Research by SmartHouse News reveals that several major vendors who have been involved in the event in the past have said that they will not be returning as a sponsor. Held this week on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland the event is attended more by enterprise and IT vendors selling enterprise messages for large, medium and SMB organisations. The audience is around 50 IT journalists looking for what has been described as an event for IT hacks and freeloaders and "a few days at a luxury resort".
Among the Companies to have been offered a free CE sponsorship was Amber Technology. Brian Lee the General Manager of consumer for Amber Technology said "We were offered a free sponsorship but unfortunately we were given too short a notice. We tried to get Steve Miller of CEDIA to attend but they also were too busy".
The event which is funded by vendors who pay to get in front of technology journalists is now seen by some vendors as nothing more than a media junket.
