NAB Opens With Moderate Radio Floor Traffic

Official attendance isn’t available yet, and in any event it won’t be finalized for weeks; but our early impression is that attendance at the NAB convention is down.
Anecdotal – but often reliable – measures such as taxi lines and hotel room availability suggest that the show is smaller than at its peak so far a couple of years ago.
Other large events held in Vegas, such as Comdex, have seen attendance drops as well.
Vendors near the front doors of the radio hall in the Las Vegas Convention Center reported good crowds through much of Monday. But others located farther from the entrance said the first day of the NAB show had been busier in the past, and saw that a sizable portion of the North Hall was not rented out this year.
Many exhibitors wondered how the war, the onset of SARS in Asia and the economic situation in general would affect attendance.
However, several broadcast groups have held engineering meetings here timed with the show, including Clear Channel, Emmis and Cumulus. A small clutch of Infinity engineers reportedly was on hand, paying their own way. Participants in both the NRSC meeting and the Public Radio Engineering Conference, both of which were held over the weekend, reported good turnouts.