EXPO magazine now ranks the combined InfoComm/CEDIA show known as ISE (Integrated Systems Europe), as the third fastest-growing trade show in the world (up from ninth last year).

The annual ISE Press Event, held this week, always offers a statistical re-cap — after 2012, ISE shows a track record that most athletic departments would blame on steroids.

Attendance (up 17.2 percent in 2012 to 40,869) is outpacing the growth in exhibition space (825 exhibitors occupied 11 halls). And, ISE 2013 will expand its exhibition space to take up the last remaining Hall at the RAI, adding Hall 8 (oddly enough the first hall ISE ever used at the RAI.)

On the eve of the 10th event, Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events, said, “We knew from our very first show that we had a winner but no one imagined the rate of success.”

UK and Germany each brought more than 5,000 attendees to ISE 2012. Almost every European country (and UAE) sent more attendees to 2012 (except Portugal and Greece, who are getting so much bad economic press we probably shouldn’t add any more.)

As a major European show, ISE is creating a strong enough platform that other global regions are drawn in. ISE can now claim, with credibility, that it is more than just EMEA… it is becoming a global platform. Attendees came from 130 countries.

Now it’s a sorry statement that exceeds belief, but frankly the world can’t agree on the number of countries that exist. If aliens arrive tomorrow and say, “Take us to your Leaders,” we couldn’t give them a straight answer on how many countries they should meet. How embarrassing would that be… if they would offer to host the first alien-human dinner party and we can’t even tell them how many plates to set?

The UN includes 192 countries as members… the U.S. State Department says it officially talks to 194 countries… and Nations Online insists on listing 196 countries noting there are “about” 60 dependent areas and five “disputed territories.”