Comdex Tries To Reinvent ItselfComdex Tries To Reinvent Itself

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- The Comdex convention used to be the greatest high-tech show on earth. Now, it's just a shell of its former self as officials try to reinvent the 24th annual trade meeting.

Organizers are touting a smaller, more focused convention that is intended to lure serious corporate buyers and sellers ready to make deals on business technology equipment.

"It's almost a new launch," said Eric Faurot, vice president and general manager at Comdex. "We will grow back at a very nice, consistent rate."

Others see a convention that has lost its relevance, and a competing trade show was staged at the same time across town.

"It kind of feels like the life-force has gone out of the show," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst of the Enderle Group, which follows the high-tech sector. "The energy just isn't here."

Comdex has a long way to go if it wants to duplicate the heady days of the tech boom. Comdex once lured more than 200,000 people and filled more than 1.2 million square feet at its peak in the mid-1990s.

This year the expectations are much more modest for MediaLive International, the company running the show. MediaLive formerly was known as Key3Media, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year and emerged from Chapter 11 in June.

Faurot said from 45,000 to 50,000 people will attend Comdex this year. Exhibit space is 150,000 square feet with 550 companies displaying their wares. Last year, 900 companies exhibited electronic gadgets and computers.

A few blocks away JupiterMedia launched Computer Digital Expo at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, a small gathering in comparison, but a move that would not have been considered during the heyday of Comdex.

Still, Comdex boasted a powerful lineup of business executives, including Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates and Scott McNealy, chairman and president of Sun Microsystems.

Rob Powers, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said although the show is down from its peak, it is expected to pump about $68 million into the local economy.

"It's still one of the largest trade shows in North America," he said.

Powers dismissed speculation it might move to another market if it's not declared a hit.

Enderle isn't convinced.

"So far, feedback from the show has been disappointing," Enderle said. "There was no real reason to be here. There is a lack of significance."

Enderle said the show lacked products and even the keynote speech by Gates was just a "litany of things that Microsoft was doing for security. We've seen that elsewhere before."

The trimmer show did attract serious vendors that either never participated or had taken a hiatus. After a seven-year absence, Dell Inc. returned and AT&T Wireless made its debut.

"The caliber of the companies showing here and the caliber of the people attending the show has changed," AT&T Wireless spokesman Ritch Blasi said. "I believe it has changed for the better."

He said in previous years the show was too big and unruly. Comdex officials admit there were many people attending the show who had no intention of buying anything.

Blasi said AT&T Wireless would likely return next year.

"Comdex just has a following," he said. "It still has that name attraction."