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16 minute read
Summary
On this episode, the Collab Collective’s Craig Durr speaks with Mike Blackman, Managing Director of Integrated Systems Europe, recorded live at ISE 2026 in Barcelona. The conversation offers an insider view of ISE’s continued growth, the evolution of the show from market reflection to industry driver, and the role of education, innovation, and community in shaping the future of AV and collaboration.
Their discussion covers:
- Record-Breaking Momentum: Attendance growth, unique visitor tracking, and what the numbers reveal about industry demand
- ISE as a Market Driver: How the show has shifted from mirroring trends to shaping the future of AV and collaboration
- Experiential Show Design: Why creative exhibitor stands and immersive demos matter more than ever
- AI as a Cross-Industry Thread: Practical conversations around implementation across software, hardware, and services
- Community and Networking: The role of peer connection, competitor collaboration, and shared problem-solving
- Talent Development: Fast Forward Friday, student programs, and partnerships with industry associations
- Innovation at Scale: The Innovation Park, startup visibility, and investor engagement
- Corporate Social Responsibility: Local impact initiatives in Barcelona and plans for broader European expansion
- Memorable Moments from ISE 2026: From drone shows and live performances to standout keynote sessions and installations
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Transcript
Craig Durr: Let me do an intro. Everyone, this is Craig Durr, Chief Analyst and Founder of the Collab Collective. I want to welcome you to a special edition of Direct from the Expo at ISE 2026 and I have a really special guest, Michael Blackman.
Mike Blackman, Managing Director of ISE, how are you doing?
Mike Blackman: I'm doing great. I mean, I'm loving this—what's going on this week.
Craig Durr: You are, right now, the belle of the ball. The ball is your event. It's taken on a life of its own right.
Mike Blackman: It's not just me. I got a great team behind me. I always say it's like a bottle of champagne. They're the guys who, I'm just the cork in the around, making it happen. And, you know, make me fly out. And what we do with ISE is just phenomenal.
Craig Durr: I love it. You were concerned I was gonna ask tough, probing questions, right? I won't do it, but let's do this. We're at the point that you're starting to speculate what you think your numbers might be for the show. Are you?
Mike Blackman: We are pretty well. Day one, we were 10% ahead. Day two, we had more people in the building than the entire 2019 show in Amsterdam. We had more than 65,000 people in the building. And day three, we surpassed the 2025 numbers. So we already hit a record number. It's all about today, on how many new people come. We get a lot of people coming back, and we don't count them again. We count how many times people come, but the number we give out, the number we tell everybody, that's a unique number of individuals who actually turn up and attend the show.
Craig Durr: You know, I heard of a huge number of registration, and of course, you have a little bit, but over a hundred four or five thousand of registration, which is fantastic. Actually, I've talked to some buyers that actually intentionally came in on the second day. They said they saw the same experience and had a chance to see some of the speakers.
Mike Blackman: The second day is our busiest. What happens is, many people come in on the first day, and then they come back on day two, plus another bunch of people so that, boom, really pushes up. Now, we had a really fantastic keynote on day two. Sol Rashidi, what a woman. That was really mind breaking.
Craig Durr: It's a great educational opportunity, not only in terms of these thought leaders and these experts in the industry, but what's taking place in the show floor.
I'm going to dive into some questions. These aren't tough, but I want to do this. The key thing I want to try and understand here is this insider view that you get to share outwards, right? You probably experience ISE absolutely differently than most people do, because, you know, the behind the scenes, the in front of scenes. So during a show like this, what are you personally watching for? Like, what are you listening for that most attendees might not be paying attention to?
Mike Blackman: A lot of times we know what's coming up in terms of product launches, new things people are showing. That's how we promote, that's how we can make people interested. So as the organizer, well, my team are watching. We're looking at things like, “What's the activity like? Which halls are working?” You know, we want all of our customers to have good ROI whether it's the attendee or the exhibitor.
We want attendees to come back. When people come to the show, we want them to go saying, “Wow, that was a great experience. I gained so much knowledge, so much information, met so many people. I got to go back next year.”
