COMDEX Las Vegas 2004 has been postponed in order to reshape the event with the cooperation of information technology (IT) industry leaders, it was announced by organizer MediaLive International Inc. COMDEX 2004 had been scheduled to open November 14, 2004, in Las Vegas. The company has established a COMDEX Advisory Board representing the IT industry's foremost companies to determine how COMDEX can reboot itself to best meet the future needs of the industry.
One year ago, MediaLive's new management team took ownership of the COMDEX brand from Key3Media Group Inc., which filed for bankruptcy, and began the process of repositioning COMDEX as a focused, business-to-business IT event. COMDEX 2003 attracted more than 40,000 qualified technology buyers, 550 exhibiting companies and more than 900 journalists.
This is drastically down from three years when attendance was more than 210,000 and exhibitors exceeded 2,000. COMDEX lost a big chunk of participants when it relegated gaming companies to a tent nearly 10 years ago. The growing videogame industry opted to start its own show, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, now one of the highest attended electronic-oriented industry shows in the world.
"In the year since we assumed the responsibility of managing the technology industry's largest annual event, we have sought to reposition COMDEX and rebuild the market's trust," said Robert W. Priest-Heck, president/ceo of MediaLive. "While we could still run a profitable COMDEX this year, it does not benefit the industry to do so without broader support of the leading technology companies. In order to give the Advisory Board the time and opportunity necessary to partake in the redesign of COMDEX, we thought it best to postpone this year's show."
"We firmly believe the $915 billion information technology industry needs an event where the leading technology companies can speak to their global customers on neutral ground, buyers can compare all their options at one time, and thought leaders can discuss and debate the industry's future," said Eric Faurot, vp/gm for COMDEX. "The participation on the Advisory Board of the IT industry's leading companies and thought leaders demonstrates that the industry feels it needs COMDEX as well. We are anxious to work with the industry to build the best event."
The COMDEX Advisory Board is assessing the value of an industry event from the perspective of vendors, buyers, media and others stakeholders; and to recommend modifications to COMDEX that suit the needs of the industry. MediaLive has received commitments to join its COMDEX Advisory Board from: John Volkmann, vp, strategic communications, AMD; George Paolini, vp/gm of developer tools, Borland Software; Mark Fredrickson, vp corporate communications, EMC; Timothy J. Curran, ceo, Global Technology Distribution Council; Jeff Singsaas, director of events, Microsoft Corp.; Robert Shimp, vp technology marketing, Oracle Corp.; and Peter Weedfald, svp, strategic marketing and new media, Samsung Electronics. Executives from Cisco, Dell and Intel have also agreed to join the Advisory Board and invitations are being extended to other industry leading companies.
COMDEX staff will be contacting all confirmed sponsors, partners, exhibitors, speakers, vendors and attendees individually to inform them of the postponement. All other scheduled MediaLive produced events, seminars and programs will be convening as planned, including COMDEX Brazil, COMDEX Korea, COMDEX Scandinavia, COMDEX Saudi Arabia and COMDEX Greece. The next COMDEX Las Vegas is scheduled for November 13 - 17, 2005, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
MediaLive International is a media and marketing company that drives the advancement of technology in business. MediaLive International is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout the world. For more information about MediaLive International, visit www.medialiveinternational.com.
