We need a list of the top 10 US/North American tradeshows or
conventions where IT Managers and/or IT executives most commonly
frequent. Ideally, we would like to see attendance numbers.

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Request for Question Clarification by tar_heel_v-ga on 04 Nov 2002 13:13 PST

Are you looking for upcoming dates or in the last year?

-THV

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Clarification of Question by saxel-ga on 05 Nov 2002 11:42 PST

Didn't see my last answer posted, so I will repeat it, just in case

The ideal answer would provide us the number of attendees, by show for
IT Mangers/executives in descending order and a link to their 2003
schedule.  We are only interested in shows that have historically had
high IT traffic, unless there was something very special upcoming
(i.e., CEBIT for US).

Email me at saxel@msn.com for more clarification today

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Clarification of Question by saxel-ga on 05 Nov 2002 13:29 PST

The ideal answer would provide us the number of attendees, by show for
IT Mangers/executives in descending order and a link to their 2003
schedule.  We are only interested in shows that have historically had
high IT traffic, unless there was something very special upcoming
(i.e., CEBIT for US).

CMP's TechWeb site lists 305 computer-related trade shows
internationally on its annual calendar:
http://www.techweb.com/calendar

The best spot to get information on the largest trade shows is from
Tradeshow Week, which publishes an annual list of the 200 largest
trade shows.  It's available for $95:
http://www.tradeshowweek.com/about/index.asp

Not having access to the Tradeshow Week 200 list, I used Gale Group's
"Trade Shows Worldwide 2001," edited by Tyra Phillips to assemble the
IT list.  Phillips' books ranks shows by square footage and also
provides attendance figures.  These are the top 10 computer or
IT-related trade shows, in this format.:

SHOW NAME
SHOW WEBSITE
TOTAL ATTENDANCE
IT ATTENDANCE (from show promoters)
SOURCE OF SHOW ATTENDANCE DATA

Note that several large shows that were popular during the 1990s, such
as Comdex/Spring or Windows World have merged or disappeared even
since Phillips' guide was published in 2001.  And if you've exhibited
in Europe you know that attendance figures sometimes include
exhibitors – and sometimes do not:

1.  Comdex/Fall
http://www.comdex.com/fall/
TOT attendance: 80,000
IT attendance: 93%
http://www.comdex.com/fall/exhibitorcenter/pdf/networking.pdf

2.  PC Expo
http://www.techxny.com/intro.cfm
TOT attendance: 130,000
IT attendance: 43,376
http://www.techxny.com/breaking_news.cfm

3.  MacWorld Expo
http://www.macworldexpo.com/macworld2003/V33/index.cvn
TOT attendance: 87,000
IT attendance: NA
http://www.macworldexpo.com/macworld2003/V33/index.cvn?id=10037&p_navID=42

4.  Comdex/Spring – now run at same time as Networld + Interop
http://www.interop-comdex.com/
TOT attendance: 50,000
IT attendance: 37,000
http://www.comdex.com/face2face/issue12/buyer_functions.html

5.  Networld + Interop – Las Vegas
http://www.interop.com/
TOT attendance: 55,000
IT attendance: NA
http://www.interop.com/exhibit/attend.php

6.  Networld + Interop – Atlanta
http://www.interop-comdex.com/
TOT attendance: 50,000
IT attendance: NA
http://www.interop.com/exhibit/attend.php

7/8.  Spring Internet World
Fall Internet World
http://www.internetworld.com/events/spring2002/
TOT attendance: 50,000
IT attendance: 20,000
http://www.internetworld.com/events/fall2001/downloads/fall_report.pdf

9.  FOSE (Federal Office Systems Exhibition)
http://www.fose.com/
TOT attendance: 36,900
IT attendance: 17,000
http://www.fose.com/Exhibitors/

10.  Linux World
http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/linuxworldny03/V33/index.cvn
TOT attendance: 20,700
IT attendance: 20,700
http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/linuxworldny03/V33/index.cvn?id=10056&p_navID=36

11.	National Educational Computing Conference (NECC)
http://www.neccsite.org/
TOT attendance: 11,000
IT attendance: 5,500
http://ccenter.uoregon.edu/conferences/NECC2003/exhibitors/demographics/position.php

12. PCIA Global Exchange (wireless, personal communications)
http://www.pcia.com/pcia_events.htm
TOT attendance: 18,000
IT attendance: NA

Very interesting numbers on computer trade shows and their costs;
composition and comparisons to other industries is in this Expo
Magazine (January, 2000) "Industry Profile":
http://www.expoweb.com/Files/IndustryProfile.pdf

Google search strategy:
"trade shows" + IT + U.S.
"trade shows" + U.S. + largest

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

The answer was right on target with some extra resources to do our
own, educated research.