L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona) (EFE).- King Felipe VI chaired this Tuesday the inauguration of Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), the largest audiovisual fair in the world, which expects to exceed 52,000 attendees gathered in 2020 in Amsterdam ( Holland), which was the last pre-covid edition and also the last before moving to Barcelona.
The Minister for Business and Labor, Roger Torrent, nor the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, did not attend the protocol greeting with the monarch, who did later join the authorities’ walk through the various pavilions of the Fira Barcelona venue in Gran Via de L’Hospitalet.
The authorities that have participated in the first greeting have been the Minister of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, who has come instead of the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, as initially planned; the Government delegate in Catalonia, Maria Eugènia Gay; the mayoress of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Núria Marín; the president of Fira de Barcelona, Pau Relat; and ISE CEO Mike Blackman.
After the greeting, the authorities have begun the tour, with an expected duration of about two hours, through the different pavilions, passing through the spaces of companies such as Lutron, Google, Shure, Panasonic, Matrox, Equipson or Alfalita.
Arriving at Hall 4, the king will be received by the organizers of the IoT Solutions World Congress, an event that can be attended
access for free with the ISE ticket -and vice versa-, the same as happened last year.
The first unrestricted ISE in Barcelona
In statements to journalists prior to the opening, Blackman explained that the event has 68,000 registered congressmen, although this does not imply that this is the final number of attendees, as well as 1,055 exhibiting companies present.
Last year, 30% of those registered did not finally attend the congress, while the number of registered persons who do not attend the fair is usually between 15% and 20%, he assured. The influx of people at the entrance to the Fira venue, however, has been reminiscent of images prior to the pandemic.
In any case, the ISE expects to exceed 52,000 congressmen for the 2020 edition, the last before the pandemic and also the last in Amsterdam, although the final figure will be below its record, the 80,000 people gathered in 2019.
The 2023 edition of this audiovisual fair, which aims to equal the size of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in the future, will be the first to be held in Barcelona without restrictions due to covid-19. Last year the event was held in May due to the impact of the omicron variant -which forced it to be suspended in February- and brought together more than 43,000 people.
The ISE will remain in Barcelona at least until 2025, as there is an automatic renewal clause in the contract signed with Fira whereby an eventual end of the relationship must be announced three editions in advance, Blackman told EFE.
