This years CEDIA Expo has been deemed a great success. The event which took place a Excel London was smaller in size this year but that seemed to help the smaller companies and the quality of attendees.

Cinenow were on hand to film at the show with videos going live this week. With key interviews from CEDIA and new products from manufactures.

“In challenging circumstances, the backing we have received from visitors and exhibitors for this year’s CEDIA UK Expo has been, quite simply, incredible” says CEDIA Chairman, Robert Hallam. “The CEDIA Board, office staff and the show’s exhibitors have worked tirelessly to make the event as compelling, relevant and valuable as possible for the industry. And, we are delighted that visitors have responded so positively, turning out in force to see the raft of new products and technologies that are here, taking part in CEDIA training and showing their backing for the UK custom installation industry. Those exhibitors that were here have been justly rewarded with an overwhelmingly successful CEDIA Expo, which, in more than a handful of cases, has been their best ever.”

Against the backdrop of a global recession, more than 150 CI brands supported the show with an array of new product launches and benefited hugely from steady, high quality visitor traffic on the Tuesday and Thursday of the show, and a spectacular attendance on the middle day of the event. Attendance for this year’s CEDIA Expo totalled 5,082.

This year CEDIA Expo played host to the very first CEDIA Expo 5-A-Side Charity Football Cup, organised by Essential Install magazine.

This was a highlight for the exhibitors, 16 teams competed, including: Armour, KEF, Invision, Opus, Pulse Marketing, Future Automation, PMC, Design Logistics, SMC, T&T Automation, Imerge, Prestige Audio and Sonos. The evening culminated in a Future Automation vs KEF final, with Future Automation lifting the coveted trophy in a penalty shoot-out.

More than £2000 was raised for Essential Install’s chosen charity, Macmillan Cancer Support and a good time was had by all.

Cedia Expo had many seminars through out the day, with the highlight being Richard Farleigh who drew huge crowds.

Despite the economical down turn the Expo was a great success.

Check back for videos later this week.

CEDIA Expo 2009 Exhibitors

Ollie French, Future Automation

“A very good show, better without the big guys, visitors spend more time on the stand, the recession has filtered out the time-wasters. The seminar theatre worked well and the football was great, but I would say that, as we won!”

Paul Cummin, Artcoustic

“The best show we have ever done! The smaller size was good. People are more focussed on their businesses and more interested in what the products here can do for them. We were able to spend a lot of time talking to good quality people. We’ve generated some very, very good leads, re-affirming relationships with existing customers and meeting new ones.”

Paul Wilmshurst, Dynalite
“A very good show. Wednesday was stonking! The best day we’ve ever had on a trade show stand with back-to-back customers.”

Larry Sadoo, JVC

“We’ve enjoyed a very good CEDIA Expo. It was great to meet key dealers face-to-face and maintain great relationships. The interior design conference was also excellent”.

Dave Robinson , Sensible Heat
“We’re very pleased with the footfall and the high quality of visitors.Overall, we’re delighted with CEDIA Expo 2009”.

Babs Moore, Amina

“To be perfectly honest, this year’s CEDIA Expo has proved a lot better than expected. We were busy throughout and have generated some good leads. It was great to see interior designers at the show in such numbers”.

Tom Barnett, Kaleidescape

“There were more people on the Kaleidescape Installation training course than there were seats, standing room only! We ran 7 courses over the last few days and they all had between 15 – 36 attendees! Through this experience we have met a lot of new people that we would not normally capture”.

Anthony Haase, Spectral
“We are very pleasantly surprised. A good volume and an equally good quality of visitors. Yes, it was a smaller show this year but this gave us more time with visitors, and we have signed up a lot of new installers.”

George Gavutis, NuVo Technologies

“A very good show with great traffic. We were very proud to be a part of the Habitech team here.”

Jonathan Pengilley, Habitech
“Overall, a really good show, and much better than all the negative hype prior to the event would have led you to believe. Being able to talk with interior designers on the Stand was excellent, and has already generated significant new business enquiries for us.”

Peter Alloway, Invision UK

“A great show for InVision with a fantastic middle day. We came here to do business which has happened this year compared to previous years where you have to follow up after the event. Without having the bigger players, people have spent more time on our stand which is terrific.”

Mike Beatty, Pulse Marketing
“A really great show. The afternoon on the first day was good but the second day was brilliant. Overall, we are very happy. Keep the designers coming!”

Stuart Tickle, AWE Europe

CEDIA Expo 2009 not only met, it exceeded my expectations. Everyone at CEDIA worked tirelessly to make this a successful show under the hardest of economic conditions and I was confident of a credible show. However, with numerous major exhibitors not being present and the inevitable rumour mongers it felt an uphill struggle to maintain momentum at times. I can say this having had one of our best shows ever and having received a huge number of positive visitor and exhibitor comments. Wednesday must have been one of the best days ever at a CEDIA Expo in terms of the feeling around the show. The designer conference walking the floor and Richard Farleigh’s key note speech all proved to be a big success.

Ian Jones, Source / Genelec
CEDIA Expo 2009 proved a great platform to launch Source as the new distribution partner for Genelec into the UK custom installation market. Our Stand with its dedicated Genelec Audio Suite rocked all day on the Wednesday. Fantastic!