Speaking at an impressively staged conference minutes before the opening of the Integrated Systems Europe 2011 show floors yesterday, Mike Blackman – managing director of Integrated Systems Events – announced that pre-registrations had already passed the 30,000 mark.
By the close of business of Thursday, Blackman predicted, total visitor registrations were likely to stand at around 34,000. This would be 19% higher than last year and an all-time high for the ISE event.
At the start of his address, Blackman quoted the American statesman Henry Kissinger’s dictum: “Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.” It was a preface to the observation that ISE’s visitors and the organisation itself were setting increasingly expectations from each successive event. People were coming from all over the world and “we need to satisfy them” he said.
Key statistics from his address included: 715 exhibitors (+12%); 330 press (+22%) and 26,650 sq metres of floor space (+17%). Blackman was up-front in pointing out that a percentage of the quoted floor space was given over to aisles but also highlighted the increasing sophistication of the stands themselves, some of which are double-deckers this year.
The ISE event is not just growing, it attracted 150 new exhibitors, many from China and elsewhere in Asia. The exhibitors are drawn from 34 different countries.
