Trade Show Funk

What's tougher than telecom these days? Telecom trade shows. The Service Networks show in Baltimore last week was pretty grim, from an attendance standpoint. Back in the days when it was BBSCon and then ISPCon, the show was a major draw. But barely 120 diehards were in attendance for the Wednesday morning's keynote address. On the trade show floor, the staff in the booths outnumbered the folks in the aisles.

"I think it's probably reflective of the state of the industry," said Bob Fischer, director of industry intelligence for Universal Access, which had one of the larger booths at the show. "The next year is going to be a tightrope act."

It's no secret that trade show attendance has been hit hard by the double-whammy of the recession and post-Sept. 11 fear of flying. Massive layoffs and belt-tightening in the telecom and Internet sector have added insult to injury.

Show sponsor Penton Media sought to build a critical mass of attendees for last week's event by combining three existing trade shows - ISPCon, Connected Home and NextWare Spring - at the Baltimore Convention Center. By May 1, the Connected Home and NextWare components had been postponed.

"Despite the world-class faculty that has agreed to speak, the partnerships that we have made and the promotional efforts behind this show, the response from the market has not matched the expectations we'd set forth for this event," the show's organizers said in announcing the slimmed-down show.

Smaller shows have their benefits, however, and the panels were intimate, informative and interactive, with lots of give and take between the presenters and the audience. There was also a strong "survivor sentiment" that the downturn has had a Darwinian effect, winnowing out the faint of heart.

"The reason there aren't as many people here is that the speculators are gone," said Dan Moffat, president and CEO of New Edge Networks. "About 80 percent of the people who came in thinking they'd build something and sell it found they can't sell it, and now they're gone. The good thing about the people in this room is that you have real businesses."