Statistics on the exhibition industry are now widespread, which is why, with a quick Google, I can tell you that next year the industry will ‘hit a new peak above its previous peak in 2007 by about 3.5 per cent’. Thanks CEIR research.
UFI’s studies, meanwhile, reveal that ‘260 million visitors per year attend exhibitions’. We’re a big deal as an industry, basically.
But, while statistics are important for getting a sense of scale, ‘being there’ is when it really counts.
While the average person can cite many of the world’s ‘tallest’ buildings, another quick Google search, this time for the world’s ‘largest buildings by volume’ reveals that three of the top ten are broadly dedicated to events.
With online content and advertising, print, and digital radio, the modern exhibition, far from being a dying medium, seems more omnipresent than ever.
Indeed, walking through the Singapore subway recently, I noticed flocks of business people readying themselves for ITB Asia at Marina Bay Sands, as posters for another upcoming exhibition, the Singapore International Robo Expo 2017, towered above their heads.
Later that day, my smartphone showed adverts for two upcoming London exhibitions, proving once again that this industry is all around us and its presence, the statistics show, will only widen.
It’s always humbling then, to attend an UFI Congress, and be among a cross section of the handful of people who make these events so popular, before I see their events live, in person.
If a picture paints a thousand words, being somewhere physically captures a thousand pictures. EW
