CLEO Attendance Falls

CLEO '97 (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics) held in Baltimore failed to attract as many attendees as it did last year. There were 6644 total attendees this year compared with 6936 for the previous conference in Anaheim, Calif. Of all categories, walk-in attendance dropped off most sharply, down from 2242 in 1996 to 1807; the number of exhibit personnel dipped from 2525 to 2381. The only category to post an increase was technical/professionals, up from 2169 last year to 2456.