Meeting News - February 2, 2009 - (Page 20)

Insider Report: Gaming Destinations Edited by William Ng william.ng@nielsen.com CES continued from cover 3,000. Attendance was off even further; CEA estimated attendance at “more than 110,000,” a 20percent drop from the 141,150 who attended the 2008 CES. Looming beyond the attendance figures is the fallout from the poor holiday shopping season. The CEA is forecasting a sales decrease in electronics from $172.1 billion in 2008 to $171.9 billion in 2009, yet cutbacks at most electronics industry companies—along with the demise of national retailer Circuit City and its layoff of 35,000 employees—suggest a darker picture. But sanguine exhibitors, attendees, and speakers acknowledged the obvious and moved on. Product launches and parties at CES continued despite slower traffic. On Jan. 8, an event featured a martini ice bar with a Lenovo spon- sorship logo cut into it. (That same day, the computer maker slashed its payroll by 11 percent, or 2,500 people.) Said Chris O’Malley, a partner in Pepcom Inc. (one of the producers and owners of Digital Experience!, a popular press and exhibitor event at CES, as well as other tech shows such as PMA, E3, and CTIA):“We were down about 10 percent on attendance, down 25 percent on the exhibitor side. But if the entire economy is down 25 percent and we are too, we won’t get too worried. We have to be smart and careful for six months, but the sun will come up again.” On a more positive note, O’Malley is finding that this year, hotels are more flexible, actually offering flat pricing.“For the hotels, we’re a good one-night stand—an incredible food and bar tab, but not a big block of hotel rooms,” he said. This year’s CES had a sleepier atmosphere. “They would shamelessly raise prices 15 to 20 percent each year; those days are clearly over. In Vegas, you have leverage you haven’t had in a continued on page 22 Adult Entertainment Expo’s Fleshed-Out Co-Location Plan An annual convention tag team made in heaven with the Consumer Electronics Show Co-locating events may be the new buzz, but the Consumer Electronics Show and the Adult Entertainment Expo have been co-locating in Las Vegas since their inception. Perhaps they are not co-located in the strictest sense—the shows aren’t jointly marketed—but it still has been an uncanny coincidence for many years that “the porn show,” as it’s universally known, runs almost exactly alongside CES, draws many of the same delegates, and is just a corridor away from CES exhibits at the Sands Expo Center. Many believe that pornography has been a key driver for consumer electronics, from the days of Betamax, to VHS, CD-ROM, DVD, and the Internet today, hence the co-location. The Adult Entertainment Expo is a fully-fledged show with its own trade publication, seminars, industry association, and new-product showcase. Unlike most trade shows, AEE also has “fan hours” where enthusiasts paying up to $100 a ticket can meet and greet with adult video stars. AEE also co-locates with the GayVN Expo and the Xtreme Open Market—dedicated to “edgy, excit- Adult film stars pose for photos at the Adult Entertainment Expo. ing products like cars, bikes, [and] body piercing [items]”—all catering to the same attendees. More seriously, the sour economy has resulted in empty booth spaces, wider carpets, and slower traffic at both CES and AEE. Yet, vendors are holding on and even talking optimistically. “Our products still have value to the consumer,” said AEE spokesman Sean Devlin.“All things considered, we feel good. In this economy, we’re only down 11 percent. People still come to this meeting for value.” Even so, the number of exhibitors at AEE dropped from 301 to 267. Many exhibitors made bittersweet jokes about disgraced Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis and Hustler’s Larry Flynt, who recently made news by asking for a $5 billion bailout for the sagging adult entertainment industry. —Michael Goldstein 20 MeetingNews February 2, 2009 Photo: AP/Photo/Jae C. Hong www.meetingnews.com http://www.meetingnews.com

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