Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) opened the doors this morning for the next three days on the 2014 Edition which promises to be the biggest and best ever. Before looking at the details of new products and some of this year’s innovations, we feel it is important to get a bit of perspective and give a mega “Hats Off” to the partners behind this Trade Event that started in 2004, and, in particular, to Mike Blackman, the Managing Director, and all of his staff. If all our companies had growth rates like this we would be more than ecstatic. A few numbers….

The first ISE trade show was held in Geneva, Switzerland in February 2004. It was a joint venture at the time between InfoComm International, CEDIA and NSCA and the show attracted 120 exhibitors and registered just under 3,500 attendees.

Get out your calculators with lots of digits! This year for the 11th Edition there are 952 exhibiting companies, which makes almost 8X the first show, or an increase of 693%. In simple math (well, without compounding), an average of over 60% per year, but to be more “comparative” when compounding, by taking the percentage growth based on the average prior year during the period, that comes to a growth rate of 23% per annum since the beginning.

In terms of attendees, this Edition’s numbers look to be better than last years’ given pre-registration has reached record levels, but even if we make the calculation just based on 45,000, that amounts an increase of 1186%, or a compounded annual growth, on average, of over 29% per annum.

You can check the math, as I get an IRR of 23.0109% for exhibitors and 29.0965% for attendees, but any way you look at it : WOW!

Has your company had that success, particularly in light of the past few years since 2008… BRAVO to all !!!

What is also very significant is that of the 952 exhibiting companies this year over 200 companies are completely new to ISE, giving visitors a wealth of new business opportunities in every technology sector. For the first time, this year’s show will occupy more than 36,000 net square metres.

Mike Blackman, the event’s Managing Director, believes the real story of ISE 2014 lies behind these impressive numbers. “This week we’ve been drawing a parallel between ISE and the B2B magazines that support us as media partners,” Blackman comments. “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.”

“With pre-registration levels indicating that our attendee growth will at least match that of our show floor, we are confident ISE 2014 will be yet another record-breaker,” concludes Blackman. “However, our real achievements are the ways in which we have enhanced our event to make it useful and relevant to new visitor groups, helping to ensure that those who are visiting the show for the first time have a genuine desire to return next year.”

By ‘editorial content’, Blackman is referring to the supporting conferences, education sessions, networking opportunities and other ‘event experience’ enhancements that increasingly define large trade-shows like Integrated Systems Europe.

For example, yesterday, hundreds of delegates attended 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.

The Theatre sessions fall under ISE’s new ‘Professional Development’ education brand, to which the show’s co-owners, CEDIA and InfoComm International, also contribute significantly with their own training programmes. This year InfoComm is offering two free education session vouchers to every ISE attendee, while CEDIA is hosting many new courses as well as exclusive market-research presentations – the latter in the Residential Solutions Theatre.

Elsewhere there is a new Sport Facility Integration Summit on Wednesday 5 February; a new Entrance (F) to reduce congestion and ease access to Halls 7 and 8; a ‘Discovery Zone’ featuring young companies new to ISE, the launch of the show’s ‘M2D’ (‘Manufacturer to Distributor’) match-making portal; and new way-finding systems and information points to guide attendees around an increasingly diverse and colourful show floor.

Enjoy the Show!