Death of COMDEX doesn't signal the end

October 28, 2002

BY MICHAEL KRAUSS

Every now and then you get one of those calls when the caller's tone of voice tells you the news is bad: Did I know Spring COMDEX, usually held each April in Chicago, was dead? "What do you think?" asked the caller, Howard Wolinsky, the technology reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times.

"I'm not surprised," I mumbled in reply, as if describing the fate of an elderly aunt or uncle who we all knew would soon succumb to an extended illness and depart this world. Fall COMDEX, the grandparent of all technology conferences, lives on and will be held by Key3Media in November in Las Vegas. Regrettably, its springtime Midwestern sibling is no more.

Technology trade shows serve their purpose. COMDEX and a host of imitator shows helped introduce a generation to computer hardware, software, peripherals, mobile technology and, ultimately, the Internet. They enabled us to feel and touch a bevy of new technology products. These shows took on a life of their own. They became events that defined whether you were cool or not.

No more. Trade shows, like most everything else in technology marketing, have returned to earth. They're being right-sized, downsized and rationalized.

Should we mourn Spring COMDEX's passing? Sure, but not for long. New shows will be spawned down the road. Extravagant trade shows, like dot-com Super Bowl ads, are gone for good-and rightly so. But practical shows that let prospective customers touch and feel the new technologies will be back.

How do I know? For a hint of the future, I looked 147 miles south of Chicago's McCormick Place Exhibition Center where COMDEX was held. I took a tour of the laboratories of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. That's where the Mosaic browser was invented; where Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape, was tutored and nurtured; and where much of the commercial Internet revolution began about a decade ago.

A day before Spring COMDEX was removed from life support, Wolinsky and I were given a tour of the U of I's labs and lecture halls. Mike Fritz, the associate vicechancellor of the university, who directs the Office of Technology Management, told us he'd just cleared up a backlog of over 750 new technology applications submitted by the faculty. Fritz and his staff pared these down to nearly 150 concepts they think have commercial legs. They're focusing their efforts on about 60 applications they think have near-term commercial viability.

Fritz and his staff are busy marketing their treasure trove of new technology concepts to prospective investors and commercial companies. Their marketing tactics are more down to earth than those we used in the dot-com frenzy. They write letters and call prospective users of their applications. They created a Web site. They drafted practical, 8 1/2 -by-11-inch color sell sheets to describe their offerings. And they even do laboratory tours. Examples of their wares are both exciting and practical. They include:

• New ultra-bright photo luminescent silicon nano particles. These microscopic bits of silicon are unexpectedly colorful and bright. Someday they'll be used as dyes to assure cancer drugs are delivered only to diseased tissues.
• Stress-absorbing composites. These new materials stop cracks in pavement from becoming potholes.
• Self-healing composites. These polymers contain microscopic capsules that release a healing agent when fissures and cracks appear. Think airline parts and how this might save lives.
• Micro circuit bio threat detectors. Marrying microchip production techniques and state-of-the-art biology, these tools may be on the front line of the war on terror in the months to come.
• In vitro bioflavonoids. This technology will allow the production of flavorings normally gleaned from seasonal foods to be produced in a petri dish year round.

There was an array of new computer software and hardware innovations in development at the National Center for Supercomputing. There's a new $30 million facility for training software engineers. There's a new technology research park complete with incubator facilities to nurture new start-up companies.

And the scene at the University of Illinois is mirrored by similar research efforts at MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech and a host of other leading-edge institutions.

Funny thing happened after I visited the lab. I got an e-mail invitation to come to "I—emerging"-a showcase of new technologies from the University of Illinois campus. It's being held this month in Urbana to publicly show off the university's new technologies.

Like I said, trade shows aren't dead after all.

Michael Krauss is a partner with DiamondCluster International in Chicago. He can be reached at michael.krauss@diamondcluster.com or news@ama.org.