And for our exhibitors, we want the same thing that they see so many customers, meet so many, not only existing customers, but new people. They go away and say, “That was really worthwhile. We're going again.” What's great about what our exhibitors do is they create some of the best designs and stands possible to actually do that.
Craig Durr: You just had the stand awards that you were recently hosting, right?
Mike Blackman: When I walk in and see what companies are doing and how they are being creative, it just really gets me here saying, “Wow, this is an effort. It really makes people enjoy it.”
Craig Durr: I was actually down Hall 3. I think Pixaria was one of the nominees. I'm not sure where they won or not, but they had a beautiful experience there. I think that's great. People are making this really experiential. QSC, Q-SYS… they have that walkthrough environment that takes you through their different modes and modalities.
Mike Blackman: Did you see the swing on the LANG stand?
Craig Durr: Yeah. I did.
Mike Blackman: The day before yesterday, that was on the front page of the major newspaper with the title underneath, “World Capital of Audio Visual.”
Craig Durr: I love it. I thought that was just for the Instagram moment when I made mainstream press there.
Now, one of the other great things I like about this show is you have these different halls, but the way I look at it… I come from a UC background, Pro AV. You also have smart building information, you have Esport information… This is a great environment where it's all coming together, which is very indicative of what's taking place in the industry.
Do you think ISE was kind of on the leading edge and maybe helping this take place? Or do you think you're following very closely what you see taking place in the market?
Mike Blackman: Actually, that's how we started. When we started, we were a reflection of what was happening in the market, but we made a vision to actually say, “We shouldn't be a reflection. We should be the place where people are coming to see what's going to happen in the future of AV.”
We have taken that a step further now, and we manage this with the sort of keynotes. We bring in the people we're attracting that this is where the future of AV is being decided. People are coming here to discuss and shape the industry. People are coming here to listen and find out what they should from the manufacturer's side, what they should be doing, and listening to customers saying what they want.
It's really changed from just being a reflection to being something that's driving the future, and that's what helps us in terms of getting new product launches, getting key people here, getting lots of decision making, and lots of networking. It's interesting.
One of the driving factors of ISE is the networking opportunities amongst vendors and attendees, they like to meet other people, right? Understand, are we all facing the same problems, and we all find the same solutions, listening to say, “What state of the art… What should they be doing?” This comes from discussion. This comes from connection.
Craig Durr: Yeah, it's helping people push beyond.
That's actually really insightful as to that, you know, you have great insights on the state of the industry. You and I alluded to the numbers, which I'm going to say, keep setting records. You're showing growth upon growth upon growth, which is fantastic. And the way I wanted to phrase this is, do you think this is technology? Do you think these are business relationships that are driving that growth and that appearance?
Mike Blackman: It's two things. One is that we've created a platform that's the ultimate marketplace, bringing buyers and sellers together. That's driving it. The buyers are finding the sellers, and the sellers are finding the buyers. This is the department store where you come and find out what's going on *laughs*
Craig Durr: We've got men's socks and pants and slacks down on floor three *laughs*
Mike Blackman: That's driving it. I don't know so many aspects of what's going on here, and that's what's driving the numbers. I made a calculation today. You know, this show has grown so big, so we do things to actually help our customers navigate. We sectionalize the show, and that's so people can actually say, “Well, that's the most important thing. I need to go and see. Let me go and do that first. If it's residential, let me go to halls one and two. Collaboration tools… I know I will go to Halls 2 and 3, right? If it's Pro Audio and live events, I can go to 6, 7, and 8, right?”
I was walking around the show floor today, just saying hi to a few vendors, and someone said, “Mike, do you do this to all your customers here.” I said actually, “With 1,750 exhibitors here, if I spend five minutes at every booth, I'm going to need 24/7, 6 days to complete the whole job.”
Craig Durr: That would be a long trip there, and let alone if you can still stand. Do you, by the way, have your scooter?
Mike Blackman: Yes, I do… my segway.
Craig Durr: Your segway?
Mike Blackman: Yes, my segway mini, but I'm not allowed to use it during show days. I could go around the outside, and sometimes it saves my feet, but it's a bit redundant in my office at the moment.
