NAB Show Cancels due to delta

[Jay Ashworth]

While it's only theater-adjacent, it's still probably news that one of the largest national tradeshows in the year, the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas has announced they're cancelling until 2022. The show was in October -- next month -- so this is news.

That's probably only the first domino.

 

[GoxBoxSocks]

This cancelation is worth noting but I don't think it's fair to speculate this as "theater-adjacent...the first domino." Trade shows are a huge part of this industry but a very specific beast with multiple vendors and 100s-1000s of individual attendees all traveling into whatever major hub city.

The big draw of trades is to shake hands and rub elbows and I just don't see that fully coming back into the fold in our 6' separated world.

 

[MNicolai]

Definitely not the first domino. Lot of major manufacturers pulled out of CEDIA causing their show to collapse. Think there was another show that had issues too but I can't think of it off the top of my head.

Infocomm keeps trying to reassure people but this year will be light on vendors, seminars, and attendees. Some manufacturers have pulled out, but many who are traditionally there simply never booked for this year in the first place so they don't have to worry about non-refundable booth expenses. Florida's supposed to be coming down off the COVID peak well before end of October, but I'm still half-expecting Infocomm to get cancelled. They're going to keep sending out discount deals and reassurances to try to get people to register, and if it's apparent attendees aren't going to show up, they may have to cancel and eat their financial losses.

Beyond COVID, there's also a very practical point that makes having trade shows this fall moot. Everyone's on backorder and fighting supply chain issues. Any "new" products won't be shipping in any real volume until next year's round of tradeshows. Don't expect to see anything new at LDI that will be shipping in large volume before USITT. And Infocomm this year was delayed from June into end of October. Same issue. Manufacturers are on 4-6 month backorders, so if you order a product around this year's Infocomm, you might get it just before next year's regularly scheduled Infocomm.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

LDI. Avixa, or whatever they've been smart enough to rename it back to.

But yes, I meant trade-show-adjacent on that point. This show simply happens to be closer to home than, say, the RV World Expo.

 

[MNicolai]

A few years back Infocomm segregated their certification/standards body from the tradeshow brand. The umbrella organization for standards, market intelligence, and industry training was rebranded to AVIXA, but the tradeshow has remained Infocomm.

 

[Footer]

This cancelation is worth noting but I don't think it's fair to speculate this as "theater-adjacent...the first domino." Trade shows are a huge part of this industry but a very specific beast with multiple vendors and 100s-1000s of individual attendees all traveling into whatever major hub city.

The big draw of trades is to shake hands and rub elbows and I just don't see that fully coming back into the fold in our 6' separated world.

Shows are cancelling. We lost 3 bookings this week. Ticket sales are total crap right now. Filling calls is next to impossible. We are losing shows way faster then we are booking new ones. This is not sustainable.