Comdex Canceled, Future Debated

MediaLive International today announced that Comdex Las Vegas 2004 has been "postponed." The company said the reason for the postponement is to "reshape the event" with the cooperation of IT industry leaders.

Comdex 2004 had been scheduled to open November 14, 2004, in Las Vegas. Industry watchers already have begun to speculate that the reason Comdex was canceled is that not enough vendors purchased exhibit space to make the show worthwhile.

The company has established a Comdex Advisory Board representing major IT companies to determine how Comdex can best meet the future needs of the industry.

New Comdex Management

One year ago, MediaLive's new management team took ownership of the Comdex brand and began the process of repositioning Comdex as a business-to-business IT event rather than a catch-all consumer-technology event.

Comdex 2003 attracted more than 40,000 attendees, 550 exhibiting companies and more than 900 journalists.

But that number was quite different from earlier years when Comdex attracted technology enthusiasts numbering well over 200,000, second only in number to Germany's CeBit technology event.

Future Comdex Conference

"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 and chief executive officer 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."

Comdex staff will be contacting all confirmed sponsors, partners, exhibitors, speakers, vendors and attendees individually to inform them of the postponement.

According to the company, 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.