The inevitable news of IBC 2020’s cancellation hasn’t come as a surprise. The organizers of Europe’s largest video and broadcast expo are turning the trade show into a virtual, like so many others before. Social distancing and hygene would be extremely difficult to manage.
   

With big names such as Panasonic and Ross Video pulling out of the show just last week, the cancellation of IBC Show 2020 in physical form was expected. The IBC team, along with brands and manufacturers will now be working hard to develop a virtual conference and expo, we should still see the news in the form of IBC Daily (an industry magazine, now digital) too.

Here is an excerpt from the announcement by Michael Crimp, CEO of IBC (full statement here);

“Right now, despite the best work of the IBC team and our Dutch colleagues, there are still many unknowns. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to deliver a safe and valuable event to the quality expected of IBC.”

Last week the Dutch government announced that large scale events may be able to take place from September, but as rightly mentioned in Crimps statement, the organizers of IBC cannot guarantee the safety of visitors and exhibitors. The Netherlands have been hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic and certainly can’t afford having such a large-scale international event take place at this place in time.

Exhibition Habits Will Change

When expos are able to reopen, maintaining high standards of hygiene would be a huge challenge for exhibitors too. Think back to the last trade show you visited, all of the equipment you touched, viewfinders you got close to, hands you shook. The state of the things right now in regards to hand sanitation and cleanliness of products on display is completely different from when we visited BSC Show back in January – and I am not even mentioning how close people get to one another physically during those shows.

Looking to the future when physical trade shows are able to open their doors again, trade show organizers will have to think very differently in regards to how to manage the available space, and how many exhibitors and visitors to allow into these spaces at the same time.