Organisers of ISE have credited supporting conferences for helping to attract a record number of exhibitors and thousands of visitors to the Amsterdam show.
A total of 952 companies are exhibiting this year, representing an increase of more than 6% on last year’s figure. More than 200 of those companies are new to ISE and the show will occupy more than 36,000 net square metres for the first time.
“We’ve been drawing a parallel between ISE and the B2B magazines that support us as media partners,†ISE MD Mike Blackman explained.
“If ISE were a magazine, the exhibitor stands on our show floor would be our advertising. Like a magazine, that’s where we derive the bulk of our revenue, but also like a magazine, we can only grow if we develop editorial content – and that’s been our big focus this year.â€
By ‘editorial content’, Blackman is referring to the supporting conferences, education sessions, networking opportunities and other ‘event experience’ enhancements.
In the case of ISE 2014, there are more of these offered at the event than ever before. The day before the show saw hundreds of delegates attend the Smart Building Conference, Investor Showcase and Audio Forum pre-show events, followed by the opening keynote address, ‘Kick-Starting the Market for Building Automation’, by Cisco’s Dr Dirk Schlesinger. On the show days themselves, the content theme will be picked up in two new show-floor Theatres, showcasing Commercial and Residential Solutions respectively and between them hosting more than 40 free-to-attend, non-technical seminars from 11am each day.