Emerald Events Drew 30%-70% of Pre-Pandemic Attendance

CEDIA Expo parent company Emerald has held over 20 in-person trade shows, conferences and other events this year with 30%-70% of pre-COVID-19 attendance levels, said the events company Monday. “As expected, COVID-related issues such as international travel restrictions and date postponements for many Company events have impacted attendance,” it said. A spokesperson told us Monday CEDIA Expo 2021, Sept. 1-3 in Indianapolis, in early summer was on track to draw 10,000 attendees: "When the delta variant came through this year -- we had about 30%-50% of those originally registered attendees come to the show in person." Emerald said last week (see 2109130046) the custom installation industry’s annual trade event drew 82 exhibitors, down from more than 250 that were expected, after concerns about the COVID-19 delta variant caused numerous exhibitor and attendee cancellations. CEDIA Expo had 1,400 verified attendees: 35% first-timers and 58% integrators; 14 countries were represented. Emerald is scheduled to stage “dozens” of events in coming months and looks to return to a full slate in 2022, it said Monday. On its August earnings call, the company (see 2107300061) said it canceled 108 events due to the pandemic, 94 scheduled for 2020, representing $230.6 million of 2019 revenue, and 14 scheduled for this year, representing $71.2 million of revenue. It submitted $167 million in insurance claims for 2020 canceled events and received $121.1 million: $89.2 million last year, $31.9 million this year. It submitted an additional $52.9 million in claims for events not held in first-half 2021 (see 2104300064).