The International Reception at InfoComm once again drew a sizeable crowd of visitors from the show community Wednesday.
- “As much as we’re a global organization, I know when I go to shows elsewhere that it’s fun to have an experience of camaraderie among a group that’s not native to the local area,” said Terry Friesenborg, InfoComm International Chief Global Officer.
- “We think the International Reception is a great place for people to meet and to network outside of their borders. They come in national groups, but then they start to break out and find people they know, or are in similar parts of the industry. I’m pretty sure there are some great relationships going on in there that are going to result in business for people in the future.”
For example, one exhibitor’s South China distributor was deep in conversation with an attendee from a U.K. digital processing company. The pair had been introduced by the exhibitor’s Australian sales rep — who had originally made the connection at last year’s International Reception.
Friesenborg said that he expects the final tally of countries represented at the show this year to top 100, as it did last year.
There are no speeches here, he explained, because those would obscure the event’s purpose. “Part of what an association does is build community — whether it's member community or industry community, that’s our role,” he explained. “I think we do that role best sometimes when we are the facilitators, rather than the commentators on the event.”
Another part of the organization’s efforts to extend the global reach of the InfoComm show is the International Buyer Program, organized in association with the Department of Commerce.
“We have more delegations this year than we have had over the last two or three years,” said Friesenborg. “It’s a good partnership with the DoC and certainly brings a lot of folks to us.”
One such group of attendees was from Fava Films, a Colombian film production company visiting InfoComm for the first time.
“We have seen interesting equipment from Blackmagic and BenQ, and we’re looking forward to seeing more tomorrow,” said Managing Director Tatiana Fava.
Get all the latest social news and views about InfoComm curated live by the editors of SCN, AV Technology, and AVNetwork at www.avnetwork.com/infocomm2015.
