Wow, well we have to say that we were most impressed and literally blown away by InfoComm 08 [1] in Las Vegas last week. Whilst we are still trying to get over the jet lag we will definitely be booking our tickets to Florida for next year’s event…
2009 Orlando, Florida
Conference: June 13-19
Exhibition: June 17-19 (Wed. – Fri.)
Those digital signage vendors who are less-enterprise led than others will have done really well at this show and it was great to see so many of the big guys in attendance.
Interesting to see the press release below…
InfoComm 08 Largest Pro AV Tradeshow in History
Industry Growth Fuels Growth in Exhibitors, Education Enrollees, and More
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – June 20, 2008 — InfoComm International® today released preliminary figures showing record participation at InfoComm 08, the largest annual conference and exhibition for audiovisual buyers and sellers worldwide, in Las Vegas, June 18-20, 2008.
Reflecting strong demand for AV communications technologies in business, education and government as well as the retail, healthcare, entertainment, worship markets, attendance at the exhibition so far has topped 34,600. AV professionals from 93 countries attended to see the latest technologies in display, projection, audio, collaborative conferencing, control and networking applications. This reflects a 9.5 percent increase over last year’s record attendance.
A record 988 exhibitors participated at InfoComm this year, representing more than a 15 percent increase over the previous record of 855 in 2007. Exhibitors occupied more than 500,000 net square feet of exhibit and special events space, compared to 465,000 net square feet in 2007. There are 231 new exhibitors at this year’s show.
“InfoComm 08 reflects the fast pace of innovations and growth in the AV communications industry,” said Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D., InfoComm International Executive Director. “We introduced new courses and exhibitors this year to address the demand for digital signage, audio, and telepresence technology, as well as high definition products, lighting and staging and more. The NSCA Expo also was incorporated into our show for the first time, and we were pleased to debut the Electronic Systems Pavilion, along with the rest of the Expo’s traditional activities.”
InfoComm is attended by AV dealers, independent reps, design consultants, systems integrators, rental and staging companies, and AV buyers from business, government, education, healthcare, retail, entertainment and the worship market. Approximately 70 percent of the attendees are commercially involved in the industry, with the remaining 30 percent comprising specifiers, buyers and end users.
Whilst both DS Expo and Screen Expo definitely have a place to play in this exhibition space we do think that signage will become more mainstream and be an integral part of the much larger events like this (DS Expo and Screen Expo count 2,000 – 3,000 visitors whereas Infocomm boasted that amazing figure of 34,600)