The numbers are in. The San Diego County Fair in Del Mar finished its annual 22 day run last Monday with record attendance. In the meantime, attendance was down at the Design Automation Conference, held during the fair’s run just 80 miles to the north in Anaheim. Did some of those headed for DAC slip away to the fair? Of course, the astute note that last year’s DAC was in San Francisco, just a CalTrain commute away from the mass of engineers in Silicon Valley. Okay, so let’s compare to the 2008 DAC, also held in Anaheim. Up this year! Down 29%, from 4828 to 3444. And how did last year’s SF DAC attendance compare to the previous DAC in SF? A little digging finds the attendance history for DAC and the Del Mar fair, posted above.
The attendance figures for DAC include those registered for full conference and exhibit only, excluding exhibitors and others. The fair folks have successfully upped their overall attendance by simply increasing the number of days run, starting with 10 days in 1949, so what’s charted is the more meaningful average daily attendance. Since that’s yet around 10 times higher than the overall DAC attendance, the chart is normalized by comparing everything to 2004 attendance levels.
The DAC attendance figures still aren’t what they were a few years ago but it’s recovering along with the economy. And it’s the economy that’s driving the rise in fair attendance, right? Wait a minute. Why was the fair attendance down in the “good” years, say 2006? Did all those extra engineers at DAC that year keep their kids away from the San Diego Fair? Of course, DAC and the fair do tend to draw from a different pool of people but maybe there’s a hidden message in the numbers: When busy at work, there’s no time for the fair. Or for DAC?
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