Committed to moving the show from Amsterdam to Barcelona, Integrated Systems Events has been monitoring the conditions in Europe since the beginning of pandemic, declared right after the 2020 edition took place in The Netherlands for the last time. Since then ISE has worked hard to balance health and safety concerns with the need for commerce and in-person interactions and its commitment to promote the show in a completely new venue and new city, for the very first time. "These two factors have had shifting weight throughout the calendar year and although we’ve felt confident and hopeful regarding delivering this show in February, we’ve come to the conclusion that the best option for all of us is to delay the show edition until June 2021," says Mike Blackman, Managing Director, Integrated Systems Events.
"The health and safety of our team, exhibiting companies, industry partners and attendees is our number one priority. Given the understandable concerns among all of our stakeholders regarding coronavirus, and the uncertainty regarding travel restrictions and country lockdowns, we have concluded it is not prudent to maintain our original schedule of an in-person February 2021 trade show.”
"From our many conversations, it is clear the industry can’t wait to get back together doing business face to face and we are committed to delivering an engaging and safe in-person ISE in 2021. We feel by moving the event to June, it provides time for the industry to adapt and restore balance. We look forward to hosting the global AV community in our new home in Barcelona."
Fira de Barcelona Chairman, Pau Relat, comments: “From Fira de Barcelona we highly value ISE’s strong commitment to Barcelona and, in moments as complex as the current ones, the decision to postpone the event for a few months in order to ensure the best possible edition with the largest international participation of companies and visitors, will be very positive both for attendees and for the city. We will keep on working together to ensure that a leading event such as the ISE has a great first edition in its new home in Barcelona in 2021."
Curiously, AVIXA, an ISE sharholder, is also committed to promoting the InfoComm show in June 2021, in Orlando. "AVIXA is proud to be a partner with CEDIA in delivering ISE to the audiovisual industry each year. We full support ISE’s decision to postpone the first show in Barcelona until June 2021. This isn’t a trivial undertaking and has thousands of moving parts, but in making this decision, ISE reaffirms their commitment to the health of all those who participate in these events from the taxi cab driver to the exhibitor teams. And all of those same people will be even more committed to be a part of the extravaganza that ISE promises to be," says David Labuskes, CEO, AVIXA.
"We are eager to gather as a community once again at ISE 2021, the decision to postpone was made after careful and thorough consideration. We know moving the show to June will provide the time and resource needed to ensure the show is both safe to attend and can deliver on the exceptional experience that ISE is known for, fostering opportunities to learn, discover, and be inspired by the technology that is driving our industry forward," adds Tabatha O’Connor, CEDIA CEO.
In a statement to UK-based AV Magazine, Blackman admits that holding both InfoComm and ISE in the same month of June will not be a problem since they are already assuming that the two shows in 2021 will have a limited regional scope, since "a lot of the American companies who participate in the show from the USA will have difficulties in participating or have concerns about participating. At this stage they are concerned about travel. That’s one of the biggest issues, and the same goes the other way around for European companies who won’t be able to get to the US.”
Holding purely online events is also the planned "last-resource" in case the pandemic situation doesn't allow any traveling to Barcelona at all. More updates about Integrated Systems Europe and the planned digital initiatives will be continuously updated.
www.iseurope.org
Integrated Systems Europe 2021
Fira Gran Via, Barcelona
June 1-4
