by Mary Bakija
All signs are pointing up for the AV integration business. If the InfoComm 2011 Show is any indication, business is starting to get back to the pre-recession days, but cautiously. With more than 900 exhibitors and 475,000-plus net square feet of exhibits, demo rooms, and special events, the show is likely to match last year’s show in Las Vegas, but it is also likely to be the largest InfoComm Show ever in Orlando.
“I think tradeshows express what’s going on in the industry,” says Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D., executive director and CEO, InfoComm International. “When we dropped back in registrations in the past, what we heard were from people was that they were cutting back on expenses by reducing the number of people they sent to the show, and we haven’t heard as much of that this year.”
One major draw for those attendees is education, and this year’s show provides a number of opportunities for people to bring a wealth of knowledge back to their businesses. Educational courses and demos are as big—if not bigger—than last year. “We have a lot of the old favorites back, but we’ve tried to make it more robust across the board with what’s newest in the industry that needs to be communicated,” Lemke explains. “We’ve really done a lot to go out and get new and different courses.”
