ISE 2026 wrapped on Friday, February 6 in Barcelona after four days across all eight halls at Fira de Barcelona Gran Via. By the show’s close, ISE reported 92,170 visitors, 1,751 exhibitors (including 323 first-time exhibitors), and a record 101,000 square meters of show floor space.
Those top-line numbers are easy to repeat, but the more useful story is how the week combined scale with a few clear signals about where the AV and systems integration market is spending its attention. Several themes kept showing up across the program and the floor, including AI and cybersecurity, along with continued growth in live events and experience-driven production.
Attendance and momentum, day by day
ISE showed strong daily attendance progression through the week, with total unique attendance climbing steadily and pushing the event to its highest-attended edition. It is also worth noting the difference between “unique attendees” and the broader activity indicators ISE shared, including overall registrations and total visits across four days. Those measures are not interchangeable, but together they help explain why the halls felt consistently busy (until friday afternoon that is…) and why many exhibitors treated the week as more than a simple product showcase.
On the exhibitor side, the first-timer count was also a headline. With more than 300 exhibitors debuting, the show continued to reflect category expansion and convergence, with a steady flow of new entrants trying to earn mindshare in a market where workflows and expectations keep shifting.
Spark debuts as a creative industries hub
One of the most visible “new format” additions was Spark, introduced as a creative industries event within ISE. The show positioned Spark as a place where creative professionals, technologists, and decision-makers could intersect across tracks that include broadcast, live events, gaming, and marketing and design.
For higher ed readers, Spark’s footprint fits an ongoing reality on campus: the lines between traditional AV, production, and experience design are not getting cleaner. They are getting blurrier, especially anywhere institutions are building student-facing experiences that need to work on camera, in the room, and across streaming platforms at the same time.
The ISE Foundation is a notable structural move
ISE also used the week to announce the ISE Foundation, described as an initiative backed by co-owners AVIXA and CEDIA, alongside support from Barcelona and the Government of Catalonia.
Trade shows regularly launch new programs, but a foundation structure signals longer-term intent and continuity. The way this evolves will matter, especially if it becomes a durable platform for workforce development, professional growth, and community investment in a field that is increasingly defined by interdisciplinary roles.
Barcelona’s role, and why cybersecurity stayed near the surface
ISE’s relationship with Barcelona continues to be part of the event’s identity, with broad institutional visibility and growing international attention around digital policy, AI, and technology investment.
Coverage of the week also underscored cybersecurity as a core thread, not a side conversation, including the presence of a CyberSecurity Summit as part of the broader ISE program. That emphasis matches what many organizations are already grappling with: AV is now network infrastructure, and “it works” is increasingly tied to management, access, segmentation, and operational trust.
HETMA and Higher Ed AV Media activity at ISE 2026
From the higher ed side, HETMA and Higher Ed AV Media were active on the ground throughout the week, including higher ed-focused engagement and conversations. Make sure to check out the many articles and recordings covering the event at HigherEdAV.com. The goal was simple: spend time with people doing the work, capture what they are seeing now, and document what is changing in real campus environments.
If you were in Barcelona, you likely felt the same thing from a different angle. The show is large, but the week is still shaped by small, practical exchanges, the hallway debriefs, and the quick “here’s what we are trying to solve” conversations that happen between sessions and booths.
Looking ahead to ISE 2027
ISE is a year round effort that never stops. Planning is already well underway for next year: February 2 to 5, 2027, again at Fira de Barcelona Gran Via.
ISE 2026 ended with record-breaking metrics, but it also left behind a clearer outline of the market’s direction: more cross-pollination with creative industries, more structural investment in community, and a continuing focus on AI and cybersecurity as foundational conversations rather than optional add-ons.
