It looked like the booth was manned - or at least people getting their photos made.  Not to mention Craig on the job.
 
@

Bearing in mind the following posts - I think my original was a bit unfair even if just stirring the possum a bit so I am amending it!

We have indeed sent less staff this year in order to focus on the launch of the new 2016 features. While Gibson is a very big company, Cakewalk is not in comparison and unfortunately we have to focus our resources. This year, we have been hyper-focused on the Rolling Updates and delivering on our promise to customers. This is concentrated effort by all departments, from engineering, to marketing, to support. 

 
The reality is that we reach a small fraction of customers at NAMM compared to other communication mediums (like email, social, web, forum, etc). In addition, NAMM has a more business focus so we do conduct more meetings. We definitely have scaled back in terms of big main stage demos, and multiple workstations. To be honest, we are not the only ones that have done that. I wish we could do it all but sometimes we need to make choices.
 
That being said, customer interaction is very important to us and we did send a couple of staff members to meet with customers and business partners. We do have multiple touch screens (a Surface Pro and Surface Book) along with an Intel Nuc. Our intention was to show more modern, lower footprint machines that can run SONAR. The feedback has been very good at both CES and NAMM. We apologize to anyone who stopped by and was unable to talk to staff. We are readjusting schedules to have better coverage so we can talk to more customers.
 
Thanks for your understanding.

Classy response Andrew.

I had not been personally concerned about the SONAR exhibit at NAMM.  Having owned a business-to-business marketing consultancy, I know that companies scrutinize every cent.  Maybe they were granted a table in the Gibson both as a favor when they decided not to invest in the show...who knows?
         Am I correct in assuming that NAMM is largely attended by the retail trade?  I also know some music store owners and I've heard them say that they can't make much money selling software or even keyboards and accessories.  The money--for them--seems to be in guitars and live sound support.  Anybody know what percentage of SONAR sales come from retailers?  Even the big-gun online retailers probably don't get more than a few percent of their sales from software.
         FWIW, I see a lot of investment being made in SONAR.  That's either because of Gibson or in spite of Gibson, but either way no-one can disagree with the development resources coming our way.  I can understand how disappointed any SONAR evangelists might be when they feel so strongly about the progress and quality of the product, but remember, we're already customers.  The question is: how many NON-customers will go to NAMM to make a purchase decision?
        By the way, a lot of people have disagreed with my opinions in the past--even though they were paying for my advice--so it won't hurt my feelings if any of you see this differently.  Mine is just a single, quiet voice in the wilderness.

I have always loved vi ...

BobF
I have always loved vi ...

Ah! there's one! 

Andrew Rossa [Cakewalk]
We have indeed sent less staff this year in order to focus on the launch of the new 2016 features. While Gibson is a very big company, Cakewalk is not in comparison and unfortunately we have to focus our resources. This year, we have been hyper-focused on the Rolling Updates and delivering on our promise to customers. This is concentrated effort by all departments, from engineering, to marketing, to support. 


The reality is that we reach a small fraction of customers at NAMM compared to other communication mediums (like email, social, web, forum, etc). In addition, NAMM has a more business focus so we do conduct more meetings. We definitely have scaled back in terms of big main stage demos, and multiple workstations. To be honest, we are not the only ones that have done that. I wish we could do it all but sometimes we need to make choices.

That being said, customer interaction is very important to us and we did send a couple of staff members to meet with customers and business partners. We do have multiple touch screens (a Surface Pro and Surface Book) along with an Intel Nuc. Our intention was to show more modern, lower footprint machines that can run SONAR. The feedback has been very good at both CES and NAMM. We apologize to anyone who stopped by and was unable to talk to staff. We are readjusting schedules to have better coverage so we can talk to more customers.

Thanks for your understanding.

I for one am very happy with the focus Cakewalk has been giving to Sonar and customer feedback. NAMM is not a customer outreach event, it's a retailer event. I'm happy they're focusing on the product. Rock on Andrew and all the bakers!

I went by the CW "booth" (just a table) and the guy there was almost clueless about the product.  "Manchester"?  He says to a guy who had asked about upgrading from X3 to the latest version.  He seemed not to understand what was being asked.  The other time I went by, no one there.
 

Almost forgot.... I then went to the prosonus studio one site. Presentations  all day from 11:00 until 4:30, different presentation every half hour.

 
I went to Presonus' booth both Thursday and today, passing by a couple of times, and there weren't any presentations.  And the demo area is tiny (let's see if this photo will upload)
 
Edit:  I would not -- try this link:  http://imgur.com/eqvV2rt
 

I notice that almost all software vendors have backed off of NAMM.

This seems true.  For example, Toontrack was in a little hole-in-in-wall off one of the lobbies, not very noticeable, and had barely anything on display.  Izotope was also in a cubby-hole lobby location and it was worse:  I went by a few times, and each time the door (no glass in the door) was closed, with a stack of t-shirts outside the door with a handwritten sign saying "free, take one".  No one around.
 
 

From my convention experience, I'd say that the Presonus footprint on the imgur link is about $5,000. Add flights and accomodations... I get it.