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| VSDA president Bo Andersen is seeking tips on how the show can improve. |
JULY 19 | LAS VEGAS--There were fewer parties, a smaller show floor and more closed-door meetings, but many exhibitors and retailers favored the new Video Software Dealers Association convention format, give or take a few changes.
Exhibitors and retailers estimated that about 5,000 people attended the show, 2,000 to 3,000 of them retailers. The three-day show at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, also shorter than in years past, was almost a ghost town by the final afternoon on Thursday, with many attendees heading home before the Awards Show finale.
Many said the new meeting-driven format was better for doing business.
"It's about relationships and being seen and seeing key retailers," said Maverick Entertainment president Doug Schwab, who said he was able to meet with retailers as well as producers and directors.
"I was pessimistic coming in, but I like it," said Dave Stevenson, owner of Big Picture Video in Liverpool, N.Y. "I like everyone staying in the same place, being able to afford to stay in the same place. I think it's a great format."
For the next convention, VSDA is targeting June or July 2003 in Las Vegas, but no decision will be made until the results of this show are evaluated.
"My expectation is that the economics for exhibitors were improved by the new format," said VSDA president Bo Andersen. "The next step is to get feedback very rapidly from both attendees and exhibitors, which we'll use in shaping the show for next year." He earlier allowed that the format probably needs some tweaking.
"Without exception, exhibitors told me they like the new format," added chairman Tom Warren.
"This is a good step toward the reconfiguration of the show for its future," a 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment spokesman said. "There needs to be further discussion, and we want to be a part of those discussions."
Warner Home Video and sister New Line Home Entertainment, MGM Home Entertainment and Universal Studios Home Video held meetings elsewhere in Las Vegas, a development that Andersen characterized as show piracy.
Warren had meetings with two studios off-site and said he won't do it again. "As a retailer who had meetings with two of those companies, I took it as an insult," he said. "For each half-hour meeting I had, it cost me an hour and a half to two hours because I had to leave the hotel, go over there and come back," he said.
The organizers declined to give any attendance figures pending a "final accounting" of registrations.
Andersen did reveal that the organization is considering opportunities to create smaller, consumer-oriented shows.
At the Rio this week, one small retailer said he liked the show overall but found the meeting room format difficult because it was hard to tell if a suite was open or not.
Some attendees said that despite some confusion in getting around between the Rio's convention facility and hotel suites, they were happy with the way the show went.
"We have an established business, we had meetings scheduled in advance, and working in a hotel environment is fine," Gary Goldman, president of Goldhil Home Media, said from his appointment-only suite. "A few years ago, the show was bigger, with more traffic and program suppliers looking to find distribution. Also, because the show is more spread out, it's a lot of stress on the buyers having to go from meeting to meeting."
Some exhibitors said they thought the convention should ax the show floor and focus on meeting rooms.
Bernard Soo, president of Tai Seng Video Marketing, one of the few program labels remaining on the show floor, was unhappy with his placement. "We will not be here [on the floor] next year if they cannot garner enough interest from the video people fo
