POV: InfoComm 2005 Preview:
From an Exhibitor’s View
Apr 1, 2005 12:00 PM,
By Blake Brubaker
With less than three months until this year’s InfoComm, exhibitors are preparing for ICIA’s largest trade show ever.
InfoComm 2005, to be held June 4-10 (with exhibits June 8-10) at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Las Vegas Hilton, will feature more than 700 exhibiting companies displaying more than 10,000 products and occupying nearly 350,000 square feet of exhibit and special events space.
Every year, we look forward to bringing to InfoComm the latest audio, conferencing, control systems, digital signage, display, multimedia, presentation, staging, and video technologies. For a large portion of exhibitors, InfoComm represents the highlight of the year’s AV market product marketing efforts.
As chair of ICIA’s Exhibitors Committee, I am proud to represent ICIA’s exhibitor members who make a significant contribution to the annual success of the association and the show. Together we spend countless hours with the ICIA staff implementing the operational, sales, and marketing plans that will bring together more than 25,000 professionals from more than 70 countries to InfoComm. We meet to discuss future host cities for the show, recommend show rules and policies, and provide feedback to the show management staff on how to keep improving the show for everyone involved.
InfoComm represents for us as exhibitors an opportunity to gain market share for our products, meet with our distribution channel, and generate new sales leads. Some of us use InfoComm to provide technology training for the industry. In addition to the product knowledge shared by technical staff from the booths on the show floor, more than 85 two-hour, product-specific sessions will be featured in this June’s Manufacturers Training program. The program, which has the support of ICIA’s Manufacturers Council, serves as a great complement to the more than 200 InfoComm Academy and partner conference education sessions offered to attendees during the week of the show.
As manufacturers in this growing and vibrant industry, we fully embrace the AV/IT convergence that is taking place in today’s economy. InfoComm is the show where the analog world of human communication applications meets the digital broadband infrastructure. We plan to continue with this theme in the coming years as the importance of being globally connected and creating, sharing, and managing information communications continues to drive the AV market.
For InfoComm to continue meeting the growing needs of the AV industry, we’re reaching out to technology manager buyers from corporate, education, government, healthcare, and worship institutions in North America and encouraging their participation in the show and ICIA. This expansion of the show’s audience in no way diminishes the attention and focus exhibitors pay to the core audience that has been the heart of InfoComm for decades.
This year marks InfoComm’s entry into the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Buyer Program, where key international dealers, distributors, and buyers from around the world will be encouraged to come to Las Vegas and see the show. In addition, we’ve recently announced the addition of a Residential Pavilion to the show floor, and the NextGen Home, along with an education track sponsored by CEDIA, to educate AV integrators about how to do business in the growing residential market.
One of the exciting opportunities for exhibitors to discuss trends in the marketplace is the InfoComm Manufacturers Forum. This year, top executives from leading exhibitors AMX, BARCO, Shure, JVC, and Polycom will participate. The event will be held on Tuesday, June 7 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Las Vegas Hilton Ballroom. This will be our third year conducting the Manufacturers Forum at InfoComm. The session will be moderated by Gary Kayye of Kayye Consulting.
InfoComm continues to lead the way in offering the most comprehensive showcase of technologies, products, and services for the AV industry. On behalf of InfoComm’s exhibitors, I urge you to join us in Las Vegas this June to network with your peers, learn from the industry’s experts, and see the state-of-the-art products on the show floor that will shape your business’ success in 2005 and beyond.
Blake Brubakeris the director of home theater sales for Da-Lite Screen Company. He serves as chair of the InfoComm Exhibitors Committee.
