Well, a very interesting time in Las Vegas last week (Feb 1 – 4th). My overall impression of the show was encouraging. As mentioned in my blog post on Domotex in Germany (which was up 12% in traffic) I would suggest the traffic was up at least that amount in this show (’09 vs ’10) probably up 20% in attendees. That has to be considered a positive sign.
| 2008 Attendees | 2009 Attendees | My 2010 Prediction | 2009 Exhibitors | 2010 Exhibitors |
| 34,540 | 23,686 | 28 500 | 700 | 651 |
That said, I disagree with the official Exhibitor number being circulated (“officially” down 49). It may be right but it is bogus and misleading. Here’s why.
If you have ever been to the show in the Sands Expo (back side of the beautiful Venetian Hotel) the show takes up two floors, an upstairs and a downstairs. The Upstairs tends to remain pretty consistent with most of the large players and biggest booths up stairs.
My Surfaces 2009 blog post video from last year shows a view of the 2009 upstairs (sorry, forgot my video camera this year… could have been the beer and late nights in Vegas). Anyways, several main players opted out again this year, so some of the downstairs booths were brought upstairs. Consequently the downstairs was a shell of it’s former self. Downstairs booths were only a fraction they used to be. ‘Prime time’ booths… the ones off the center row, were significantly less.
There were areas that would have formerly had 4 sizable prime time booths and it was just an empty area. Last minute pull outs? Premium space that exhibitors weren’t willing to pay for? Last minute switches from downstairs up to upstairs?
The booths were on average all smaller and certainly were less extravagant than I’ve ever seen. Non traditional items (face cream, toys)? Not a lot of those, but there were some. All these are understandable due to the severe economic times, and personally I had a fabulous show and met an incredible number of great people. But I wanted to give context to the size of the show. It wasn’t just a show that had 6% less exhibitors.
The currently difficult economic times are reflected in the size and number of exhibitors. They have to shell out the big dough and have no idea if the show will be a success or not. It makes sense the leading indicator would be traffic rather than exhibitors.
Many of the people I spoke to at the show said not only was the crowd level up, but the mood was definitely improved versus last year. To quote one exhibitor, “everyone has come to talk real business, no one is just looking”.
I look forward to an increased optimization in 2010, but I think the real momentum won’t start until 2011. I think you’ll see double digit growth in both exhibitors and traffic next year.
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