This Week’s InfoComm Pulled Just Shy Of 20,000 Attendees, Down Or Up Sharply … Depending On Perspective
June 11, 2022 by Dave Haynes
InfoComm’s return to a fully live show saw just shy of 20,000 attendees passing though the exhibit halls in Las Vegas this week.
AVIXA, the trade association that owns and runs the event, says the show “welcomed 19,681 verified attendees from more than 110 countries and all 50 U.S states, and 522 exhibitors showcased innovative pro AV products and solutions across 294,500 square feet of the trade show floor …”
That’s pretty much the number the organization was forecasting about three weeks ago. It is wildly down from pre-COVID days, but that’s the case with most events across different industries. It is less than half of the 44,000 people who attended in 2019. But it’s a big jump from the sorta live/sorta virtual event run in Orlando in Fall 2021, which had some 7,300 people.
“InfoComm is the only place in North America where the entire ecosystem of the pro AV industry gathers – from manufacturers to distributors to integrators to end users,” says David Labuskes, CEO of AVIXA. “This week we saw thousands of AV professionals make the trip to Las Vegas to learn from each other and experience innovative technology in person. AVIXA is proud to play host to such an incredible group of industry professionals as they spent their week advancing their businesses and careers and gaining inspiration to take home with them.”
“This week has been a celebration of and for our industry – from the trade show floor to the AVIXA council events to our educations sessions,” says Rochelle Richardson, SVP of Expositions and Events, AVIXA. “There are many people and organizations that help make this show possible – the exhibitors, sponsors, attendees, speakers, media, the Las Vegas Convention Center, Freeman, and the AVIXA staff. It’s truly the contributions and collaboration from so many that makes this such an exceptional event.”
Next year the show switches back from the blast furnace of Vegas to the steam bath of Orlando – June 10-16 (Exhibits 14-16) at the Orange County Convention Center.
I don’t think you can read much of anything into this week’s numbers. It felt pretty much like a normal InfoComm, just with fewer people. All the stuff that goes on around the show went on as in the past, from off-site hotel demo rooms to evening after-parties that ranged from small dinners and take-overs of lounges for cocktails to the return of Peerless-AV’s over-the-top nightclub parties.
I am sure they existed, but I didn’t run into any vendors or attendees moaning about how the week played out. I genuinely think a lot of signage and pro AV people just welcomed something that felt like the pre-COVID days, and the ability to see people in person instead of a Microsoft Teams window. It felt normal to me, but I hope I have done my last trade show walking around with a KN94 on my face.
Happy I went … and now I start doing home tests to see if I dodged the virus.
How can it possibly be “UP SHARPLY” ? Infocomm 2022 / IC22 (delete as applicable when AVIXA’s marketing people figure out what the show is actually called) was not even as large as the show back in 2008 !!
From the article: “But it’s a big jump from the sorta live/sorta virtual event run in Orlando in Fall 2021, which had some 7,300 people.”
Hi Adrian, as Jeff also notes in a comment, I was referencing last fall’s InfoComm Lite (my term) that attracted some 7,300 people. A spin doctor could try to say attendance almost tripled from the last InfoComm, but not with a lot of credibility, as that was a limited, partially virtual event also outside the normal late spring schedule.
NRA Chicago Restaurant show baselines for comparison — 1,700+ exhibitors. 600,000 square feet. Over 500 new exhibitors. 100 education sessions. 51,000+ registrants.