DOME ALONE

Don't leave me stranded in the Georgia Dome” might sound like the title of a country song, but it actually was a recurring theme of Supercomms past. Exhibitors at previous shows desperately sought not to be banished to booth space in the wickedly labyrinthine, poorly ventilated stadium adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center. But in years past, some didn't have a choice — Supercomm was that overloaded with exhibitors. The companies that got stuck in the Dome, which in the 51-week Supercomm off-season plays host to the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, usually weren't heard from much. The only show attendees that were required to visit them — the journalists — tried to cram all their Dome-bound appointments into the last two hours of their schedules in hopes the Dome dwellers would give up and go home before that. (If not, they could always claim they got lost in the service tunnels.) There will be no such hijinks this year, as the 540 or so Supercomm exhibitors (down from about 825 in 2002) will fit into the Congress Center with breathing room to spare. While the number of exhibitors and attendees has dropped for three straight years, this year's decline is still startling. Given the fact that the economy appears to be bouncing back a bit, the smaller numbers could reflect a new reality about the value of trade shows and the necessity of the associated expense for show exhibitors. If so, our days in the Dome may be over for good.