Q&A: Mike Crimp on IBC 2023 post-pandemic

IBC chief executive officer Mike Crimp tells Digital TV Europe what we can expect from this year’s trade show, taking place from September 15-18, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. 

What can we expect with the return of IBC?

“IBC returned in 2022 with a good, solid charge, everyone seemed really happy with it. Consequently, rebookings have been really strong across the board. The first thing you can expect is as a show of a pre-pandemic scale, all of the big vendors and exhibitors that you’d expect to see there will be attending. I can’t actually think of a single brand that hasn’t signed up for us, so you can expect a large show floor. In terms of the visiting audience, all the indications are that we’re going to see really big numbers, with a much higher total than in 2022. I think walking into IBC2023, you’ll be comparing it more to the 2019 pre-pandemic event in terms of size, scale and energy.

What brands will be attending this year, with pandemic restrictions behind us?

“A lot of Chinese brands will be able to return which weren’t able to come over last year because of the covid restrictions that were still in place with China. So that’s given it a big boost. But everyone else you’d think of, from Sony to Google, to Amazon, everyone that you would imagine having a big stand at IBC will be there.”

What has been the preparation process leading up to IBC?

“It’s been pretty smooth. Even right up to the 2022 show, we were all living in a world of uncertainty. There was plan A, plan B, plan C, depending on if any restrictions came along. This year, everybody seems to have those restrictions in their rearview mirror. We’ve been able to make sure that we hit all of the areas of safety and that we have everything under control. But actually, I think the mood from us, the exhibitors, the speakers, everyone that is coming to IBC2023, is much more forward looking. The preparation has been much more like you would expect from a trade show, being able to focus on the layout, the flow, the features, the content programme, the Accelerator Programme, the Technical Papers, the IBC Awards — all of those things returning rather than putting huge amounts of resources, quite rightly, into health and safety. We’ve been able to focus on delivering a creative environment for people from an innovation perspective, rather than focusing as much on process and rules and making sure that everyone was safe in that pandemic period. This time around it feels very different to us.”

Can you share more about IBC’s three key themes?

“We felt that as tech shifted toward the cloud and became more about software, a whole array of exhibitors were looking for an opportunity to have a narrative and to tell a story. That was true not just on the show floor, but across the content programme. In many cases, there wasn’t much to show — what they were offering were skills and services that were in the cloud. We needed to help them tell those stories and our Showcase Theatre and Innovation Theatre provide the platform to do so.

The big difference now is that there is a much greater amount of content. We have our two day paid for IBC Conference – the peer reviewed conference that IBC is famous for – with a two day concept programme focused on People and Purpose running alongside it called the Changemakers Programme, which is a free-to-attend event. With so much going on, we needed to curate this and boil this down a little bit to show people where they’re going. The three key themes for IBC2023 are Transformative Tech, Shifting Business Models, and People and Purpose – and these are effectively the three pillars that everything falls under across the content agenda.

How will this event be different to last year?

“We were a little cautious running into to 2022 and our main focus was putting on a good exhibition with a content programme with themes that supported it. Last year we kept our IBC Awards in the background and we did them digital only. We had our Accelerator Programme on display for the first time, but it wasn’t fully developed. We didn’t have our future tech zone, where people really enjoy going to see the next generation tech. This year, we’ve brought all of those things back. We did a lot of stakeholder research after the show and people said that what they were looking for from IBC – and what they considered IBC was good for – was exploring the key themes that are impacting the future.

What technology trends can we expect to see?

“There’s quite a wide range of things.”

“I would point people to our Accelerator Programme. Among those projects is ‘Authenticated Data Standard’ which is about people being able to check where data and images are coming from before they use them or serve them up to third parties. We’ve got another project titled ‘Synthetic Humans for Entertainment and Accessibility’, which is a metaverse project where teams are creating synthetic humans to deliver interactive entertainment experiences and improve accessibility. A lot of these are actually underpinned by 5G technology and 5G becoming a big enabler.
“That’s the thing that excites me most. I think there will be a real buzz around the Accelerators. I’m also really pleased that we’re able to bring back our Innovation Awards, which have got a long history of recognising really big and successful projects. We’re also planning to show some really good gaming content.”

In a press briefing you mentioned about ongoing travel plans with Schiphol Amsterdam Airport following last year’s chaos, has there been any progress?

“I’m going to Schiphol Amsterdam Airport to meet the staff and I’m going to invite them to make some kind of statement of reassurance. I think it needs to come from the horse’s mouth — it needs to come directly from them rather than me, and I think they’d be willing to do that.
“My team has been in and out of Schiphol Amsterdam multiple times this year without issues. As with all air travel at the moment, it might not be the smoothest experience that you could have, but that’s the same for any airport.

“We’ll give them an opportunity to address our industry and distribute that information once I’ve had a chance to sit down with them. It was unacceptable, what happened last time, and it didn’t help the city of Amsterdam or Schiphol Airport at all, and I think they need to be clear about that.”

“There are some simple things that IBC are looking to do, which is to make sure that the screens around the show are displaying departure updates and that you can very simply download an app which will give you all the real time information from the airport. At least when people are still at the show, they will be able to get the full picture of what’s going on. It really depends on the meeting with the Schiphol Airport next week, but I think they’ll be quite confident, and we’ll get a statement from them.“