, the show got the nickname of Windex. As a result over the years, the less creative Microsoft became, the less interesting the shows became. Fewer people and exhibitors attended, and you see the result.
Sorry, as a Mac tech, I don't do Windows, primarily. Today, in this world where viable alternatives to MS tech are plentiful, other companies are considering Linux, Mac OS X and other UNIX-derived tech and not looking back.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
I heard it's in Bangladesh.
Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
Last year I worked tech at some of the press shows around Comdex and since I hadn't been to Comdex in years I just HAD to make it to the show.
Nothing went right... Time was not in my favor but I managed on my last day to make it to the main show.
With only 6 hours left to my trip I went into the show and saw it all in 2 hours.
At least I had Vegas to check out for the rest of the time.
This is why Comdex Vancouver hasn't been held since 2002. When the biggest exhibitors are LAN Rack salesmen you know you're in trouble.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
Downtrodden means "oppressed or tyrannized." I think the word you're looking for is "crestfallen" :-)
"I've dropped the toothpaste!", Tom said, crestfallen.
(That one always cracks me up...)
Not really.
Actually, Las Vegas resorts dread COMDEX because the attendees tend to be cheapskates that leave very little money at the gambling tables.
The resorts actually make FAR more money from the National Finals Rodeo in December, where people attending this rodeo tend to be big spenders that do like to gamble.
Heard this about a decade ago at Comdex from people working in Las Vegas...
"The typical Comdex attendee brings a white shirt and a twenty dollar bill with them, and during the week, neither gets changed!"
Last time I went was in 1996 i believe--the last year in Atlanta. It had already become a showcase for Windows and pretty much nothing else. Might as well have called it MS-Comdex.
I hate to see it go, but if it's time to go let it go.
"You got your Moz in my Jobs!"
Viva Apple! (Applejusted? Cupertino and I? Kill Bill? Oh, wait, that's been done. ;)
What about the poor hard working strippers at strip clubs? They love geeks.
M$ has nothing new to release this year, therefore M$ will not permit there to be a show??? Is this a realistic scenario or is there a hole in my tin-foil hat?
Engineering is the art of compromise.
According to an unnamed reliable inside source (I can't remember the cab drivers name), tips from COMDEX attendees far outstrip those from conventions attended by doctors.
If the casino owners have a gripe, it may be that COMDEX attendees posess basic math skills. This is an area in which cowboys are not known to shine.
They took a formally outstanding show and turned it into a place for deep pockets only.
m putex/fact_s heet.htm
AND made it pretty well a "Retail" show.
Are big trade shows dead?
Heck no.
Computex (May31 - June 4 in Taipei, Taiwan) this year had over 1,000 vendors showing, took over 4 big conference spaces in downtown Taipei surrounding the new 101 centre ( tallest building in the world) and over 100,000 registered attendees.
http://www.taipeitradeshows.com.tw/co
There are four good reasons COMDEX is dead:
1) Ziff Davis made it too expensive, too difficult for smaller vendors/manufacturers.
You do not go to a show like this to see what HP, Seagate, IBM and Microsoft are doing. They spend vast sums to tell you that in other media.
2) People from outside N. America do not want to travel to the USA.
3) US unions. To be a vendor at COMDEX cost about $5,000 for a booth space. And over $10,000 to get your goods in and out by the "show services" monopoly.
4) It became a "retail" show. You do not spend good money to display at a trade show to meet 10,000 end user "tire kickers".
You are looking for quality commercial leads. Qualified buyers.
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The Legacy word processor was cannibalized and turned into WordStar for Windows. I had a new shrinkwrapped box of it and sold it on eBay to a collector.
resigned