AVIXA announced this morning that InfoComm 2020, the largest annual pro AV show in North America, is being canceled due to “concern for the health and safety of our exhibitors, attendees, partners and staff.”
To be clear, the 2020 edition of the show—set for June 13 to 19 in Las Vegas—will not be rescheduled for some time later in 2020. AVIXA leadership alluded to creating some sort of virtual component for the event, but no plans were specifically announced.
Enterprise Connect announced last week it will host virtual keynotes for its 2020 event, which was rescheduled from March in Orlando, Fla., to August in San Francisco due to concerns about the coronavirus outbreak.
“We are currently considering new options to bring to life the engaging and educational experiences of the show in a number of different ways,” the AVIXA announcement says.
Here’s more from this morning’s announcement from AVIXA management about InfoComm 2020:
A show like InfoComm begins months before the first crate arrives with attendees arranging calendars, booking flights, and setting meetings.
It begins with exhibitors launching marketing campaigns, committing to venues for events, designing their booths and coordinating dozens if not hundreds of staff calendars.
It also begins with our speakers and instructors spending countless hours honing their content and rehearsing.
However, we were forced to make the painful choice to take away this gathering opportunity and return time, money and effort to our community, to be spent on sustaining each other through this trial, and to position all of the industry for recovery and resurgence.
We look forward to working with you over the coming months as the world responds to and then recovers from this crisis. And we most sincerely look forward to seeing you at InfoComm 2021 in Orlando.
InfoComm has attracted more than 40,000 attendees to its June shows in Orlando and Las Vegas for the past several years. Those attendance numbers have included an increased emphasis on end users. InfoComm 2021 is scheduled for June 12-18 in Orlando.
“This was not a decision we made lightly but with careful consideration and as advised by public health authorities,” said AVIXA CEO Dave Labuskes in the association’s announcement.
“Thankfully, we did not have to make it alone and are grateful to our InfoComm community, exhibitor advisory committee, education committees, and so many others who supported our desire to not jeopardize the livelihoods and long-term gains of the industry,” he said.
“InfoComm is not just an AVIXA trade show,” said Labuskes in the AVIXA announcement. “It is the industry’s show and it is important that we move forward to the benefit of the entire community.”
InfoComm “has always provided a one-of-a-kind experience for both its exhibitors and attendees,” he said. “We knew that in today’s environment we could not fully deliver on those experiences and consequently could not move forward.
“More importantly, keeping the community safe and healthy is our highest priority; therefore, we are following the guidelines of public health authorities during the ongoing challenges posed by COVID-19,” said Labuskes.
This article was originally published on our sister publication Commerical Integrator‘s website.
