Due to budget and timing, My Biz partner and I would only be able to make the trade show at CEDIA. Is it worth it? From Phx..

Sounds like it's your first time. Although I don't ever see myself as a member, we have been attending for the past six years. Just showing up and getting a hands on of what cutting edge is specifically for our industry sets you apart from your competition.

It's a door opening opportunity to manufacturers as well. Meeting reps at Cedia (or telling them you attended) demonstrates you are pretty serious about being a player. You will even find very informative classes at no charge hosted by the various manufacturers as well. I have never lost money taking time out to increase my knowledge base.

On a side note, I would suggest to get a Southwest Visa Card. Purchase your product thru the card and in no time you will have vouchers to fly anywhere in the US. No restrictions with only a handful of blackout dates. Currently 18K run thru the card gets you a round trip. I'm sure it will increase due to the price of oil.

The hard part is a hotel at the last minute.

Trade show is definitely worth it. But if you can't make CEDIA, the EHX show in October will serve your purposes as well.

Still plenty of hotel rooms around, just need to make sure you get a place at, or near one of the outlying hotels that has CEDIA shuttle service, or get a rental car and park near the convention center.

Nardo, EHX is in your backyard in Anaheim, Nov. 7-11
www.ehxweb.com

Register now while it's free.

You face $75 reg. fee cedia, although it is worth it if you can make it, despite the big fat pain of hotel rooms and transportation. As Steve suggested, the free mfr. trainings are usually worth the cost of admission. The folks here could recommend the good ones.

All,
Thanks for the info.. I booked the trip today.

I'm going(first time!)

I can't wait!

I've been to Vegas for the 'everything that has anything to do with electronics, and then some!' show before.

It will be nice to see more focus on what I really care about!

PLEEEEEZE tell me cedia won't have porn star booth's!!! ;-)

Not to say that I didn't have a good time!!!

I do go for the show, to meet and greet the folks I horrange over the year ( often to apologize in person ), and for manufacturers' training. Last year all I did was the show and my opinion is that it is still worth the trip if you can afford the time and the money. I stay away from the Runco super theater experiences and try to look at as many real world displays as I can. It is one of the few opportunities to evaluate LcOS, DLP and LCD projectors, plasma vs LCD, different CD server and now DVD ( ie, thin client ) server companies. I do think that you can gain a sence of what products will fit into your mix, especially if you are smaller and need to get a sense of which displays you want to push in the coming year.

I am told by those who understand marketing ( and I do not ) that CEDIA has been successful where other Trade shows, including CES, have disappeared or have had their consumer electronics presence scaled back because CEDIA is as much an educational show as it is a trade show. That said, I only take manufacturers' training and almost never take a CEDIA course. Partly this is misplaced ego and partly it is my experience that when I was younger and knew less the courses were more relavent. As I became more experienced I found the courses too general, too brief, or too dumbed down to be of much use.

Unfortunately, the show has out grown that ***** town and the convention center where it is held. Bad food and over priced hotels are what is best about that "city." While not as bad as CES it can be very confusing if you are trying to orderly make your rounds of the show floor but I would make the trip just for the show.

Alan

Pilgram ... too late
[Link: remotecentral.com]

Here's my take on the matter:

The Striking Viking: CEDIA Raises Bar
I'll never make it as a booth babe, now. CEDIA has raised the bar with the headline act, the stunning pool-playing "Striking Viking."
[Link: blog.ce-pro.com]

I agree it's a great show and I'll be there again. CEDIA will be back in Indy eventually. They did outgrow the current capabilities, but a new convention center will be built and I believe that there's a deal that CEDIA will be back if that happens. CEDIA is based in Indianapolis.

CEDIA Expo is still the best trade show around. If you only go to one show, this is the one. EHexpo is good, especially if you're looking to talk with distributors rather than actual manufacturers, but CEDIA is still worth the trip no matter where in the country you're from.

Do we have a RC meet and greet planned yet? I'll be in Thursday - Saturday night. I know that there are big parties on Thursday, but how about Friday?

Jeff Wagner

By the way, there was a new article on CEDIA in TWICE (this week in consumer electronics): [Link: twice.com]

Here's a quote about attendance:
CEDIA’s Indianapolis Expo will also shatter some records. The exhibitor count is expected to hit a record 562, up from last year’s 438, and to accommodate them,
CEDIA rented exhibit space in a hotel ballroom for the first time. The space is at the Marriott Downtown. Net square exhibit-space footage will rise to 260,000, from 249,000. Actual gross square footage will be 550,000. Last year’s gross square footage was officially put at 565,000, but that figure was only an estimate, CEDIA admitted. As of mid-August, preregistration numbers ran ahead of last year’s mid-August numbers, raising the potential for attendance to exceed 2004’s record 24,500, CEDIA officials said.

Growing attendance is due in part to such first-time exhibitors as Intel and Hewlett-Packard. "They get it," said
CEDIA president Ray Lepper. "CEDIA integrators will pave the way for the adoption of IT-A/V convergence," he said. "Early implementations will be far from plug-and-play and will need someone to bring it all together and train clients."