CommunicAsia 99: A Close Call

You could say that the 11th annual CommunicAsia99 show was a classic confrontation between fear and greed. There was reason enough for fear: The Southeast Asian conference business has, to put it mildly, been in a slump since mid-1997, when the region's economies went from boom to bust with alarming speed. According to the 10 member countries of the Association of Asian Convention and Visitor Bureaus, business was off about 22 percent in 1998. And Singapore, where CommunicAsia99 was held, had