In a world before Cisco, Used Cisco and ICP Networks in 1979 there was Comdex. Those were the days of the Silicon Cowboys.
COMDEX (Computer Dealers’ Exhibition) was a computer expo held in Las Vegas from 1979 – 2003.
As a teenager living in Silicon Valley/San Francisco, I built IBM Compatible 386 PC’s and sold them from newspapers ads. I can recall that to fund my trip to Comdex in the early 90’s, I needed about $500 and paid for my trip by selling a single 500gb Maxtor IDE Hard Drive. The same $500 today would get a 10 Terabyte Drive, or 2,000 times more data storage space. So, funded by my tech entrepreneurialism, I attended Comdex with some friends. At the show, I saw people and businesses from all over the world; the likes of Phillipe Khan of Borland and Bill Gates of Microsoft.
Incredible experiences have been associated with Comdex and recent media on the show resurrected these memories within me.
Silicon Cowboys
Having personal experience with the IBM compatible PC market in the 80’s and 90’s, I was intrigued to hear of the new(ish) Netflix series about this heady time and the entertaining story of the Compaq Computer Corporation.
Have a look at the trailer for Silicon Cowboys if you have not seen it yet:
Halt and Catch Fire
Who would have thought the computer machine code HCF or Halt and Catch Fire (the code that causes the CPU to cease meaningful operation, typically requiring a restart of the computer) would lead to four seasons of a series of the same name? Halt and Catch Fire sounds much better compared to Ctrl-Alt-Delete. I watched the first few episodes in the series, and it gave me some nostalgic thoughts of Comdex.
You may want to have a peek at the Halt and Catch Fire season one trailer:
The Palazzo
The brains and engine behind Comdex was a man named Sheldon Adelson.
At the height of the dot-com bubble bursting, Comdex 2004 was cancelled, however just before this time, Mr Adelson sold out and did pretty well for himself.
Sheldon began making his significant 36 $billion fortune with Comdex. He is the owner/founder of the global casino giant Las Vegas Sand Group which owns The Palazzo group of hotels in Las Vegas, Macao and the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
Bill Gates – 1990 Keynote Comdex
Not surprisingly Bill Gates and many of his contemporaries in the Computer industry would be found exhibiting every year at Comdex in Las Vegas.
Below is a video of the keynote Presentation to Comdex in 1990 by Bill Gates, one of the many times he attended Comdex in twenty years between 1983 and 2003.
Where do we go now?
Of course, other shows emerged from Comdex’s shadow ashes after it went to ground in 2004. Hosted in the USA, the nearest equivalent was Interop. CeBit in Hannover, Germany, in its heydey, was something to behold, and your feet felt like John Candy’s “Dogs are Barkin’” character in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas in some ways has a bit of crossover with Comdex, and indeed its size is the closest thing to what Comdex was in its glory years.
Most manufacturers now launch new products and services themselves since Comdex’s demise. Last weeks Apple iPhone 8 is an excellent example of that and how it has been for quite some time. Companies don’t have to share the limelight or compete for attention at an event and can focus on the parties and market they most want to target.
‘War Stories’ and memories often stir other thoughts and recollections, what are some of your best memories from Trade Shows and Launches in the past?