Once again, a highly successful edition of Integrated Systems Europe has put the professional AV and systems integration community into an optimistic frame of mind for the year.
The visitor attendance figure across the four days of ISE 2017 was 73,413 – an 11.7% increase on last year and another show record. Attendees came from 150 different countries, with exhibitors seeing a notable increase in the number of attendees from outside Europe. Integrated Systems Events managing director Mike Blackman commented: “One of our big exhibitors told me they gathered 16,000 leads during the show, and almost 8,000 of them were from outside Europe. It’s very encouraging to see that kind of growth – and it reflects the show’s importance to the industry.”
With key focuses on digital signage, unified communications, audio, smart building, residential and education technology, the show featured 1,192 AV equipment vendors and service suppliers across 14 halls of the RAI Amsterdam – 202 of which were making their first appearance at the show.
But ISE 2017 was much more than just an exhibition: it also featured conferences, seminars, awards and networking opportunities. The professional education programme was spearheaded by CEDIA and InfoComm International, the two professional associations that jointly own ISE. Covering residential and commercial markets respectively, they produced their most extensive, and most successful European development programmes to date.
“It was a fantastic ISE 2017 for InfoComm, but more importantly, it was an industry-affirming show for the AV industry as a whole,” said David Labuskes, CTS, CAE, RCDD, executive director and CEO of InfoComm International. “As ISE and all our InfoComm shows worldwide demonstrate, this is a vibrant, growing, global community. We’re committed to being a catalyst for market growth, and the week of ISE 2017 showed we’re on the right track.”
“ISE 2017 has been the biggest and best year yet for CEDIA. We expanded our education offering and doubled bookings to more than 800,” said Vin Bruno, CEDIA CEO. “ISE 2017 also gave us a great opportunity to connect with so many of our members from around the globe. Our booth was continuously busy especially during the CEDIA Talks. The show was a huge success and we can’t wait for next year.”
Preparatory work is already underway on ISE 2018, which will take place at the RAI Amsterdam on 6-9 February. Said Blackman: “We’re looking to accommodate some more new exhibitors – there were some we had to turn away this year.
“There’s still a lot of planning to do on the markets we want to specialise on and some of the show features. We’re carrying out our review of the show at the moment, and based on that we’ll make our decisions on areas that we can make even better. There will also be new features and new ideas. Watch this space!”
