Last week in Los Vegas, the Consumer Electronic Show 2016 took place and there was a notable lack of bitcoin related business presence. This has spawned interested and concern as to why this was the case.
Why No Bitcoin? Why No Blockchain?
It's a rather simple and good reason. There's little benefit for companies to attend.
CES is an electronic show so companies like ledger have an incentive to attend (which they did) as well as other companies with hardware related products, but outside of that why bother? There's not a return worth the investment.
Attending shows like this can cost over $30,000 to start with a small vendor showcase spot (booth). Having attended many of these myself as an attendee, presenter, and vendor with a booth, I can tell you that unless its a conference specific to your industry where the attendees are coming to to see offerings like one that you currently have for sale, its a waste of time, effort, and money.
In fact its not even really worth the branding. Your hoping to get sales leads out of a conference such as this, and what you don't get in sales leads you hope to gain in brand name recognition. In the case of a bitcoin or blockchain related software or service offering, there's just no reason to go to CES bcause you cannot expect much of either to materialize.
To be honest, what you really needed at CS 2016 was a drone. Like this one that was on display and demonstrated.
The 8 blade S1000 Octocopter Drone
with aerial photography.
with aerial photography.
Surprising Lack of Presence?
No. In fact if there was a large presence at CES that would have been the shocker.
Most companies in the digital currency and blockchain technology space made the correct decision in not attending and many did not even have it on their radar. Larger companies like Bitpay indicated that they would not be attending so they obviously were aware of the conference, but a few smaller companies we spoke with either didn't know about it or knew about it and couldn't fathom a reason to bother showing up.
Start-ups, even in the hardware space, are certainly better off saving their conference budget for 2016 for more industry specific conference that are scheduled for 2016 and likely the basis of the decisions made on their attendance, or lack thereof. That decision was certainly the right one.
Story by dinbits
Image by dinbits staff (logo courtesy CES)
The opinions expressed by authors of articles linked, referenced, or published on dinbits.com do not necessarily express, nor are endorsed by, the opinions the of dinbits.com or its affiliates.