Craig Durr: Yeah, I'm sure it is. I'm sure it’s safe that your staff is not allowing you to do it right now. There's too many traffic hazards along the way.
Mike Blackman: Exactly they worry me. I'm gonna break my neck before I leave here.
Craig Durr: Don't do that. That's half my challenge, too.
Well with what you're seeing, then, what technology opportunity do you think integrators, maybe these customers, should be leaning into? What technology genre areas…
Mike Blackman: It depends on which sector you're in. I think one red line that runs through everything is AI at the moment. Not old hat, we're discovering more and more customers are coming. You know, the customers are asking, “How do I implement this?” The great thing we had a keynote day before was Sol Rashidi talking about really, you know, taking away the bullshit from AI, and saying, “This is what you really need to know, how you implement it.” We're trying to do things like, that's the thought leadership we bring to ISE.
So let's say that's a red line going through both software, hardware, and creativity. It's there, and I think it's gonna be there next year as well. But we're seeing other things. I've seen some great glass-free 3D, Samsung with their spatial 3D…
Craig Durr: They had it on the outside of the booth.
Mike Blackman: I think it’s in the entrance here as well. Also, there’s Google Beam. It's phenomenal. This is the sort of stuff, which is bringing that more more to life… It's no longer 2D speaking across the wires. We're getting a little bit more realistic. We might get to the stage of Star Trek, where we have those 3D beaming up eventually.
Craig Durr: They do have the hologram images in the lobby in the interview.
Mike Blackman: Exactly, so we can kind of mimic that.
Craig Durr: Let's talk about what we think is taking place in the future, kind of beyond. The first thing is this, I love the sense of community. I love that people show up, spend time. There's social events, but it's more about meeting people and talking like you said. The coolest thing is even competitors are getting together and blending. Do you think that's something that someone who's an outsider or new to the show has an opportunity to appreciate is that community element?
Mike Blackman: A lot of what goes on in this industry is about community, and you'll find a lot of competitors where they've worked together. It's the same people just changing the badges and T-shirtsWe're trying to do something by actually encouraging more people to come into the industry. We have a shortage.
Craig Durr: That's true. You know, I wish I could work on the AVIXA Foundation, and that's one of our core goals right now. It’s not only to help with education but to bring people into the environment.
Mike Blackman: Talent development, encouraging young people to get involved, and young women to get involved, in this industry so that we are bringing things up. But again, as you say, there is this community. It's so nice when I travel to other countries, other shows, and I meet people I know, go and have a beer or a meal with them or whatever. And I think we all enjoy that, so I think most industries are like this, but specifically in the AV industry, you find this sense of community.
About 15 years ago, we did a road show across Central Europe as a way to promote the industry, promote ISE. We took about 30 vendors with us, and we did six or seven locations across eastern Europe. On the first day after we'd broken down the whole exhibit, and we all got rolled up our sleeves and did it. I said to the hotel manager, “You know what? These guys worked hard. Go and bring a couple of crates of beer and put it in the middle hall and let everyone help themselves.” That went down well.
The next day, one of the other vendors beat me to it. And one day it was somebody else. And it got to the stage by the third day, we were all going to dinner, to the restaurants together and eating together. There were competitors, there were real rivals sitting, having a beer, having a meal, having a glass of wine, and everyone knows everybody else.
Craig Durr: I love it. You know, one of the insider tracks that I know about having first hand experience is Friday. A lot of people call that the walk around day. It's when other vendors walk around and see what other vendors are doing.
Mike Blackman: We always say exhibitors do business with exhibitors. And Fridays, the day when they have the opportunity, we still have a lot of new customers coming in on that day. There's still a lot of pure attendees walking the floor. We also use that day as our Fast Forward Friday. That's how we promote the AV industry.
