AV-related Trade Shows Are Back On This Fall, And They Seem To Be Thriving

September 18, 2024 by Dave Haynes

The trade show season is very much back on after a summer break, and the events that touch on pro AV and digital signage directly or by extension seem to be thriving – most notably the giant IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.

The 100th edition of IFA Berlin attracted more than 215,000 visitors from 138 countries, and had more than 1,800 exhibitors showing off their innovations and product evolutions in consumer electronics and home appliances. Attendance was up 18 percent from last year, with bumps in numbers most notably from the United States, Italy, France, Poland, Korea and the United Kingdom. There is a category of attendees called trade visitors – people who paid to get broader access to B2B areas and elements.

I assume that means people who were there to do more than gawk at the latest gadgets.

CES in as Vegas at the start of the year is often talked up as THE electronics trade show, but IFA is much bigger in foot traffic. CES in 2024 attracted roughly 138,000, but arguably much more media attention than IFA. It can’t say biggest, so CES describes itself as the most powerful tech event in the world.

In both cases, the merits of digital signage and DOOH people going to either show can be debated. I have been to CES and left Las Vegas wondering why I put myself through all the crowds, lines and ratcheted-up prices to see new TVs and a parade of dubious gadgets that rarely get mainstreamed.

The International Broadcasting Convention, mostly known as IBC, just ended in Amsterdam on Monday, with 45,000 visitors from 170 countries. It is a broadcasting and content trade show that also attracts pro AV people because of the use of commercial displays and related tech.

Attendance was up by about 2,000 people from a year earlier, and there were 1,350 exhibitors, up roughly 100 from 2023.

InfoComm India 2024 ran at the start of the month in Mumbai, with the 10th edition logging 10,867 unique attendees, a 17% increase bump from 2023.

AVIXA, which owns the show, says there was 80% increase in same-show return visitors and nearly 30% of the visitors were technology end users.

I can’t find any post-show information about the connected home/resimercial (another cringey, invented term) CEDIA Expo, at the start of the month in Denver, which had a co-located Commercial Integrator Expo.