ISE MD Mike Blackman On The Show's Widening Appeal

Mike Blackman, Managing Director of Integrated Systems Events, talks about ISE 2020, and why the show has become the ‘must attend’ event for users of AV technology as well as for AV industry professionals.

ISE has enjoyed year-on-year growth since it began. Will ISE 2020 be the biggest and best yet?

Unquestionably. At the last ISE, we had over 81,000 visitors – and we expect more in 2020. In 2019, we had 56,100 sqm of net exhibit space, and that will increase in 2020 by over 800 sqm.

Two important changes for this year are that the Hall 5 extension has been made larger and permanent, while Hall 14 will be the home of a new Innovation Zone – a specially designed area for companies that are new to ISE to showcase their technology. The ISE Main Stage theatre will relocate to Hall 14, and will offer a full programme of free-to-attend thought leadership and best practice sessions from ISE, AVIXA, CEDIA and AV Magazine.

Following the success of our spectacular projection mapping on the nhow Hotel during ISE 2019, there will be another exciting projection showcase on another part of the RAI complex.

Our Opening Address will be given by Duncan Wardle, former Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney. He has some really interesting ideas about how all businesses can tap into their resources of imagination and creativity, and I’m really looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

What’s new in the way of conferences and professional development?

All the conferences held at ISE 2019 will be back in 2020 – covering smart buildings, XR, digital signage, digital cinema, hospitality, visitor attractions, stadiums and pro audio, plus AVIXA’s two What's Next... conferences, focusing on enterprise and higher education. In addition, we have a couple of new ones – the Control Rooms Summit and the CEDIA Design & Build Conference. Like in 2019, many of the conferences will be held at the Hotel Okura, near the RAI, which proved very popular with our attendees.