Cable show sees decrease in manufacturer attendance

This June’s National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) convention in Chicago--the annual grand gathering of the cable television industry--should be about 15% smaller than last year’s meeting in New Orleans, says Robert Sachs, NCTA president/CEO.

Sachs today attributed the decline to technology vendors’ struggles.

“We’re currently at 248 exhibiting companies occupying 282,000 net square feet,” he said during a conference call to hype this year’s show theme, “We’re Making Broadband Happen.” “This is about 15% off our numbers for the same time last year, and this drop is directly attributable to what’s happening in the economy, particularly in the technology sector.”

Some technology vendors, such as Lucent Technologies, reduced booth space. Others, such as Cisco and Nortel, dropped out of the show, Sachs said.

“Virtually all the dropouts and reductions involve technology companies,” he emphasized. “Program networks continue to make the National Show their priority venue.”

On the plus side, Sachs said 63 new exhibitors have signed up for this year’s show.

Attendance will decrease because “we’re seeing a fall off in the number of passes for people” who are part of exhibitor contingents, he added. All totaled, there should be about 30,000 convention goers in Chicago as compared to the 32,000-plus who showed up in the Big Easy last year, he said.

“We’re seeing some large telecommunications companies who, after they posted their first quarter numbers, are experiencing what a lot of other companies are experiencing, and, therefore, are cutting back on corporate travel and expenses where they can,” Sachs said. “We’ve not seen that on the programming side.”