The simple fact is that Mr Mokrzycki is right, no matter what the numbers are, you need to know how they’re calculated if they’re going to mean anything at all. Which raises the whole question of which numbers actually matter and who they matter to.
As with all statistics, you need to drill down to understand their significance. Room numbers are a good example of this. You might think that the number of exhibitor rooms is a fair reflection of a show’s size and significance. In reality, the nature and size of those rooms is all-important. If we count the larger rooms which can actually support a high-end system and presentation, shows like Axpona or Bristol in the UK can muster around 20. Munich used to have around 130 and Vienna only has 60 – which certainly explains a lot! Meanwhile, Warsaw can muster around 100, spread across three venues. Of course, not all large rooms are created equal or are equally appropriate for audio applications. Indeed, some are way too big to be useful. Then there’s the question of when a room actually counts as large rather than small – and what about medium-sized spaces? The figures above revolve around rooms that are larger than 40 square metres (c. 5x8m), but the rooms in Munich were nearly all nearer to 70 Square metres!
We can certainly start by breaking down the numbers by perspective. The numbers that matter to an organizer are very different to the ones that matter to manufacturers, distributors and visitors, while the visitors themselves can be broken down into trade, press and public.
From the organiser’s point of view, visitor numbers, exhibitor numbers and room numbers all point to a bigger and more successful event – and thus an event that’s easier to sell. But as the discussion of room sizes above suggests, a bigger event isn’t necessarily a better event, while massaging the stats to make it seem more appealing simply produces the kind of experiential disconnect that was so apparent this year in Vienna – and every year at Axpona.
Instead, let’s start by looking not at those numbers that are assumed to attract high-end exhibitors, but the ones that those exhibitors should be most interested in. First and foremost, is the question of available spaces: how many larger rooms are there and what chance is there of obtaining one of them. Secondly, as a manufacturer, your primary customers are your distributors and dealers, although end-users are becoming increasingly important. Shows are often used as launch platforms for new products, so press attendance (international and domestic) is also critical. But there’s press – and then there’s press. In this day and age, with so much online and social media activity, self-appointed journalists are popping up like mushrooms. If we look at the Warsaw numbers, press attendance amounted to 228 journalists, of whom 87 were described as “international”. That’s a pretty impressive number, but what is more interesting is the 140+ domestic ‘journalists’ who attended. Poland has 140 indigenous audio journalists? Really? But in this regard the Warsaw show is no different to other events: Vienna quotes a number of 549 journalists visiting in 2026. Finally, there’s the question of visitor demographic – data that’s almost entirely absent or unavailable. What’s the point of a company whose products start at €40K exhibiting at a show where 99% of the customers spend less than €10K a box on their systems, systems with a total cost of €50,000 or below?
