In years past the CES show in Las Vegas brought in well over 130,000 people to see the latest gadgets. In fact, it was harder to get a hotel room on the strip than it was to get front row tickets to a Led Zeppelin concert.
The global economic downturn has not had an impact on attendance for the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show. It’s estimated that more than 130,000 people are expected to travel to Las Vegas for the show.
The show is the highlight of the hi-tech calendar and is a showcase for top gadgets of 2009.
“It will be a bright spot compared to the uncertainty in the rest of the economy,” said Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Electronics Association that stages CES.
Mr. Shapiro said he expected the 2009 show to be among the top two or three in terms of attendees and exhibitors.
In 2008 attendance was slightly higher at 140,000 but, said Mr. Shapiro, the number of exhibitors at CES had held steady despite the wider economic woe.
“I think we will see positive feelings there,” he said.
The 2009 show will see more than 2,700 companies showing off their wares across more than 1.7m square feet of exhibition space.
It is not clear how positive these statistics are because most firms paid well in advance for their stand space – most long before the global economic slowdown made itself felt.
CES is well known as a showcase for new display technologies and the 2009 show is expected to see the appearance of many more Organic LED screens as well as many 3D TV and film technologies.
Are you attending this years CES?
CES has over 300 plus NEW exhibitors and it does not seem to be slowing for the industry. We all love our gadgets and I think that perhaps many of the larger companies – such as Belkin may have pulled out and opted not to spend the dollars, but all in all trade shows are a face to face market meeting place to form relationships as well as new product launches!
Not bad during a downturn in the economy.