There has been a brouhaha brewing in the database software trade show world ever since Unix Expo organiser Blenheim acquired Denardi’s popular DB/Expo show and decided to replicate the West coast affair back East. The first DB Expo East was staged at New York City’s Jacob Javits Convention Center between December 5 and 9 a couple of weeks ago – the same week as Digital Consulting Inc’s Database and Client-Sever World in Chicago. It will be the same next year when both are scheduled for the week of December 4 to 8. Vendors we spoke to were not best pleased at having to choose between the two or divide their exhibition teams and resources. Digital Consulting is miffed at Blenheim’s timing and said we were here first. Its show started as a Boston symposium in 1977, had its first exhibitons were in 1982 and they became trade shows in 1989 in Chicago. Digital Consulting’s East coast affair in June in Boston, comes after DB/Expo West in San Francisco in May so there will be no overlap. It does not want to switch dates but says it is examining the possibility. It has December 10 to 12 pencilled in for 1996. Blenheim admits the current arrangement is not a healthy situation, but denies it is trying to kill off Database and Client-Server World, claiming DB/Expo is aimed primarily at New York’s financial community (though we saw more college kids than Wall Streeters). Blenhiem says that even though it organises much larger shows on the same site it would not be able to get different dates at Javits because of booking difficulties. For what it is worth, Digital Consulting says its numbers are 18,000 attendees overall and 1,800 paid-up conference delegates, who generate the real money. DB/Expo claims it has 22,000 and 1,000 respectively.
