To Zoom or not to Zoom? - By Elisabeth Tweedie, Founder, Definitive Direction
That has been the question for most of this year. Almost without exception, every conversation with industry colleagues this year, has opened with the words: “are you going to Satellite/NAB/Cabsat/IBC etc.?” Immediately followed by: “Have you seen the latest exhibitor list?” If the big-name companies at the top of the value chain aren’t going to be attending, then the effect ripples down the chain. Prior to being canceled, it looked as if IBC would have been a seriously scaled down event. According to the last exhibitor list neither Eutelsat, Telesat nor Spacecom were going to be there and SES would only have had a balcony suite. Intelsat on the other hand had booked the same stand as in 2019. Other absent major exhibitors, include Speedcast, Panasonic, Microsoft, Harmonic and Google. Imagine which usually has one of the largest stands, only had a couple of meeting rooms booked, Arqiva similarly, only had a meeting room. However, the decision to scale back was not unanimous; some of the operators were still planning on exhibiting; notably, Arabsat, Azercosmos, Es’hailsat, Gazprom, Intelsat as already mentioned, Turksat and RSCC. Read More...