I met a guy in the lunch line in the press room today and he was talking about this year's attendance, too. He said, nevermind the nation's current economic issues, NAB needs to go back after the folks that used to attend NATPE and reintegrate them into the NAB show.
His observation was that the audience at NATPE had evolved somewhat and that many of the content folks there had scattered about, and that it would be a win-win for them to return to Vegas every April for the show.