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 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.

Over the last few years (if not longer), NAMM has gone from a pro audio industry trade show to more of a place to show off shiny doodads to off-the-street consumers. Most of the pro audio folks I work with have pretty much dismissed NAMM in favor of trade shows like InfoComm, so I'm not surprised Cakewalk doesn't feel it's worth a major investment.
 
I think what Andrew was saying, albeit much more diplomatically, is that NAMM is like Guitar Center on a Saturday afternoon.... You'll see a lot of people playing as fast as they can to impress anyone listening, and the newest and best-est products are set up prominently for you to ogle, but there isn't much real business happening on the floor.

I for one could not care less how many staff Cakewalk don't send to a trade show. Great response from Andrew - much more valuable to concentrate on the software.