If you haven’t heard, Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) is officially moving from Feb. 2-5, 2021 to June 1-4, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. AVNetwork sat down with Joé Lloyd, AVIXA’s senior director of communications, to hear the latest information on ISE 2021 and InfoComm 2021.
“Research shows us that people definitely want to get back to face-to-face meetings,” said Lloyd. “While everybody has their own personal timeline of when that will happen, the majority of people feel like May/June is the time of year that people will be able to come back together.”
“As an organization, we’ll be able to bring AV professionals back together in that timeframe,” she continued. “There will be a show in Asia, a show in Europe, and a show in North America, all in a timeframe that our audiences have told us that they want to get together.”
Lloyd added that AVIXA is trying to bring back face-to-face meetings in a safe way, rejuvenating the industry and the community, but always keeping the safety of all of those who take part in their events—from attendees to exhibitors to staff, and even the hotel, restaurant, transit, and other workers in the local communities—at the forefront of plans.
While two major industry trade shows taking place in the same month may create a conundrum for some AV professionals, Lloyd pointed out that the audiences do not overlap as much as you might think. “From a U.S. perspective, we look at ISE as our show, just in another country,” she said. “But what’s interesting is that when you look at the attendee breakdown, these really are regionalized shows.”
According to AVIXA and ISE, less than 5 percent of ISE attendees in 2019 were from the United States, and less than 11 percent of InfoComm 2019 attendees were from outside of the Americas.
The two shows “are not competitive,” Lloyd claims. While ISE caters to both the residential and commercial markets, InfoComm focuses solely on pro AV. According to ISE’s data, 53.7 percent of ISE attendees focus solely on the pro AV market, with 38.7 percent focused on both commercial and residential. “InfoComm is pro AV all the way,” Lloyd said.
“InfoComm is not moving [because of the ISE date change],” Lloyd said firmly. “The show, with all of our best intentions, is happening in June. We’re moving full steam ahead with a fabulous show and it’s happening June 12–18, with the exhibit hall open June 16–18.”
For more information on ISE 2021, visit www.iseurope.org.
For more information on InfoComm 2021, visit www.infocommshow.org.
