Couldn’t make it to that last tradeshow?

From time to time, I’ll provide video highlights of technology tradeshows. You’ll need a broadband connection and a Windows Media compatible player in order to stream the clips. Click an entry, and the video should play automatically.

Now that it has been canceled (presumably forever), COMDEX regulars are nostalgic for the good old days when it was nearly impossible to find a cab, restaurant seat, or phone connection. COMDEX Fall topped out at around 227,000 in 1998, when it was the largest tradeshow in North America. Even though Las Vegas has more hotel rooms than any city in the country, every room would be sold out during the show. Rooms that were $39 a night the week before would go for $200 a night during COMDEX.

During its heyday, COMDEX Fall boasted some impressive numbers. In the late 1990s attendance surged past 200,000, with more than 2,000 exhibitors and 3,800 members of the press. The attendees came from 145 countries, with about 40 percent of the exhibiting companies based outside the U.S. During the course of the show, the average attendee walked 21 miles, collected 30 pounds of promotional material, and went to 9 cocktail receptions (the number of drinks consumed wasn't tabulated). The show brought in $255 million each year to the city of Las Vegas.

Because there was so much going on that was the centered around COMDEX, attendees gained a reputation among the cab drivers for not going out at night. Unlike the groups that attended the other big tradeshows (such as CES, NAB, or the Rodeo show), COMDEX attendees didn't tend to gamble or go to the night clubs. The cab drivers had a saying, "A COMDEX attendee arrives with a ten dollar bill and a clean pair of pants, and hasn't changed either one by the end of the week."