When the IAAPA organization announced that they would be holding their physical trade show event in Orlando this November, there was plenty of skepticism that it would actually take place. While many vendors did sign up, the show floor map was pretty sparse as so many international companies could not see things as “normalizing” in time to make it to the event. With travel restrictions still in place with many countries (not just into the US, but many exterior countries that are not allowing entry), various companies I talked to said they had no plans for IAAPA as they weren’t certain that their staff could return home.
After more companies initially sounded their support for the event, but eventually backtracked on that, IAAPA has made the decision to cancel the physical IAAPA 2020 event and replace it with a virtual expo. Per the release:
IAAPA Expo Virtual Education Conference will take place November 16-18, the same week IAAPA Expo was originally planned for. Participants will be able to virtually attend 25 sessions and two keynote presentations. These sessions were part of IAAPA Expo’s conference program and will feature leading industry professionals.
Whether or not any company is going to have their own product showcase is entirely up to them, but I am not aware of anyone doing so – except for UNIS, whose virtual product event will be taking place prior to when IAAPA would happen. I will have more details on that very soon. There is also the ShowUp virtual event that we’d mentioned on the blog previously.
At this point, I’m guessing that the next industry expo where people can go and see each other as well as products will be EAG in January, but even then who knows if this will have blown over. Here’s hoping that Amusement Expo happens next March…
What do you think about this news? Surprised or not surprised?
