Integrated Systems Events and co-owners AVIXA and CEDIA have announced that this year’s ISE 2021 event will be replaced by a ISE Live & Online, a series of regional events in Barcelona, Munich, Amsterdam and London which will be supported by a Cisco-powered digital offering.
The decision has been made due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and global travel restrictions, with the new regional format taking the place of the traditional in-person large trade show.
In the official announcement, ISE managing director Mike Blackman explained, “We have reached this decision following extensive discussions with our exhibitors over the last few months, and more explicitly, these last 10 days. All along there has been a clear demand for a four-day ISE show in Barcelona in June. However, uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and international travel remains, which means we are unable to run ISE 2021 in its traditional format. Our exhibitors have made it clear that there is a desire to get the industry together, but on a local level. In response, we are targeting Europe’s key markets across the AV sector and aim to deliver a quality audience who want to meet potential suppliers, existing customers and network with their peers.”
ISE Live & Online takes on a roadshow format throughout June allowing localised access to ISE 2021 at four regional hubs:
- 1-2 June, Fira Barcelona (Tue/Wed)
- 8-9 June, MAC Forum, Munich (Tue / Wed)
- 15-16 June, RAI, Amsterdam (Tue/Wed)
- 23-24 June, Evolution, Battersea, London (Wed/Thurs)
Blackman continued, “For 2021, we have a rich and exciting digital offering. We are proud to be working with Cisco on this innovative approach. We will be bringing ISE to four cities in June and continuing with our popular RISE Spotlight programme throughout the year. Working with the industry in this way, we will be providing meaningful opportunities for sales teams to meet their customers, for people to experience product innovations, and of course, for networking.”
“Covid has taught us all to listen more attentively,” added David Labuskes, AVIXA CEO. “Listen to our neighbours, our family, our co-workers, our customers and our market. I believe this approach reflects what we’ve heard, a strong desire for prudent and safe face-to-face gatherings that can reinforce business connections and initiate growth. We are honoured to be in a position to offer these to our community.”
Giles Sutton, joint CEO of CEDIA, said, “Everyone in the industry is missing the human interaction that is such a vital part of our industry – the opportunity not just to see, hear and touch new products and innovations in our sector but also everything that ISE brings in terms of learning, networking and that all important sense of community. The ISE team has worked tirelessly to ensure that guidelines could be in place to protect our exhibitors and visitors on-site. However, there remains uncertainty around current travel restrictions and the ability for our global audience to take part in person. The success of ISE has been built on broad industry support and that is the reason why we have taken these decisions this week. We look forward to a debut show where our community can all be together again in Barcelona in February 2022.”Mike Blackman concluded: “We have been humbled by the many messages of support that we have received from our customers and partners who have appreciated the steps we have taken. We look forward to continuing to serve the industry in the year ahead and cannot wait to come back together in Barcelona, delivering the ISE show in February 2022.”
As recently as March 10th, ISE was still considering a full show after public cancelations by the March 5th deadline appeared to be light.
March 10, 2021 — Daktronics and PPDS (formerly Philips Professional Display Solutions) have become the latest major industry players to confirm they will not be attending ISE 2021, following announcements by Sharp NEC and Tripleplay last week.
ISE had announced at the beginning of last week that the 2021 show will go ahead in Barcelona from 1-4 June but gave exhibitors until 5 March to cancel or reduce their booking without any penalty.
With the deadline to cancel now past, only a few companies have stated publicly that they will not be attending the show.. ISE has separately issued statements of support from biamp, Christie, Lang AG, Panasonic and syscomtec Distribution.
Daktronics confirmed the decision in a LinkedIn post saying “Daktronics has decided not to exhibit at Integrated Systems Europe 2021, scheduled for June in Barcelona. This was a difficult decision based on many factors, including the ongoing uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, including travel restrictions and lockdowns to vaccine distribution and the overall safety of our employees and customers.”
PPDS general manager Chris Colpaert, said: “The feedback we have received following our first and very successful PPDS Next virtual event last week has proven without a doubt that, for this year, more localized, hybrid events are a more popular choice for our customers, partners and colleagues. ISE is an important event for us at PPDS and we very much look forward to welcoming all of our community onto our booth each year, so we are incredibly disappointed to confirm that, for 2021, we will not be taking a stand to showcase our Philips professional displays.”
