ISE delivers despite challenging backdrop
- Details
Politicians and executives saluted the venue and the city of Amsterdam while looking ahead to the future, with the tradeshow set to move to the Fira de Barcelona for its 2021 edition.
Despite health concerns brought about by the coronavirus outbreak and major travel disruption caused by Storm Ciara, ISE 2020 took place as planned, but with markedly lower attendance of 52,128 unique visitors compared to 81,268 in 2019.
Mike Blackman, MD of Integrated Systems Events, comments: “This year’s show demonstrated to us just how determined our attendees were to come to ISE. Many of our exhibitors exceeded their targets for customer engagement and lead generation. The show has delivered on all fronts: as the global industry’s biggest annual forum, as a launchpad for new solutions, as a place to do business, and as a source of professional development and education.”
On the Main Stage, jointly organised by ISE, AVIXA, CEDIA and AV Magazine, expert speakers offered thought leadership on a wide range of topics. The largest AV Career Day ever also took place at the show, with over 170 students and faculty from 12 different universities across five countries taking part in the event, organised by AVIXA and CEDIA. Presentations, discussions and show floor visits gave participants a real flavour of the wide variety of career paths that the industry has to offer.
Dave Labuskes, chief executive officer of AVIXA, comments: “Having now had a few days to reflect on our last ISE in Amsterdam, I am struck by the sheer determination and enthusiasm our AV industry friends and colleagues showed last week. In the face of significant challenges, thousands of people still made the trip to the show, attended conferences and took part in the networking events, awards and parties, and engagement across the show floor was meaningful and important.”
Tabatha O’Connor, CEO of CEDIA, adds: “ISE 2020 has been our best ever show. Our Professional Development programme proved to be the most popular yet with registrations at an all-time high. As part of that programme, we ran our first, dedicated conference for architects and interior designers which was a phenomenal success.”
In preparation for ISE 2021 in Barcelona, over 80 Spanish professionals from a broad cross-section of vertical markets were invited to ISE 2020 as part of the event’s Special Interest Group programme. Supported by ACCIO, ICEX and Grupo Eventoplus they took part in a special programme of tours, presentations and networking functions, culminating in the ¡Hola Barcelona! event on the show’s final day.
ISE 2021 will take place at the Gran Via - Fira de Barcelona on 2-5 February 2021.
(Jim Evans)
