The US Comdex Las Vegas, formerly known as Comdex Fall, will need to differentiate itself from an increasing number of similar shows, an industry veteran said yesterday.
Comdex, once the second-largest computer exhibition after CeBit in Hannover, was overtaken by Taipei-based Computex last year.
"Taiwanese contract makers have taken key positions in the world," said Enoch Du (
"Foreign companies now fly to Taiwan looking for fast and cost-efficient solutions," he said.
Each show had a life cycle, Du said, and Comdex should find distinguishing features as a way to differentiate itself and return to the glory days.
Comdex, which started in 1980, attracted more than 200,000 visitors in its heyday, but saw only about 45,000 participants -- both buyers and exhibitors -- last year.
"Bigger is not necessarily better, but focus is necessary," said Marco Pardi, sales vice president of MediaLive International Inc, Comdex's organizer at a press conference yesterday in Taipei.
MediaLive is the successor to Key3Media Group Inc. Key3media underwent restructuring and was renamed MediaLive after being acquired by investment bank Thomas Weisel Capital Partners LLC last year.
The show became more focused on business-to-business (B2B) last year and brought the right attendees to the exhibitors, Pardi added.
As many as 92 percent of attendees last year had the ability to authorize or recommend products to purchase, 5 percentage points higher than in 2002, and 75 percent of attendees had plans to purchase last year, a rise of 6 percentage points, according to figures from MediaLive.
The organizer hopes to lure 53,000 participants, including 45,000 buyers, this year.
IT industry magnates including Intel Corp and Dell Inc are considering joining this year's Comdex, which will be held Nov. 15 to Nov. 17 in Las Vegas, Pardi said.
MediaLive is in talks with Hewlett-Packard Co, which was absent from the show last year, to try to lure it back, he added.
After US companies, Taiwan is the largest exhibitor at the show.
The organizer hoped to attract up to 150 Taiwanese companies this year, up from last year's 100 participants, including Acer Inc, CMC Magnetics Corp (
However, local IT companies seemed lukewarm about going this year.
"We always had our own booth in the hotel to meet distributors that have close cooperation with us," said Sunny Han (韓德行), global brand marketing manager with Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦).
This was more efficient and effective than exhibiting in the show, which attracts not only buyers but also users, he said.
Another company said it was enough to join two international shows a year and they would not attend this year's Comdex.
"We enjoyed high efficiency by participating in CeBit and Computex and attracting more of the right buyers," said Aidan Chou (
CMC, which showed up at the exhibition last year, said it would not attend but declined to say why.
RSS