Reports are coming in of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) cracking down on small vendors at the CES 2010 show.

With budgets tight some small vendors have opted for displaying their wares in hotel rooms rather than paying higher rates in the exhibition halls. However the CEA has caught wind of this due to its close links with the hotel chains and is now either having these companies removed or asking for compensation.

If the reports are true they represent a departure from the norm for conferences. People go to conferences to do business, but need it all be done under the aegis of the conference organisers?

Every year AMD famously hires out a few rooms near the Intel Developer Forum to capitalise on the draw it has in the tech community. Other companies do things on a smaller scale; it's part of the rough and tumble of public relations.

12 Jan 2010