It is the end of an era-- 14 February 2020, Valetine's Day, was the final day of ISE at the RAI Amsterdam, a 15-year stay brought to an end with a special ¡Hola Barcelona! event bringing together politicians, executives and attendees in a salute to the RAI and the city of Amsterdam.

ISE 2020 was somewhat subdued compared to previous years. After all, it was held against a backdrop of an international health crisis with the coronavirus (aka Covid-19), not to mention the impact of Storm Ciara on air travel across Europe. According to the organisers, unique ISE 2020 attendees total a respectable 52128, yet down from 81268 in 2019. The cumulative total visits (including repeat visits by individuals on subsequent days) totals 116599-- a much better result than other trade shows like Mobile World Congress which had to cancel/postpone their event.

“This year’s show demonstrated to us just how determined our attendees were to come to ISE," Integrated Systems Events managing director Mike Blackman says. "Many of our exhibitors exceeded their targets for customer engagement and lead generation. The show has delivered on all fronts: as the global industry’s biggest annual forum, as a launchpad for new solutions, as a place to do business, and as a source of professional development and education.”

The 2020 event hosted 14 conferences in two venues addressing a broad range of market verticals. The lineup includes the launch of the Control Rooms Summit and the creation of the Smart Workplace Track, an offshoot of the Smart Building Conference. The AV Career Day event was the largest yet, with over 170 students and faculty from 12 different universities. AVIXA also reports "excellent" attendance for the FlashTrack sessions, 20-minute presentations on key topics across user experience, design, AV-IT and emerging trends, while the CEDIA professional development programme claims an uptake increase of over 50%

Moving on to ISE 2021, the show already has stands booked by over 950 exhibitors, as 61968 square metres of stand space-- or 82% of the available ISE 2021 show floor-- were sold by the end of ISE 2020. This amounts to around 115% of ISE 2020 exhibition floor space. The increase reflects the growing number of vertical markets showing up at ISE, since additional Technology Zones for next year include live events and lighting, broadcast and VR/AR/XR.

ISE 2021 takes place at Gran Via, Fira de Barcelona on 2-5 February 2021.

Go ISE 2020