Taiwan has the greatest representation of any foreign nation at this week's Comdex Fall 2002, the largest computer exhibition in the US, for the fifth year running. Taiwan boasts 120 firms at the Las Vegas show, followed by South Korea with around 50 exhibitors.
"There are around 120 Tai-wanese companies exhibiting at Comdex Fall this year compared with around 100 last year," said Maggie Yu (
ACE handles all arrangements for Taiwanese high-tech firms that want to exhibit at the annual Comdex Fall show.
"Taiwan is still the largest country exhibiting," Yu said.
Visitor numbers to Comdex and the number of companies exhibiting have been on the decline since 1999 when the organizing company changed from ZDNet to Key3Media.
In its heyday in 1998 the show drew a quarter of a million visitors and 2,500 exhibitors. Last year the show drew barely 124,000 visitors, down drastically from the previous year's 200,000.
The drop in exhibitors to around 2,000 led to the closure of one of the exhibition's three venues. Now there are only two exhibition venues, the north and south halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Last year's exhibition was particularly turbulent with the event coming just one month after the Sept.11 terrorist attacks on the US.
Of the 125 Taiwanese companies originally booked to go to Comdex Fall 2001, only 100 went, Yu said.
What Comdex Fall gives domestic companies is a chance to firm up ties in the North American market, Shiny Lu (
"There are three exhibitions each year that are important for Taiwanese tech companies: CeBIT in Germany, where they meet their European customers, Comdex Fall in Las Vegas, where they meet their US customers, and Computex Taipei, when their customers come to Taiwan to see them," Lu said.
More than 50 of the Taiwanese companies attending are members of Lu's association.
US customers account for most sales for Taiwanese tech firms, she said, meaning there was great pressure from those customers for Taiwanese companies to attend.
"If Taiwanese companies don't attend Comdex, visitors make think they have gone bankrupt. By exhibiting there, they are showing that their company is doing well," she said.
Comdex Fall 2002 is open to the public and runs through tomorrow.
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