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Although 2009 is a tough year for consumer electronics as the global crisis affected the entire manufacturing and retail industries, the show must go on, as they say.

With the theme: Technology and Me: A Celebration, this year’s CEL (Consumer Electronics Live!) Manila moved to a bigger venue at the World Trade Center in Roxas Blvd.  as the show focused on making CEL Manila 2009 a selling show that will benefit both consumers and exhibitors.

Summitlive! General Manager Gerard De Guzman said despite the odds, they tried to put up a better show for exhibitors and the public. “This year’s event is more of a selling show. We also partnered with BPI and put up credit card terminals for more convenient shopping.”

I instantly noticed that some of the largest consumer electronics brand like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba other known brands were not in the show.

De Guzman said, “We know that 2009 is a really tough year for consumer electronics as companies had to cut costs. He added that the recent typhoons also had its effect  on this year’s show as some exhibitors backed out at the last minute as warehouses and products for display were flooded.

Last year, the 3-day show at the SMX Convention Center was visited by more than 6,000 tech-savvy consumers. Though the pioneer CEL Manila featured a wider array of brands, more elaborate displays booths and more promotions from leading brands of consumer electronics products, this year’s show also had its share of new offerings.

CEL Manila 2009 also featured a lot of activities and events for bloggers. Realizing the huge impact and importance of blogging on the daily life of tech-savvy Pinoys, SummitLive invited some of the most popular bloggers for a series of talks and workshop.

“Blogging is an expression of how consumer electronics and technology changes our lives and empower us as individuals. Blogging is the most prevalent happening in the local technology circuit so we decided  to make it a significant part of CEL,” De Guzman said.
Summit Media also launched its newest technology website, techie.com.ph.

On the last day of the event, lucky guests were treated to a live feed viewing of the Pacquiao-Cotto fight.

CEL Manila 2009 was participated by Philips, Samsung, Lenovo, Sanyo, Canon, Kodak, Dell, Verzio, JVC, Cignal, Energizer, Inforwork, MSI-ECS, Imation, Sun Cellular, Robinsons Appliances and Toy World.

Check mobilemauimanila.com for more features about CEL Manila 2009.