Bring Back COMDEX!
It’s taken a week, but I’ve finally recovered from my trip to the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In that week, while laid out on my couch I had an epiphany. I have now attended CES twice, and as a technology journalist I don’t like it. There are three main reasons for my shortly learned dislike of the event. The first and biggest reason is the sheer size of CES. The event is absolutely huge, due to its focus on far too many disconnected areas of the consumer electronics industry. The second reason is related to the first; there’s a huge amount of people at the event. Conventions like this do attract many people, but CES itself attracts people from what are once again very disconnected areas of the consumer electronics industry. Thirdly, there’s the large amount of expense that goes into attending the event. Everyone in Vegas is out to make $1, unless it’s CES week. Then they want to make $3. This doesn’t deter every Tom, Dick, and blogger from attending CES though. From Bob’s Miscellaneous Tech Blog straight up to the ivory towers of the New York Times, CES has no lack of coverage of every aspect of the event. Now I do like Vegas. The chance to visit the family, as well as touch base with my many contacts in person, is a welcome opportunity. But I’m left wondering, can’t we just bring back COMDEX, and have a North American show focused squarely on computing and IT?
CES as a show is absolutely huge. With well over 3.5 million square feet of exhibition space, one tends to cover a lot of ground in the four days the event takes place. This year alone the event took up the entire Las Vegas Convention Centre, as well as large portions of the Las Vegas Hilton and the Sands Convention Centre. This doesn’t include all the private showings booked at pretty well every hotel on The Strip. With this much spread, it makes even the most well planned out meeting schedule an exercise in organized confusion. The confusion is exacerbated by the fact that much of the floor space is taken up by many things that a journalist whose main focus is computing has absolutely no professional interest in. Sure the latest flat panel TVs look pretty, and ten subwoofers put together in a car sound system that can rattle my guts from 3 metres away does tend to impress. However I’m only interested in those things personally, and have very little chance of covering them on an enthusiast computing web site. They become mere obstacles to get around on the way to my next meeting, or to see the next relevant exhibit. Even that proves difficult, as this diversification takes away exhibit space from companies like AMD and nVidia, who are rarely seen at CES to the extent that you would see a presence from Intel or Microsoft. This presents a missed opportunity; a void that could be filled by re-opening a North American computing event like COMDEX.
The crowds are another problem that the modern CES has had to bear. For the 2008 event, the Consumer Electronic Association estimated total attendance at a rather conservative 130,000 people. Walking around the show floor gave me the feeling that there were quite a few more people than this! Anyhow, this number is a result of two things. The first explanation is the simplest; CES is the biggest consumer electronics show in North America and the second biggest world wide. Product announcements are saved for this event specifically, and some companies make or break their first quarter (or their entire year) on their presence at this event. The second reason is more a little more abstract, and ties into what I mentioned before. With all the different products and sectors of the industry represented at the CES, you of course have people of all stripes from each one of those sectors rolling into town. Buyers, analysts, exhibitors, and press from the car audio market will be mixing with buyers, analysts, exhibitors, and press from home audio and video. You’ll have people from sectors like telecommunications, photography, video, and computing technology all trying to inhabit the same space. This is a huge driver of crowds. As we all try to get to our respective meetings and interviews, we bump into each other both figuratively and literally. Sure the halls are somewhat segregated, but with space at a premium you still have a large degree of overlap between companies and product types. It would be far more efficient to simply have a separate event for each sector. Say a CES Car Audio show, and a CES Home Electronics show, and something like COMDEX for those of us in the computer industry.
Over-coverage is a problem for any event the size and magnitude of CES. The press flock to these events so that they can be sure to cover the latest and greatest technology in their sector of interest on the day it’s released. They also come for the fringe benefits bestowed upon members of the press by the various vendors. This makes for a great deal of coverage in every medium that is used to deliver news. Now these two factors can make the expense of attending this event worth while. I know it has been in my benefit to attend CES over the past couple of years. However, the pricing of the varied and sundry services utilized by many patrons of the event while they are in Vegas are getting to be ridiculous. Hotels double and even triple their pricing. Should you be unfortunate enough to drive your own vehicle, costs for parking your car are raised through the roof. As well food prices become rather tough to swallow. The only prices that aren’t increased are those regulated by state authorities, like liquor, gambling, and public transport. That doesn’t stop many cabbies from trying to rip off out of towners who can’t pursue to complaint process fully. Now can either the problem of over-coverage by the press or exorbitant inflation of pricing for staying in Vegas be fixed by having another conference like COMDEX? The short answer is no. Las Vegas loves these conferences. It is money in the bank for them, regardless of whatever propaganda they put out saying they loose money from lack of gambling. The press also love these conferences. They love the freebies, swag, and parties thrown for their attendance. They love being able to be the first to the front page with news from the event. However, splitting off the computing part of CES and putting it back into a dedicated show like COMDEX might give more flexibility in the pricing negotiations for both events. The smaller the event, the fewer resources there are taken up by it. This will make the people who run these Las Vegas events happy. Which might cause the purse strings to loosen a little, letting prices fall somewhat.
I’m not trying to kid myself. I actually do enjoy going to CES. I’ve gone two years in a row now, and will be returning for many more events. I like Las Vegas; it’s a blast in and of itself. The sights and sounds of this city have yet to bore me. Leaving Edmonton in the middle of the January deep freeze only increases my enjoyment of Vegas. I also enjoy the benefits of being a member of the press at an event like CES. During the day, the huge amount of access I have to vendors and their products on the show floor satiate my gadget geek appetites far more than simply surfing about looking at coverage from home. As for the night, the many parties thrown for press and VIP guests ensure I always have something to do, or someone to meet and network with. I’ve actually been quoted as saying that if I came to Vegas for a week and CES wasn’t going on, I wouldn’t a have a clue of what to do. Now while I like attending CES, I’m not a big fan of the event itself. The problems have now been made clear. It goes without saying that a void was created with the fall of COMDEX. Even if it were to return, the problems of over-coverage and inflation in pricing may not disappear. That being said, the desire to have a North American outlet to showcase North American computing technology has forced the computing industry to CES, which in turn has forced CES to expand. This has also drawn in, and added to the already massive crowd, the entirety of the computing industry. This includes buyers, vendors, exhibitors, and of course press. With all this physical and corporeal expansion, the event has become too crowded and has taken over Las Vegas. The case for a return of COMDEX, or an equivalent to take its place, has never been stronger. Is it a viable market to warrant a separate show? Yes. Can it draw the crowds? Doubly yes. I think it’s time we brought back COMDEX.
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There is only one problem with your notion. During its peak Comdex attracted more people (220,000) then CES have ever did. You think CES is too big, you should have seen Comdex 1999!
Ah but it plays well into my other point that there’s too much split at CES. I think I could put up with 220,000 people if they were all there for computing technology, rather than fighting through the crowds wanting to see the new pretty TVs or check out car audio.