At the opening press conference for the 2011 Integrated Systems Europe show here in Amsterdam this morning, ISE Managing Director, Mike Blackman, breezed through his opening remarks and jumped into the meat of his message in less than 2-minutes.

And, his message was loud and clear – and included a giant smile: This 7th year AV Mega-show – combining CEDIA and InfoComm – may very well be the biggest AV tradeshow, ever – anywhere – in the world!

And, he may very well be right. No question that, from this reporter’s perspective, that this show is busier than any InfoComm or CEDIA in my modern memory.

Sure, the aisles are smaller than those in Vegas and Orlando – and even Indianapolis, but, the proof’s in the people. And, they were everywhere! One thing is for sure, this was the biggest day-1 attendance I’ve ever seen at an AV show I’ve ever attended.

But, all that aside, there was something even more interesting to me. I’ll bet I spoke to easily over 240 of the 700 or so exhibitors today having recorded and Tweeted a bunch from the show floor. And, one message was loud and clear from them, too.

The exhibitors are ecstatic about the quantity and the quality of the attendees! This was something I heard over and over and over again!

Only time will tell if we hit the biggest AV tradeshow ever numbers that will have to climb well over the 36,000 mark to beat that number – and that time is this Thursday when the official attendance numbers are in. But, no matter the verdict, Mr Blackman can and will sleep well tonight as he not only grew this show into a truly well attended and respected mega-show from the attendees standpoint, but he’s created enormous value in the brand Integrated Systems Europe.