We also run a program together with AVIXA and CEDIA for students, and it's a curated program. We started it years ago, probably about 15 years ago. I was getting calls from universities and vocational schools, saying, “Can we bring a group to ISE?” And I was saying, “No, this is just for professionals.” And after this happened for a couple of years, I went to our advisory committee and said, “Guys, I'm getting this request. What do you think I should do? I'm asking you.” And they looked at me with big eyes and said, “Mike, are you crazy? Yeah, this is what we need. If we don't promote talent, if we don't promote younger people to get into the industry, we're not going to have employees in the future.” So we said, “Okay, but if we do this, I don't want students to walk around kicking tires. I want people coming in that the vendors have value from it. And the students also have value. And if they don't want to see students, they should let us know and we’ll make sure they're not on that part of the program.
Together with CD and Victor, we put together a program. And the other thing we recognize as well is sales. People don't talk to students, but the HR people do. So we encourage our exhibitors to bring their HR people here on Friday, get involved and talk to these people, and show what career opportunities they have within their organizations. We've had some real success stories of students who've been on that program come here, talk to vendors, had interviews, and gone away and got jobs in the industry.
Craig Durr: Really, that's fantastic. I mean, that's the biggest challenge we talk about. It’s that a lot of people talk about how they fell into AV, they fell into the UC work or the event space, and there is a wonderful path. And the thing is, we are doing some really cool, cutting-edge technology, which makes you interested.
I'm going to actually put you on the spot because I think what happens is you may not toot your horn enough of the community-centric work that you do. Everything that you do for Barcelona is fantastic. There's a whole list. We can talk about the projecting mapping that you do, which is beautiful, and the community comes out and swarms. I'm gonna have you talk about that in a moment.
But also, you have the Connected Classroom, and I work with Jason, and he has Jeffrey helping him right now. So bringing those vendors together, and then providing that technology into the Barcelona community is beautiful.
Mike Blackman: Yeah, the next stage of that is this week, we launched the ISE Foundation. It's not competitive to the AVIXA Foundation or the CEDIA Foundation. It works hand in hand with those. Basically it's starting here in Spain, and it's going to grow outside for the rest of Europe. We've addressed three pillars, talent development, perfect innovation, and corporate social responsibility. So the things we're doing already are talent development with the programs we're doing here with Fast Forward Friday. But we've added another part to that, working together with AVIXIA and CEDIA.
This came about from a meeting I had with the President of Catalonia when he came into power. And after saying, “I want this. I want that. Can you help me with this?” I suddenly thought, that's quite rude, you know? I have to offer something here. And I said to him, “What can I do for you?” Then he looked at me, “What do you mean?” I said, “What can I do for you? What are your biggest challenges?” He said, “Vocational training for young people.” And I said to him, straight away, “We can help you. We have courses available in Spanish today.” The result was that the next day, the Minister of Education called me and said, “We have to talk.”
I took Sarah Joyce with me. We had a meeting. She was wonderful, and we started a program. We started last August training the trainers. That's the first part of the program to create a pool of trainers here who will actually start training these young people in practical skills to fit the AV industry, like rack building, network and building, etc. It's there to fill the job gaps that are there. We know there are jobs available for these skills. That's something we started, and this is coming underneath the foundation as part of that. The Connected Classroom goes under that part as well.
Then, on the second pillar, which is innovation, we have the Innovation Park… A hundred thirty companies from us, another twenty from the city of Barcelona, and another twelve from Catalonia. So you've got more than a hundred and sixty companies there... Scale up, startups, new to market…
Craig Durr: I'll share with you a success story. So I had a chance to interview the CEO of NetSpeek, Eric de Georgie. Eric started off there in the Innovation Park, and from there, he was able to garner some additional investment from within the industry, and they're out there right now on display.
Mike Blackman: What we've done there as well, we said, “Okay, we brought these guys here. We put them in the middle of the show so everybody goes there. “ Right at the back of the hall… Most shows you go to, you find all this interesting stuff at the back of the hall… They haven’t sold. So we put it in the middle, so everybody knows what he goes through there.
Then we looked and said, “Actually, you know, we got them there. What else should we be doing?” And we thought, “What are they looking for? They're looking for partnerships, not necessarily just customers, but maybe they're looking for financing, etc.” And we did some research because we were hearing about all the deals that were going on. There's investment deals going on. We didn't know about it until afterwards, so we went through the database, and we suddenly found all these investment companies and bankers and things like that. So we pulled them out, and we sent a survey out and said, “Are you here looking for investment? Are you looking here to actually invest or research that?” We shortened that list, and we ended up with about 1,800 people. We thought that's a lot.
