Spring Comdex Focuses On Solutions

"We've transitioned toward a business technology focus," said Bob Bierman, vice president of Comdex Chicago. "What people will really see this year are the baseline innovations that businesses will be looking for from the marketplace."

Chicago Comdex, to be held March 4-7 at McCormick Place, will focus on three main themes: security and biometrics; mobility, featuring wearable computer manufacturer Xybernaut, which is kicking off a big channel push; and wireless. Each focus is backed with tutorials and seminars, most of which focus on business solutions geared toward integrators looking to add emerging technologies to their offerings.

"We made security a focus because it's hard to get anybody to think about anything else right now," Bierman said, adding that airport and general infrastructure security, and the technologies involved, will receive the bulk of the attention.

"The one encouragement I'd give integrators and solution providers is to get into this space immediately," he said. "It's not too late. But once the budgets are allocated, integrators and solution providers have to be ready to implement or they'll lose out on a lot of money."

Mobility is ripe for attention, Bierman said, because manufacturers have finished developing and rolling out quality products. It's now up to manufacturers and integrators to develop the products into viable solutions with a high return on investment for small, medium and large customers, he added.

"Carriers and equipment providers have been partnering over the last few years. Now it's about who'll be buying and moving the product," Bierman said. "The top layer is done. Integrators and solution providers will have a lot of opportunities because this is where the rubber meets the road on getting technologies into the businesses."

Most of the keynote speakers will be speaking about what their companies are doing in the mobility and wireless space. They include Computer Associates International CEO Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday morning; Dean Douglas, general manager of wireless e-business for IBM Global Services, at noon; and Jim Balsillie, chairman and co-CEO, Research In Motion (RIM) Blackberry, later that afternoon. Wednesday will feature Bill Clift, CTO of Cingular, at noon. Edward Newman, chairman and CEO of Xybernaut, will speak Thursday morning.

Make sure to check out www.crn.com during the show and in the following weeks for breaking news, radio reports and feature stories.

The wireless side of the show will focus on broadband solutions. One pavilion will feature end-user customers, technology developers and integrators involved with Civic Net, a sprawling 10-year project that's bringing broadband wireless infrastructure and solutions to downtown Chicago.

"There will be a lot of sub-contracting going on," Bierman said. "On top of that, there are opportunities for a small army of consultants so that we won't be left with a big pipe and nothing to fill it."

Bierman expects attendance to be down by about 50 percent, to about 30,000 from 62,000 last year, mainly because of the terrorist attacks and the economy. But low attendance is not necessarily a bad thing, Bierman said. "The people who are coming are the people that really matter," he said.