The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) celebrated its 40th birthday in January by getting even bigger, and the show's organizer, Arlington, VA-based Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), is striving to keep it focused, running smoothly, and effective for participants.
This year, CEA sold 1.8 million square feet of exhibit space, a six-percent increase over the 2006 show. Some 2,700 companies exhibited over four days in Las Vegas, and 140,000 qualified buyers attended.
CES's size and scope has raised questions about whether the show has become another COMDEX, the technology mega-show of the 1990s that shriveled and died in the early 2000s due in large part to the backfired strategy of emphasizing booth sales over show focus. Dan Cole, CEA's vice president of exhibitor services, acknowledged the comparison and concern. "It's a key question: How to prevent COMDEX from happening to us," he said.
Cole pointed out that CES, unlike COMDEX, is in effect owned by its exhibitors — the 2,100 CEA members — and the organization's board approves booth rates, which have held steady for the past two years. He added that smaller, more focused tech shows have forced CES to provide greater value for exhibitors.
One way CEA addressed that this year was better qualification of attendees, which resulted in 10,000 fewer participants versus the previous year. "We were very aggressive in scrubbing our database," said Cole.
Also, exhibitors were grouped into "tech zones," so that CES was, in Cole's words, several shows in one. CEA also partnered with exhibitors and other organizations to stage events for specific segments of the consumer electronics industry.
"[CEA has] done a wonderful job staying focused," said Glenda Brungardt, trade show event manager for Hewlett-Packard's consumer division, explaining that the show has stayed true to consumers and avoided branching out into technology for business.
CES was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas Hilton, Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel, and the Sands Expo center and adjacent Venetian Hotel Resort Casino. CEA provided shuttle service, and, paying attention to other creature comforts, set up more lounges and food outlets and worked with McCarran International Airport to add security lines during the show.
The 300-plus staff members who worked on site at the show passed a training course and wore closely matched outfits so that conventioneers could easily identify them. "A big compliment we heard was how educated our staff was; how they answered questions regarding every aspect of the show," said Cole.
Still, the show's girth has forced exhibitors to adapt.
Belkin International, which produces items from iPod accessories to networking equipment like routers, this year created a lounge and meeting rooms on the second floor of its 3,300-s.f. booth not only to give valued customers a place to rest but also to ease the work for its reps. In previous years, Belkin reps met with customers outside the convention center — an arrangement made difficult by Vegas' traffic.
Melody Chalaban, a Belkin spokesperson, said the hassle of going to the Sands Expo center from the convention center prompted her to decline one meeting invitation. Said Chalaban, "The shuttle service and the [Las Vegas Monorail] have improved things a lot, but it's still difficult to get to the Sands. The size of the show is a little cumbersome."
But CES is "one of our most important shows," she said. "CES covers all our product lines, so we wouldn't move away from it, but at the same time we also exhibit at more focused shows."