Then, we sent out another survey and said, “Okay, you're here. You're looking for opportunities. What can we do to help you? What can we do to make your journey more fruitful?” And what came back was that they wanted to have market information. They want to have a forum where they can hear and listen to things. The result was we created the investment conference where we bring those guys down to the pitching stage, which is in the middle of the Innovation Park. So not only can they walk around and meet these companies, but they can hear presentations from these companies trying to sell themselves there. And it really works.
Craig Durr: It's funny. It is like Shark Tank ISE style on the third part.
Mike Blackman: It is. On the third part, which is corporate social responsibility… with the lighting and art festival in Barcelona. We are a sponsor of the Miro Foundation. When you go to the Joan Miro Foundation, all the AV in there is sponsored between ISE and LANG. We put all of that in there as a gift to help artists not only present their work as part of the exhibition but also have a video artist exhibition. They're using that technology to show a certain residence program or something. And we have a few other activities like that. We have more that we want to do. At the moment, these activities are centered here, around Barcelona and Catalonia. We're spreading out over the next year across Spain. So we look for projects in Madrid, and then the next stage is to go across Europe.
Craig Durr: I love it. So three pillars—we were talking about talent, innovation, and corporate social responsibility. It's great to do it. I think we kind of wrapped through my list here, but I'm going to ask you one closing question specific to 2026. If you and I were to fast forward with one of your teleport machines that we were joking about six months from now, what do you think people are going to still be talking about from this event throughout this year? What do you think is going to be carrying forward?
Mike Blackman: I think they're going to be talking about the drone show we did as a premiere. That was the first we've done for years. Drones inside the pen, showing how drones are valid in the AV sector.
Out of necessity, we actually ran out of space, and we said, “Okay, the drones are good, but we need that space because we have vendors who want to buy more space.” And we looked and said, “How can we take that outdoors?” And our partner said, “Well, actually, drone shows should be outdoors.” Now it's complicated, because we have to get all sorts of licenses. We're near the airport here, so this was a long process to get all licenses work hand in hand, get airtime from the airport authority, really. So they actually locked down this area from planes when they did a drone show and advised to not fly over Fors Gran Via between these hours. We're really stuck, you know, we can only operate between the hours they give us. We got that for every evening. We even had a testing evening where we had to get that as well.
So I think people are going to be talking about that because we added another element. We created digital signage in the sky. We put up a logo.
Craig Durr: I saw that. My story was, we were there Tuesday, and we watched it, and we were walking to another event afterwards. Because, like you said, it was such a community event, and it was beautiful. We're looking at it, and all of a sudden we see the “Push Beyond.” And I'm like, “I think we are on the backside of this by mistake,” because we were on the opposite side, turned around. It was fantastic when it did that as well. But the next day, on Wednesday, we made sure we were in front, by the fountain area.
Mike Blackman: We see what you missed on Tuesday was the live opera singer and orchestra.
Craig Durr: Oh, you're kidding me.
Mike Blackman: Yeah, they were live on Tuesday, and we couldn't do it for two days in a row, but live on Tuesday and then the rest on the second day, we had Jeroen van der Most. This is the push beyond, you know. We want to do new things. We want to motivate and make our audiences go “wow.”
Craig Durr: Yeah, I love it. All right, drone show, you and I are gonna be talking about it in the future.
Mike Blackman: I'll talk about that. We're gonna be talking about Sol Rashidi, we're gonna talk about Casa Batlló, and robots.
Craig Durr: Oh, yeah. You know what I think? I think what you're telling me right now is that our dialogue is going to be full for at least another twelve months until I see you again here next year.
Mike Blackman: Look forward to it.
Craig Durr: Thank you so much for your time.
All right, hey everyone. This is Craig Durr with the Collab Collective. Thank you for joining us for this recap from ISE 2026, if you're not here right now, I hope this entices you to make this part of your experience next year. Take care, everyone.
