The economic downturn is apparently going to hurt the biggest geek show on earth - the CES 2009.
The CES 2009 is set to start on January 8th that is about 6 weeks away. Usually at this time getting a hotel room during CES is a nightmare and if you find one prices are through the roof. This year the hotels page on the CES site features price cuts!
This is an indicator that companies are scaling down travel expenses and are allowing fewer people to attend CES. Of course it could also mean that overall less people are visiting Vegas these days, but on the other hand Vegas is too tempting even in a downward spinning economy.
Additionally a couple of regular CES exhibitors will not be at the CES 2009 including Yahoo, Seagate, Logitech, Belkin and Philips according to PC Pro. Crave reports that Cisco was to debut at CES 2009, but cancelled the plans because of the financial crisis. Cisco will still be at the CES, but only in a small place at the Venetian Hotel.
In terms of floor space the CES 2009 will still be the 3rd largest after 2007 and 2008. We will be still atttending CES as we have done over the last years, the show floors might be less crowded this year.
CES 2009 News.