It seems ever-increasing travel and logistics costs may be developing as a potential obstacle for many would-be attendees to the annual CEDIA Expo and Commercial Integrator Expo (CIX) tradeshows in 2024. Despite attracting combined registration essentially on par with last year’s events, it appears verified attendance experienced a slightly larger drop.
For this year’s tradeshows and conference, held Sept. 4-7 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, the expos report drawing total registration of 15,200+ industry professionals.
That is down slightly – a 2.1% dip – from 2023, which had 15,541.
Meanwhile, verified attendance reportedly clocked in at 12,239 attendees, a 5% drop from a year prior, according to an independent investigation conducted by Strata-Gee.
This year’s numbers reported do not include verified attendance figures, but like last year nearly one-third of registrants were first-time attendees – 31% in 2024 vs. 32% in 2023, which was also staged in Denver.
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CEDIA Expo, CIX 2024 Gets 15% Bump in Exhibitor Attendance
The busy show floor at CEDIA Expo and CIX featured nearly 400 exhibitors including 90 first-time exhibitors. In 2023, the shows had 340 exhibitors, so approximately a 15% bump. Last year saw 94 debut exhibitors.
As the expos note, a significant number of attendees indicated that they serve both residential and commercial markets, or do ‘resimercial’ projects, reflecting the growing crossover opportunities between residential and commercial industries.
“CEDIA Expo 2024 and Commercial Integrator Expo 2024 were bustling with industry professionals experiencing the newest technology and learning about trends in the residential and commercial audiovisual industry,” says Jason McGraw, CTS, group vice president for Emerald.
“The event welcomed new exhibitors, a diverse array of attendees and plethora of opportunities to learn, explore and network. The growing value of hosting an event that bridges residential and commercial technology has proven to create valuable opportunities for collaboration between manufacturers, integrators and other industry service providers. We’re already gearing up for CEDIA Expo and CIX 2025 next September in Denver.”
Tech and Programming Highlights of CEDIA Expo, CIX 2024
Among this year’s conference program, director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black and others) delivered a passionate keynote addressing his thoughts on home theater trends. The keynote included Sonnenfeld’s insights on the contrast between movie production and playback environments, and what integrators can do to elevate their projects.
Standout solutions and continuing category trends such as lighting, power, and microLED were strongly present again this year.
Per the expos and immediately apparent when stepping onto the show floor, one of the major technology themes again this year was microLED displays. At CEDIA Expo and CIX, microLED technology was spotlighted by many companies, including Absen, AOTO, Barco, Digital Projection, Just Video Walls, MaxHub, Planar, Quantum Media, Samsung, Sony, and Stealth Acoustics, among others.
The lighting sector continued to shine, the expos also noted with important debuts by exhibitors such as Lutron and Ketra, DMF Lighting, WAC/AiSPIRE Lighting, Crestron, Coastal Source, Environmental Lights, Proluxe by American Lighting, and many others.
Networking opportunities and special events at the show included CE Pro All-Star Band, CEDIA Awards, CE Pro and Commercial Integrator Awards, CEDIA and Commercial Integrator Expo Conferences, Technology Designer’s Day of Discovery, and the Women in Consumer Technology Luncheon.
CEDIA Expo 2025 and Commercial Integrator Expo 2025 will be held September 3–6, 2025, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.
Updated article following confirmation of verified attendance numbers.
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