Yet another nail was pounded into the Comdex coffin in late June, when conference organizer MediaLive International announced that it had canceled Comdex 2004, previously slated for Las Vegas in November. The San Francisco-based company has said that it wants to bring Comdex back for 2005, but the show has been taking a beating for years at the hands of industry forces and its rivals, including regional events and the relatively vital Consumer Electronics Show.
In fact, Comdex's prognosis has grown worse since the banner year of 2000, when the event brought $254.6 million in nongaming business to its host city, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. However, as exhibitors and attendees fled the event, citing decreasing returns, the show's economic impact on the city fell to a mere $69 million last year.
Blame for the demise of this iconic show, which once defined the intersection of the Internet technology boom and the events industry, can be ascribed to a few distinct forces in the trade show business, say experts. In the postmillennial years characterized by recession and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, regional trade shows and shows targeted at narrow vertical markets came into favor, stealing the thunder from horizontal events like Comdex that in the late '90s drew hordes of geographically dispersed attendees together. Instead, companies now choose to keep convention-goers at shows closer to home, thereby lowering travel costs, avoiding the "hassle factor" associated with post-9/11 travel, and maintaining a closer watch on workers' whereabouts in case of emergency. And financially pressured exhibitors eschewed bigger, broader shows and sought better return on investment in smaller, more targeted events.
But another, less obvious source of Comdex's troubles came from exhibitors like Dell Computers, which over the years shifted their main Comdex efforts away from the trade show floor, and into nearby hotel suites and other unofficial meeting places. Meanwhile, other exhibitors moved on to cheaper shows that were held at the same time and place as Comdex.
"Businesses are looking for different ways to connect with their customers," says Terri Breining, president of Concepts Worldwide in Carlsbad, CA. "My sense is that the whole technology industry is changing, and as it comes back [from recession], it's going to come back changed."
"It's kind of sad, like an old friend passing away," says Mark Fisher, director of the meeting management division at Carlsbad, CA-based MTI Marketing. "But people are being more careful with their dollars, and it's hard to show return on investment, especially with [Comdex]."
In a press release, MediaLive said that other "events, seminars, and programs will be convening as planned," and that the next Comdex Las Vegas is still scheduled for November 13-17, 2005, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.