In Vegas, everything's too big, including tech show
Thursday, 10 January 2008, 02:22 IST
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Las Vegas: The convention show floor covers the area of 37 football fields, the daily newspaper for convention attendees is over 200 pages thick, and to navigate between exhibits the more than 140,000 attendees need to use no less than four separate maps. Yes, it's Vegas baby, as they say in this booming Nevada town, and like everything else around here the Consumer Electronics Show is bigger than any normal person can imagine. How big? Far too large for any one person to see everything on offer from tech giants like Microsoft, Intel LG and Motorola, not to mention the humble booths the size of bathrooms where small manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and marketers battle the big guys for their share of a tech pie that is set to reach $171 billion in the US this year. But many at the convention this year think the CES may have outgrown its usefulness. Sitting on the express open-air shuttle bus that was meant to whisk participants from their hotels to the convention centre, there was plenty of moaning as the two kilometres journey took some 45 minutes due to the clogged streets. "I don't come here to see new stuff, I come to meet people and I have already missed my first two appointments today because of this," grumbled Harriet Okada, marketing manager for an audio equipment company. "I just donot know what the point of it all is." But at least the snarled traffic allowed the conventioneers to see some of the excesses of the Las Vegas boom first hand. The desert gambling mecca already boasts 15 of the world's 20 largest hotels, and seems intent on filling the other five slots too. Along the famously gaudy Las Vegas Strip, MGM is building what it says is the largest privately funded construction project in the world - a $7 billion, six tower mini-city expected to be completed next year. Covering 27 hectares, it will include a 4,000-room hotel, six towers reaching up to 61 stories high, a sprawling convention centre, 46,450 square meters in retail space and 2,700 high-end condominium units. Other hotels under construction include The Echelon, which will offer 5,000 luxury rooms, and a new tower at the luxurious Venetian, which already boasts a passable replica of Venice, complete with canals, gondolas and the obligatory shopping mall. The addition there will bring the room count to 7,000 rooms. The construction craze is driven by a 95 percent weekend occupancy rate and rates that approach 100 percent at the city's newer properties. Last year, even the weekday rate fell just shy of 90 percent, due in part to the city's success at positioning itself as an attractive convention destination. That has pushed once reasonable prices to levels that would not shame the swankiest cities in Europe and Asia. Even chain stores like Starbucks and McDonalds push prices to near double their levels elsewhere in the US, with a simple cup of coffee going for $4 and a hamburger costing $5. Those kind of prices are making even the cash rich technology industry rethink its affiliation with Vegas. Organisers are considering moving the convention next year to another venue where prices are not as high. With talk of recession looming over the US economy many exhibitors are rethinking their CES strategy. "It's costing my company over $100,000 to attend CES and I don't see how we're going to make that back," said Simon Blitz, the owner of a cellphone distributor. "I can see all the new products over the Internet. But I guess if I can get a few new customers here the cost is worthwhile." Old time residents are also questioning the unbridled growth of Vegas, which according to statistics is bringing 5,000 new residents to the city every month. "Crime is up 100 percent, we have no water, and it takes hours to get anywhere," grumbled a taxi driver who said he had lived in the city for 43 years. "This city was built on crime," he added, referring to the mafia's involvement in setting up the gambling mecca. "But to tell you the truth, if I think, I preferred it the old way."
Source: IANS
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