Attendance at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was down by 22 percent on last year. While hardly a positive signal for the tech industry, it may have made for a better experience for visitors.

The Consumer Electronics Association, which organizes the event, says it estimates 110,000 people attended the event this year. While that figure may be a slight underestimation, it’s significantly short of last year’s 141,150 visitors.

To some, that’s going to come as a sign the technology industry is a particular victim of the nation’s economic problems. After all, while consumers might be more likely to stay in and watch their shiny new TVs than go out on the town, the type of technological innovations traditionally unveiled at CES could be the type of luxury items which suffer when people cut back spending.

My guess, though, is the drop is indeed related to the economy, but in a different manner. Even in January, and even with its own slowdown, Vegas can be an expensive place to visit during major conventions. Exhibitors looking to cut costs may well have decided they could send fewer staff to the event. And some may have skipped it altogether: when Apple itself pulled out of the recent Macworld convention, you knew the days of firms attending every event going were over.

Meanwhile news outlets may well have decided they could either reduce the number of journalists sent to cover the event in person, or even opted to cover it remotely. (This should in no way be interpreted as an appeal for BLORGE’s senior management to assign me to next year’s event.)

The good news for the CEA is that the smaller crowds seem to have made for a better experience. The Las Vegas Sun quotes delegates as saying the event was much more manageable this year and that they had time to meet every key contact they wanted.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 5:47 pm under Apple, Technology.

Read more entries by John Lister.
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