If you’ve attended the Consumer Electronics Shows in years past, you know the drill. Book a hotel, try not to flinch at the $400-and-up nightly rate, arrive at McCarran International Airport and wait two hours for a taxi to your hotel. And when you’re finally in Las Vegas? You’re joined by thousands of attendees wasting too much time in lines — for a cab, coffee, dinner, the CES shuttle bus, the bathroom.
But, possibly, maybe, I sure hope … not this year. The first sign of a smaller, quieter and cheaper CES, which opens Wednesday night, was lower hotel rates. The official CES hotels starting reducing prices months ago. Places like Bally’s, which in 2006 (the last year I attended) charged $400/night, were still offering $139/night specials before Christmas.
Then I noticed that some Orange County tech companies that for years showed up in big, splashy booths were missing from the show floor.
A third sign? Bill Gates isn’t the opening keynote, as he has been for the last 12 years. What is this? Macworld? (Oh yeah, Gates retired in June.)
After a rough year for the consumer electronics industry –- one where Circuit City filed bankruptcy, Best Buy began layoffs and others went kaput –- CES is expected to be smaller and cheaper. Still, the Consumer Electronics Association, which organizes the annual event, is optimistic about the show and is pushing quality over quantity.
“We’re seeing pre-registration for the show that is stronger than in 2008,” said Jason Oxman, CEA’s vice president of communication. “Will we break a record this year? Probably not. But at the same time, trade shows take renewed interest in a down economy because business gets done.”
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CES expects at least 130,000 attendees this year, down 14 percent from the 2006 high of 152,000. While this year’s lag could be blamed on the depressed economy, CES organizers began taking steps two years ago to eliminate consumers trying to sneak in at the industry-only event. It closely scrutinized attendees living within driving distance to Las Vegas.
“That reduced attendance by 8,000,” Oxman said. “The message we’re trying to send is not to have the maximum number of people, but the best quality of people.”
IOGEAR's booth at CES 2005
Over at Irvine’s IOGEAR, only 17 employees are heading to Vegas to staff its booth. That’s half the usual number, said Bill Nguyen, IOGEAR’s marketing manager.
Still, IOGEAR plans to be even busier than usual, thanks to a new location in the more visible Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. A TV manufacturer pulled out of the show, leaving prime real estate next to LG Electronics.
“We anticipate a lot more traffic than we are used to even with a smaller staff,” Nguyen said. “In building the booth, we kept the economics in mind. Everything has to make sense. Going into 2009, we know the economy may not get better quickly. We have to watch what we spend on marketing and marketing is what we’re all about.”
Another big savings: IOGEAR won’t be exhibiting at MacWorld 2009, which opens Tuesday in San Francisco.
D-Link Systems, the Fountain Valley home networking company, began planning for a slower economy at the end of last year’s show, said Dan Kelley, D-Link’s senior director of marketing. It decided to forgo a booth in 2009.
“We feel like we were ahead of the curve on that decision,” Kelley said. “We’ve heard of other companies doing similar things but because we did it so early … we didn’t have to pay any penalties.”
The company will still hold meetings with key customers, just not as many of them.
“It’s not like there’s half as many people. But we see a softening, if you will. Some of our key customers who have always been there won’t be there,” Kelley said.
Instead, D-Link is sinking some of the savings into a swanky party at the Venetian Hotel’s Club Tao on Friday night. It’s teaming up with Fountain Valley neighbor Kingston Technology Co. for the invite-only Red Dragon Party.
“We don’t expect to be talking a lot of business at the party but we felt it was one way to get more attention,” Kelley said.
While the companies say CES isn’t cheaper for them, they admit it is cheaper for attendees, thanks to lower hotel prices.
Oxman said that high hotel prices were the biggest complaint of 2008.The CEA has been working with hotels ever since. CEA won’t take full credit for the lower prices. But combined with declining tourism and thousands of new hotel rooms, everything collided to make CES 2009 one of the cheapest shows ever – for attendees, that is.
“We’ve been working with hotels to get the rates down,” Oxman said. After all, he added, “Gouging attendees with $600 and $700/night rates is not good business.”
A few highlights of this year’s show, according to Oxman:
- The video and computer game area will be twice as large as last year.
- Blaupunkt will announce the world’s first Internet car radio.
- GPS companies will focus on 2-way communication so users can pull up live data, reviews on a GPS device.
- Sony is building a 16,000-square-foot Celebrity Jeopardy stage at the show
- Sony and Fox Sports will broadcast the first 3D broadcast of the Fed Ex Bowl championship on Jan. 8.
I will be reporting from Vegas beginning Wednesday. Check back often and let me know what you think.
For the list of Gadgetress reports from CES, visit the headline page at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/ces2009.
Tamara 'the Gadgetress' Chuang
Here's a list of TV/mobile companies helping consumers one tweet at a time. 
