SEMICON attendance numbers are murky

09/01/1997

Semicon attendance numbers are murky

One of the biggest questions at any trade show is, "How many people came?" While unscientific observation and anecdotal evidence from exhibitors at SEMICON/West indicate that this year`s crowds compared very favorably with recent years, hard numbers for the show proved a little difficult to come by. A spokesman for the trade association said a total of 76,000 people had registered for the show, both as attendees and exhibitors, with about 27,000 having been verified as attendees. The latter figure does not include personnel from exhibiting companies, who would be classified as exhibitors.

"Applied Materials had 937 badges all by themselves; clearly they`re not all booth workers," said the spokesman. "Some of them are out on the floor buying robots."

No breakout as to how many souls attended in San Francisco or San Jose was available, partly because everyone registers through a single database, and partly because SEMI is doing its best to reinforce the message of SEMICON/West still being a unified event.

"For the foreseeable future, it will be one show with two locations," said the spokesman. "We have not set up a system for determining how attendance breaks out between the two sites," he said.- P.N.D.