Plug Pulled on Computer Show

The computer industry’s doldrums have claimed another casualty: the fledgling Southern California Computer Faire.

The exhibition for personal and business computer users was to have been held last Thursday, Friday and Saturday but “the way things are going with the computer industry at this time, 1985 was not the time to hold a new computer show,” said David Small, a spokesman for Computer Faire Inc. The Newton, Mass.-based company, a subsidiary of Prentice-Hall, stages computer shows on both coasts.

“You read about all the layoffs in the computer industry,” Small said. “We just weren’t able to get the exhibitors.”

Computer Faire has rescheduled the show for 1986, when it hopes to attract 150 to 200 computer exhibitors.

Computer Faire recently mounted the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco, which drew more than 50,000 people. “The reason that show is so successful is it has the history behind it” with 10 shows completed, Small said.

Computer Faire also stages the Personal Computer Faire in San Francisco, the Northeast Computer Faire in Boston, and smaller trade shows that are held in San Francisco and Boston.

Norm DeWitt, director of Personal Computer Industry Service of Dataquest, a high-technology market research firm, said that while the personal computer industry is undergoing a shake-out, “overall the industry is strong.”

The problem, DeWitt said, is the proliferation of computer shows during the last few years. “Manufacturers are taking a much harder look at what shows they’re going to participate in,” he said.