• silicon.com
• Management
• CIO Insights

By John Lui, 1 May 2003 10:34

NEWS The CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia trade shows, scheduled to begin on 17 June this year, has been scrapped because of the SARS outbreak. The show organisers Singapore Exhibition Services (SES) announced their decision to cancel the shows today over concerns for attendees health and poor attendance. Stephen Tan, chief executive of SES, said: "This is a very difficult decision borne out of necessity due to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, and the lack of options for a suitable time frame in which to re-schedule the events." He added that it is SES's "utmost priority to safeguard the well being of our exhibitors and visitors who have shown us unwavering support all these years." The show will be cancelled and not postponed because moving it to later in the year will make it clash with major tech events, said SES. SES polled exhibitors for their views on whether to postpone or scrap the 2003 show, and it is believed that many had also said that their calendar was already filled for the rest of the year. "Postponing the shows to the second half of the year was considered but no suitable alternative window was available as the world calendar for this period is already filled with other events such as BIRTV (Beijing), IBC (Amsterdam), ITU World Telecom (Geneva), CTIA Wireless (Las Vegas), InterBee (Japan) and Comdex (Las Vegas)," according to the SES statement. The next BroadcastAsia and CommunicAsia are scheduled to take place between 15 June and 18 June 2004. SES could not be contacted for comment on whether refunds would be given to exhibitors who have paid deposits for the cancelled show.