This article touches on so many of my anxieties covering our industries– I don’t know where to start. After stumbling over that popular red herring of “Vegas excess”, the writer wonders why there’s no WiFi on the show floor at most trade shows (sorry, NYT, but the pseudo-economic analysis is off-track– it’s the same reason there’s no free WiFi on a commercial flight, or in most airports: monopoly on the venue means exorbitant connection fees– only in the case of the LVCC it’s hundreds of dollars for a connection, not $15/day). Bad food at McCormick Place? Go to the huge, successful ISE show in Amsterdam (where you can have a nice business lunch steps away from the show floor), and then explain why at the LVCC you have to stand in line for an hour for inedible overpriced food.The convention and meeting business was staggered by the recession, and only in the last year or so started to dig itself out of the slump. Now, meeting organizers have a new worry: the rising costs of meeting the needs of younger attendees who are accustomed to sophisticated technology at home and disinclined to do without it at, say, the Las Vegas Convention Center.
–David Keene
