ISE 2021 will still go ahead in June says show chief

ISE managing director, Mike Blackman, has issued a statement reaffirming the show’s commitment to go ahead as planned in June, following last week’s announcement that US show InfoComm will be postponed from June until October 2021.

Both InfoComm and ISE are owned by trade body AVIXA, which confirmed last week that InfoComm 2021 will now take place from October 23-29 in Orlando, Florida, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The InfoComm announcement was quickly followed by the following statement from Blackman:

Dear ISE community,

Following today’s announcement that the InfoComm 2021 show will now take place in Orlando in October 2021, we want to confirm that Integrated Systems Europe, remains scheduled to open live and online on 1-4 June 2021 in its new home at the Fira, Barcelona.

Whilst we recognise there continue to be challenges ahead, we are in touch with government and the relevant health authorities to constantly monitor the situation. None of us can predict how the situation will look in June, but we are hopeful that by the second quarter of 2021 we will see the world return to a new ‘normal’ with vaccines being rapidly delivered in many countries around the world.

We understand our exhibitors and partners need to make commitments that will incur cost and we do not wish to burden them unnecessarily. For this reason, if circumstances impact our ability to host an in-person event and we are forced to cancel this element of ISE, we will make this decision by 1 March.

With the backdrop of the global pandemic, our priority in recent months has been devising the means to deliver a safe and secure event for all exhibitors and visitors and we have been working closely with the City of Barcelona, the venue and relevant authorities.

In early January, Fira de Barcelona received the ‘Safe Travels’ stamp, an internationally recognised endorsement from the World Travel Tourism Council (WTTC), developed in collaboration with the specialist risk management consultancy Aon and the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.

ISE has also published A Guide to Safe Visiting, outlining the safe practice protocols that have been put in place with the Fira Gran Vía to ensure that the visitor experience is safe and secure. The guide can be located on the ISE website here.

Looking ahead to June, we can confirm that today, over 37,000 sqm of space is signed up with just under 700 exhibitors confirmed and new companies continuing to book their place on the floorplan.

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Next week sees online visitor registration open, coming at a time when we realise the industry is keen to ‘get back to work’ in the second half of the year. Feedback from our recent customer research shows that the industry is looking forward to meeting as soon as the situation allows and we are currently updating the research to measure current sentiment amongst both our exhibitors and visitors.

In a time where many of our industry colleagues are suffering financially or have lost their jobs or businesses, we at ISE are striving to do everything we can to contribute to the industry getting back on its feet.

I would personally like to thank all our customers, partners and colleagues within the industry which we serve and look forward to seeing you again soon.

This year’s ISE show was originally scheduled to take place in February but was pushed back to its current June dates due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Last month, US trade show NAMM took place as a virtual event, with many pro audio participants hailing the importance of trade shows during this time, event if they are held as virtual rather than in-person affairs. The event attracted in excess of 93,000 attendees and over 1,200 participating brands. You can read our breakdown of NAMM 2021 and its key figures here. 

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