H.A. Bruno's C3 Expo Glass Is Half Full

By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 7/18/2005

New York—Is the horizontal information technology tradeshow dead? Not according to H.A. Bruno, which last month launched C3 Corporate & Channel Computing Expo at New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

Known for the success of PC EXPO two decades ago, H.A. Bruno drew about 175 exhibitors to the inaugural C3 Expo June 28–30. Show spokesman Mark Haviland said up to 7,000 attendees were expected, but declined to reveal exact figures.

H.A. Bruno had projected attendance of 25,000 to 30,000 when the event was announced last October. That compares with 39,000 buyers who turned out for MediaLive Intl.'s final COMDEX in 2003, and 20,000 attendees at CMP Media's final TECHXNY in 2004. The demise of those shows, as well as Deutsche Messe's CeBIT America, were what made H.A. Bruno believe there was an opportunity for a new horizontal IT event.

Show manager Mark Dineen, who two years ago launched CeBIT America in the same dates and venue as C3 Expo, said H.A. Bruno was satisfied with the turnout. "We're very happy with the show. We launched an event. This wasn't a test. We're in this for the long haul," he said.

Exhibitors, however, appeared less satisfied. Many didn't bother to show up for the last day of the show, and several who did were still trying to generate enough leads to justify their exhibiting cost.

"If we could just get three good leads, it would make it worthwhile," said Vito Gancitano, executive vice president of LMS Tech, a Farmingdale, N.Y., network support provider. Gancitano suggested that more manufacturers and dates further away from the July 4th holiday might have improved the turnout.

But the showfloor contained at least two optimists. Raymond Schenk, vice president of MobileStrat, a Trenton, N.J., firm that helps businesses roll out wireless services, remained upbeat despite the lack of crowds. "If you spend three days in the field and can't get something out of it, shame on you," he said.

"I found what I needed," said attendee Neil de Pasquale of NDP Systems.

Among the big-name exhibitors at the show, billed as "the answer to what the computer industry has been seeking," were Epson America, Google, NEC Solutions and Nortel Networks. Executives from NEC and Nortel also delivered keynotes.

Acknowledging that major exhibitors are typically reticent to exhibit at first-year shows, Dineen said he's been told that "you build it first, and then we will come."

C3 Expo featured 11 conference tracks with a total of 91 sessions. The Entertainment Technology Alliance hosted a dozen more sessions. The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Assn. sponsored a pavilion and managed a wireless track of conference sessions.

Dineen said C3 Expo would be back next June 27–29. Bucking conventional wisdom that today's IT industry is too specialized to support a broad, horizontal show, Dineen said there's a need for a show encompassing all manner of IT products and services.

"They're starting to get to the point where they need to look at the big picture," he said of today's high-tech buyers. "They need one show where they can see everything."

C3 Expo was born from the ashes of CeBIT America and TECHXNY. When Deutsche Messe canceled CeBIT America last August, just two years after its launch, the company cited a changing high-tech industry and a declining U.S. economy. Attendance and exhibitor turnout for TECHXNY had been shrinking before CMP decided to pull the plug after the Oct. 5–7 show.

Ironically, TECHXNY was the latest incarnation of PC EXPO, which H.A. Bruno launched in 1983 and which peaked in 1996 with 800 exhibitors and 130,000 attendees.

H.A. Bruno was bought by Blenheim Expositions in 1990, which in turn was acquired by United News Media six years later to merge with Miller Freeman. PC EXPO was renamed TECHXNY in 2000.

In another irony, Dineen's first tradeshow job was with PC EXPO. Although H.A. Bruno had hoped that its status as former PC EXPO organizer would create recognition among exhibitors and attendees, Dineen said the name didn't fit with the times.

At least one exhibitor, LMS Tech's Gancitano, remembered the booming computer show of yesteryear. "That was a tremendous show," he said. "But it's not the same show. Back then the big boys were here."