Comdex 2005 Cancelled - The history and future of Comdex

Submitted by Patrick Grote on Tue, 04/05/2005 - 2:40pm.

On March 29th Comdex announced they were cancelling Comdex 2005. This is the second year in a row that Comdex has been cancelled at it threatens the future of the Comdex show.

This is a sad development.

Although there is no official word from MediaLive on their site or Comdex's site, NEWS.COM reports that Comdex is cancelled for 2005.

NEWS.COM doesn't link to a press release either, but they offer a quote from the MediaLive spokesman and they also confirmed with the Las Vegas Convention Center that the dates normally reserved for Comdex have been taken by other shows.

Does this mean the end for Comdex?

Before we answer that question, let me tell you a little bit about Comdex and why Comdex is important to the industry.

Comdex stands for Computer Dealer's Exposition. Back in the day, 1979 to be exact, the show started as a way for the computer dealers around the country to see new technology and set up sales deals. It's history has been marked by fantastic keynotes, new products and emerging trends.

My history with Comdex is more recent as I've pretty much attended each Comdex since 1993. I missed a year or two here and there, but for the most part I've been there each November.

For me Comdex was a chance to:

Learn about new technologies: The ability to learn about new technologies and processes has been critical in the development of my career. I was in the front of emerging email trends, the move to the internet and the fault tolerant server industry.
Meet vendors: Meeting a technology company face to face cannot replace a website. Many times I was able to learn about new products or services before the public. This gave me and my company a chance to learn about them ahead of the curve.
Learn about other technologies: Sometimes when your company adopts a certain way of doing things you don't look at alternatives. Comdex was always excellent at exposing you to various solutions.

Comdex was so important to my career that I made sure time was set aside for it. When I owned my own consulting company I ensured large projects weren't due at that time. When I returned to the corporate world I made sure that the week of Comdex was considered time off for me that didn't affect my normal vacation. I paid my own way, but the company gave me the time off. Sometimes this was a hard sell, but in the end it always paid off.

Last year when Comdex was cancelled I could understand. The 2003 version was a pale likeness to the vibrant show that once happened. I could understand the postponement so the show could be retooled.

Now, with the announcement that 2005 is cancelled, options are limited to the corporate or consultant representative. Many claim that CES is the new Comdex or that Networld+interOp is the place to be, but both of those focus on niche parts of the technology scale and not the broad industry.

As I said, it's a sad development, but one that could be expected.