Comdex '05 Cancellation Draws Yawns

Computerworld - No Comdex this November? No problem, IT managers said last week after the Las Vegas trade show was canceled for the second straight year.
They added that the onetime main event in the computer industry had lost its focus in recent years, becoming a showcase for products and technology that were of little interest to corporate IT.
Bob Schwartz, CIO at Panasonic Corporation of North America in Secaucus, N.J., said that in the early 1990s, Comdex was the place "to see the latest and greatest technologies that were rapidly rolling out."
But that changed as Comdex showcased mundane accessories such as mouse pads. "The event became overwhelming, and the value was diluted," Schwartz said, adding that he stopped attending and watched as major sponsors and vendors bailed out.
San Francisco-based MediaLive International Inc., which took over the show in 2003, said this year's planned edition was canceled because of a continuing lack of interest and financial commitments from major IT vendors. The same problem drove MediaLive to give up on Comdex last year , but the company said then that it would try again this year.
Dwindling attendance has also been a factor. About 40,000 people attended the show two years ago, down from some 200,000 in its heyday.
A spokesman for the show couldn't be reached for comment despite several attempts. In a statement, MediaLive said it has made "significant progress" in working with vendors and other parties to rethink Comdex. MediaLive still hopes to bring the show back to life in 2006, but it noted that "considerable work" needs to be done first.
"At least for the time being, the need for a general industry-pat-on-the-back type show like Comdex is not here," said Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT Research in Hayward, Calif. But that could change at some point, he added. "These things tend to go in cycles."
Michael H. Hugos, CIO at Network Services Co. in Mount Prospect, Ill., and a Computerworld columnist, said he last attended the show in 1998 and wasn't planning to go this year. "It had very little relevance to me because it tried to reach such a broad audience that the whole event became very unfocused," he said in an e-mail message.
"In the early days of the PC, Comdex was really focused on just the PC, and it was the place to go to see the latest advances in PC technology," Hugos wrote. "After the late '90s, it was no longer worth my time."

David Lewis, CIO at Deseret Mutual Benefits Administrators