Asia's busy telecom events calendar has suffered its first recession casualty, with organizers pulling the plug on Broadband World Forum (BWF) in Hong Kong.
The event, set for June, has been canned because of corporate travel restrictions and the economic climate, said Lisa Reyes, communications director for Chicago-based IEC.
She said the decision was taken following a survey of "stakeholders" - exhibitors, conference attendees and sponsors.
"We are not going to hold a live event this year," she told telecomasia.net. Reyes said the IEC was considering an online conference to cover Asian ICT topics, but had made no decision.
BWF Asia has been staged in Beijing and Hong Kong in the last two years. The IEC will hold other BWF events this year in the US and Europe.
While no other large event has canceled, the region's biggest annual telecom trade show, CommunicAsia, is planning for a smaller show this year.
The organizer, Singapore Exhibition Services (SES), is forecasting a "slightly smaller" amount of floor space and the same visitor numbers, said PR director Lindy Wee.
"Usually we forecast growth, but this year we expect visitor numbers will be the same," she said. Last year's show attracted 67,600 visitors.
SES was expecting the same number of exhibitors, but on a smaller scale, she said. "People spend a lot on stand construction, on doing demonstrations, on hiring staff - I am sure they will cut those," she said.
"When a crisis like this takes place, people have to be very discerning."
Paul Woodward, Asia-Pacific manager of exhibitions industry group UFI, said economic downturns usually hit smaller and niche events the hardest.
"What we normally see during a crisis is that big, major events hold up reasonably well. That applies across most sectors," he said.
"People tend to pull their marketing and travel budgets from smaller events that are a bit more marginal."
He said events in Asian consumer businesses, such as toys and consumer electronics, looked to be feeling the biggest impact of the recession.