Officially 130,000 people are expected to travel to Las Vegas for the show however hotel executives in Las Vegas have told me that this is "wishful thinking". We are down over 50% in pre bookings for CES said an executive at the MGM Grand.
Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Electronics Association that stages CES said "It will be a bright spot compared to the uncertainty in the rest of the economy,"
Speculation is also mounting that the days of big trade shows are over and that due to the web and the rapid roll out of new products over a 12 month period many Companies are starting to give them a miss.
At this year's event more than 400 exhibitors have pulled out including the likes of Sanyo and Cisco while others have cut back dramatically on the size of their stands.
In 2008 attendance was slightly higher at 140,000 but, said Mr Shapiro, the number of exhibitors at CES had held steady despite the wider economic woe. "I think we will see positive feelings there," he said.
The 2009 show will see more than 2,700 companies showing off their wares across more than 1.2m square metres of exhibition space.
In previous years Microsoft founder Bill Gates has opened the show but in 2009 Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive, will take on the task, delivering the keynote which will kick off the show on 7 January along with Australian Trio Tripod.
With rumours of Microsoft about to announce significant layoffs the opening keynote could sound a sour note.
