As part of yesterday’s ISE 2017 Opening Ceremony, Kajsa Ollongren, deputy mayor of Amsterdam, gave a speech in which she described how the show will provide inspiration for the Amsterdam Smart City project: “You are going to help us with finding solutions for crowd control, for issues of sustainability, and in becoming one of the smartest cities in the world.”
She then joined a group of senior executive representatives of ISE, CEDIA, InfoComm International, the ISE board and the RAI Amsterdam in cutting a ribbon to mark the official opening of ISE 2017. Pictured (L-R) are Craig Janssen, Dave Labuskes, Tobias Lang, Ollie French, Wolfgang Lenz, Vin Bruno, Ollongren, Maurits van de Sluis, Paul Riemens, Mike Blackman, Wendy Griffiths, Dennis Erskine, Terry Friesenborg and Tony Warner.
A little earlier, the pre-show press conference saw ISE managing director Mike Blackman quote some impressive statistics about this year’s biggest-ever show. Of the more than 69,000 people who had registered beforehand, 35% have never been to ISE before – paying testament to the event’s ability to reach new markets. These visitors, 20% of whom are from outside Europe, hail from a total of 176 countries. The 1193 exhibitors, representing 47 countries, are occupying 47,200sqm (net) of stand space in the show’s 14 halls.
