This year’s Home Media Expo has been cancelled after a 27-year run as a result of the current economic conditions.
With the financial situation worsening, the technology event is unlikely to be the only casualty among industry tradeshows.
The Entertainment Merchants Association said it was planning on holding the Home Media Expo in 2010, according to VideoBusiness.
It said the organizers felt that they had to temporarily pull the plug to meet the new recession-time realities for studios and retailers.
While the DVD business suffered its steepest year-to-year declines in 2008 the EMA said the cancellation was not a reflection on the performance of DVD and Blu-ray.
The economy has already impacted on the first major exhibition of 2009 – the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas – which saw visitor numbers drop from 140,000 in 2008 to 110,000 this year.
Companies are also reconsidering their participation in trade shows, including influential players such as Apple and Nokia.
Apple announced that this month’s Macworld Conference & Expo was the last at which it would exhibit, preferring instead to reach people in ways other than trade shows.
Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.
Nokia Siemens Networks is also changing its approach to trade shows by scaling back on exhibits.
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