Perhaps opening Sunday to the public would have merit. CES could charge admission and help defray the costs of exhibiting.

CES should open the show to the public ONLY if the reasons are for more than merely offsetting costs.

Trade shows in Europe (such as IFA) have been open to the public for years, and it works well because the shows are geared for public consumption. They typically have trade-only days at the beginning, then are open to the public at the end. They use this show to boost industry sales by having a lot of consumer-friendly workshops and demonstrations. Many manufacturer booths are manned by key retailers who work the show as a soft-selling opportunity. It works in Europe because people can take the train to the Berlin Messe and get home in the same day in many cases.

If CES wishes to do the same, it will need to promote the show beyond the trade. This can be very expensive and will not guarantee that consumers will attend the show. And it will take years to reach a critical mass of consumer attendees aside from Vegas locals.

Opening the show to the public will benefit exhibitors in the long term once they fully understand how to re-tool their show strategy to handle consumers coming through their booths. It's very different from trade-only.

If you want to open CES to the public, you must keep the same, trade-only four day schedule. Additional days can be added afterwards for everyone else. I imagine it would be nearly impossible to get real work done if the trade-only days were eliminated or reduced.

Evidently the reporter was not at the last CES held in Chicago where the public was allowed in on the last day. It was a disaster for the exhibitors. This is a business trade show and should remain so.

Evidently the reporter was not at the last CES held in Chicago where the public was allowed in on the last day. It was a disaster for the exhibitors. This is a business trade show and should remain so.

The last day or 2 should definitely be open to public invited by dealers.

The show is an incredible amount of work even just for buyers- opening up to the public seems like an exhausting way to 'advertise' new products.
I do not believe opening up to the public would be beneficial to exhibitors. There would be no true qualified sales opportunities. We need to push to retailers and then work on 'public' awareness.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If this happened, soem of the displayed items might not pop up for more than a year. So you end up with customers coming in anbd wanting to know WHY and WHEN is the new widget going to be released. This will be a very large headache for the sales people who didn't even know this widget existed.

When I saw Lisa's post I knew it would cause a stir, especiallly for those of us who attended the last Chicago CES in '94(?) when there was one consumer day. It still seems like a good idea. But CES exhibitors - the ones that really pay the freight for the show - hate it. They want all that time to talk to the trade, and retailers have traditionally resisted the idea.

When I saw Lisa's post I knew it would cause a stir, especiallly for those of us who attended the last Chicago CES in '94(?) when there was one consumer day. It still seems like a good idea. But CES exhibitors - the ones that really pay the freight for the show - hate it. They want all that time to talk to the trade, and retailers have traditionally resisted the idea.

absolutely NOT it's a TRADE show! The congestion is bad enough. Who would benifit? They allow consumers in on the last day and typically all they are looking for is freebies. Allowing consumers will be the beginning of the end for CES

No way! As a veteran of the industry at multiple sales and marketing management levels for 30 years working many many many trade shows that would just make my decision easier to pull out of CES. As a sales veteran having worked CES , Comdex , CEDIA, EHX, Mac World, PMA, PC Expo on and on and on I do not know how many times I have been reviewing a product with a tire kicker when the big fish walks by and I cant get to them. I do not want my sales teams spending time on a consumer when a major prospect passes through the booth. If consumers want to see the products that is what retail show rooms are for. There is no ROI on consumer based trade show with the expense that is incurred. It a is a marketing expense without the ROI.

Others covered how difficult it is getting around already but ad that to the issues of wasting a valuable time on tire kickers who are never going to buy anything anyway and it would be a disaster

No way! As a veteran of the industry at multiple sales and marketing management levels for 30 years working many many many trade shows that would just make my decision easier to pull out of CES. As a sales veteran having worked CES , Comdex , CEDIA, EHX, Mac World, PMA, PC Expo on and on and on I do not know how many times I have been reviewing a product with a tire kicker when the big fish walks by and I cant get to them. I do not want my sales teams spending time on a consumer when a major prospect passes through the booth. If consumers want to see the products that is what retail show rooms are for. There is no ROI on consumer based trade show with the expense that is incurred. It a is a marketing expense without the ROI.

Others covered how difficult it is getting around already but ad that to the issues of wasting a valuable time on tire kickers who are never going to buy anything anyway and it would be a disaster