MediaLive Cans COMDEX '04

If 2003 was "Year One" for the reinvented COMDEX, 2004 must be "Year Zero."

Just five months before COMDEX's scheduled six-day run at the Las Vegas Convention Center, MediaLive Intl. opted to pull the plug on the 2004 show. The move was a surprise to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, the convention center's operator. "We were notified about this the same time as everyone else," said spokeswoman Marina Nicola.

At this stage in the planning process, show managers are typically preparing to cough up money for venue space and attendee brochures, at the same time gauging whether exhibitor support is strong enough to justify the investment.

Eric Faurot, COMDEX vice president and general manager, said MediaLive in January had calculated how many vendors it would need for the show. Up until a few days before the cancellation decision, he said, "we were in deep conversation about these vendors."

Faurot, a CMP Media veteran who joined MediaLive less than a year ago, said planning was hampered by exhibitors making commitments late in the game, as well as the fact that 2004 marketing budgets were set in 2003, before the economy had started to recover. He added that it takes time to rebuild trust in a brand.

"It's no surprise that the decision was made now. We're right at a go/no-go stage," he said. "The stakes were too high."

The cancellation of this year's COMDEX represents a setback for the former Key3Media Group, which has struggled to reinvent itself after filing for bankruptcy as a publicly held company led by former Ticketmaster executive Fred Rosen and emerging last June — minus $322 million in debt — as the privately held MediaLive.

The company is now 89-percent owned by Thomas Weisel Capital Partners, the white-knight creditor that pitched in $30 million to bring the company out of reorganization. Partner David Bauman wasn't available for comment on the COMDEX cancellation. But he previously said that Thomas Weisel is in for the long haul and hopes to wring a profit from MediaLive this year.

At the height of the technology boom, the COMDEX brand was operated in 16 locales around the world. Shows are reportedly still on tap this year in Brazil, Greece, Korea and Saudi Arabia. In addition to the Las Vegas show, the Canadian and Scandinavian versions of the show have also been postponed.

"We're disappointed to see that one of the world's leading technology brand names has decided to postpone," said Bill Sell, a former COMDEX general manager who is now a vice president with Hannover Fairs USA's CeBIT America.

COMDEX, launched in 1979 as the Computer Dealers Exposition, over the years has also been owned by Interface, Softbank and ZD Events. At its peak in 1998, the nearly 1.4 million net square foot show topped the Tradeshow Week 200 and drew nearly 2,500 exhibitors and 202,000 attendees. By 2003, its first post-bankruptcy year, COMDEX had shrunk to a 150,000 net sq. ft. event that drew 550 exhibitors and 40,000 attendees and ranked No. 180 on the TSW 200.

As COMDEX has shrunk, Intl. CES has grown. In 1998, the Consumer Electronics Assn. show — held at the LVCC each January — spanned about 1 million net sq. ft. and drew about 2,000 exhibitors. This year's Intl CES measured about 1.4 million net sq. ft. and attracted about 2,400 exhibitors.

Sell said technology events these days need to be focused. "One-size-fits-all doesn't work," he said, adding that CeBIT America has tried to focus on enterprise technology buyers. "If you open it up and have too many tire kickers or not a focused audience, exhibitors get frustrated. We don't want that for exhibitors."

Sell, however, worries that the COMDEX postponement will fuel the perception that tradeshows in general are suffering. "In the short term, it might make things difficult for the tradeshow industry," he said. "Marketing managers might start questioning tradeshows."

The San Francisco-based MediaLive is holding space at the LVCC for COMDEX through 2007. The LVCVA is working to fill the hole in its schedule this year. Luckily, said Nicola, November is a busy month in Las Vegas.

Likewise, the busy Las Vegas market will also lessen the impact on GES Exposition Services, the general services contractor for both COMDEX and MediaLive's NetWorld+ Interop. "I think it's the right thing to do," said Jeff Quade, executive vice president of sales and marketing. "Fortunately for GES, we have a very diverse portfolio and the Las Vegas market has grown to offset any final shrinkage."

So far, no other organizers have announced plans to move into the vacant time slot. "I'm sure there are companies wondering what they can do in the ambulance-chaser mode," said Sell, adding that Hannover Fairs USA has no plans to expand CeBIT America from New York in spring to Las Vegas in November.

In 2003, Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler tried to take on COMDEX with his lightly attended Computer Digital Expo at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, a launch that cost the company $750,000. But when asked who might move in to fill the vacancy left by the COMDEX cancellation, Meckler said, "Nobody. It's over."

MediaLive CEO Bob Priest-Heck said in a statement that the 2004 show could have been profitable, but "it does not benefit the industry" to produce a show "without the support of the leading technology companies." The company said it will form an advisory board to solicit suggestions for revamping the annual information technology gathering yet again.

Marquee exhibitor Microsoft — which in recent years has increasingly embraced proprietary corporate events — proclaimed its support for the strategy. "We understand MediaLive's decision not to hold COMDEX 2004 and are committed to working with them and other industry leaders to determine how industry events such as COMDEX can best serve the IT industry moving forward," a Microsoft spokeswoman said.

At least one exhibitor is sad that MediaLive won't be holding the show this year. "We found last year's show to be a good show for us. We got 650 leads," said Christine Weber, marketing manager for Northern California-based iAnywhere Solutions.

Weber said she appreciated the 2003 show's newfound focus, and its division into specific technologies. iAnywhere's booth was located in the wireless and mobility section. "People did find us because of that. Overall, it was a smaller show, but we did find the people there were pretty well qualified. In the past, we got more leads, but there were more tire kickers," Weber said.