As we go to press, a reported 1400 people attended a plucky CEDIA, NAB and Enterprise Connect are cancelled, and AVIXA CEO David Labruskes is 99.999% sure InfoComm will happen. Dave Labuskes said the decision to cancel these events has not and will not impact the decisions made around InfoComm 2021.
“If there’s anything we’ve learned in the last two years, it’s that nobody has the ability to say anything with certainty anymore,” Labuskes said. “What I will tell you is that, short of the local government of Orlando, or Orange County, or Florida, or the federal government of the United States telling us that we are violating the law in having an event, we will be having InfoComm.
Labuskes noted that there are two purposes set forth by AVIXA’s board of directors: “The first is to act as a catalyst for market growth, and the second is to be the hub for the AV profession,” he said. “I can’t imagine that Saturday morning reflection of not recognizing that we had served both of those missions over the previous week.”
Labuskes went on to say, “There is no greater physical manifestation of the marketplace than a tradeshow. Nor is there a greater physical manifestation of community than that tradeshow.”
He added, “Throughout all of those conversations [at a recent AVIXA board planning meeting, for example], community becomes a part of it. I know that 2021 is not the year for everybody to be either in the show or at the show, and I respect their decision and anxiously look forward to seeing them in 2022, both personally and professionally.”
NAB indicated that part of the calculation for their cancellation was the complexity of health and safety precautions at the LVCC, which NAB does not control and are subject to county and state regulations. The OCCC took a different tack and allows each of the event producers to set their own regulations for attendees. Obviously the surrounding area, airport facilities, restaurants, Uber drivers, and potentially OCCC staff, will be operating under the state guidelines, which do not require masks, vaccinations, or tests. TSA is still requiring masks.
AVIXA will require masks of all attendees as well as proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test within the previous five days. Documentation of these requirements will be checked through an app called Health Pass, and information about the app and other conditions will be outlined in emails upon registering for the event. The show will provide COVID-19 testing on-site for those who require and/or need testing. InfoComm has many health and safety protocols outlined on its website for the safety of its attendees and exhibitors.
For those of you reading this in the digital edition, you can listen to a full, one-hour interview, in which Labuskes discusses and unpacks decisions for some companies to cancel, some to change their presence, and how many others have committed to exhibit, as well as the broader topic of holding InfoComm in October.
