The Audio Engineering Society reports that its 121st convention at San Francisco’s Moscone Center concluded on Sunday, October 8 with 17,445 attendees and 420 exhibitors, an 8 percent increase in attendance over the previous show in San Francisco, which took place in October 2004.
Committee members successfully mounted a four-day program designed to provide valuable insights into professional audio’s continually expanding bandwidth. Workshops provided attendees with educational, historical and technological options, including a Robert Scovill’s keynote address on live sound, Robert Peace’s master class, “What’s All This Analog Stuff Anyhow?” and Platinum Panels with some of the world’s most successful producers and engineers.
“One formatting innovation we’ve paid special attention to this year was the introduction of a three-day Technology Expo,” says AES executive director Roger Furness. “By concentrating exhibition floor activity to three days, exhibitors were able to take full advantage of educational and technical sessions. The final results of this experiment are still being assessed, but initial response has been extremely favorable.”
Convention Chair John Strawn adds that reports indicate that more Workshop, Paper and Master Class sessions experienced standing-room-only attendance than sessions held at previous shows. Strawn also points to a demographic breakdown that indicates an increase in younger attendees, both students and professionals. “The technical sessions were packed throughout the entire show,” Strawn says. “This clearly illustrates the content was highly relevant and fully appreciated.”
“Exhibitors seemed very happy with the floor traffic, and many attribute the high number of end-user attendees to the success of our second consecutive retail promotion cosponsorship, which doubled its number of participants over last year,” Furness adds. “San Francisco is clearly a favored destination city. We booked a record 2,000 hotel rooms for this show. The up-tempo mood on the exhibition floor and in the meeting room halls clearly reflects a strengthening of the industry’s economic position. We look forward to the 123rd convention in New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, next October 5 through 8, with great anticipation.”
For more information, visit www.aes.org.
