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Austin AudioWorks (AAW), a startup audio brand that was to have its launch at this week’s AXPONA show in Chicago, has announced that due to illness striking one [or more] “family member[s]” it is forced to cancel its participation in the event. Expressing regret for this unforeseen development, the company will announce a revised rollout plan as soon as is practicable.
I’ve been going to audio shows since the 1989 summer CES. Life has changed drastically since then, for both good and ill, and I’ve attended a lot of shows in the intervening 34 (!!!) years. Some shows were pleasant, productive, but ultimately unmemorable. Some shows were memorable for outrageous behavior or events—someday I’ll tell you about the CES room where strippers were giving lap-dances to potential dealers—some shows were memorable for disastrous management, or an atmosphere dripping in fear and impending doom.
But AXPONA 2023? Well, it was…
This week, one of the industry’s premier audio expositions, JD Events’ Audio Expo North America (AXPONA), kicks off again in full force – and many in audio are buzzing in excitement for a full frontal, fully immersive audio experience. Starting Friday (with a pre-event party Thursday night for exhibitors and industry folks), the Expo is being held at the Renaissance Schaumberg Hotel & Convention Center in Schaumberg, IL.
We may have been aware of every agonizing second of Plague Year 2020 as they slowly ticked by, but as far as audio shows go—2020 was literally a no-show. In the US, February’s Florida Audio Expo in Tampa was the first and last audio-only show of the year. Since then, show after show has been delayed or cancelled—in several instances, delayed, and THEN cancelled.
Joel Davis of JD Events (JDE) announced a little more than a week ago that AXPONA, the high-end audio exposition scheduled to take place in Schaumburg, IL in August, is now canceled. Citing the health and safety of attendees, Davis’ letter said “we do not feel 100% confident that we can provide a safe environment for all of our customers and press…” But in a separate communication to exhibitors, Davis informed them the that JDE was in dire financial straits and unable to return their deposits – further angering the still unhappy AXPONA exhibitors.
Strata-gee reported last week that a group of 20 exhibitors had written an open letter to petition Joel Davis of JD Events – the producer of the AXPONA high-end audio show – calling for the cancellation of that event. The exhibitors making that call included some of the more prominent names in the specialty audio community – and their argument for a cancellation was well-articulated in their petition.
Now, several dozen more exhibitors have joined that original group to also call for its cancellation.
IFA 2020, a huge consumer electronics show scheduled to take place in Berlin on September 4-9, 2020, is now canceled, the organization behind the event announced this week. It is yet another show joining a long line of mass, in-person marketing events to suffer this fate. The promoter is promising “an innovative new concept” to replace it – which some speculate will be a virtual online conference.
In an “Open letter to Joel Davis of JD Events,” a group of 20 prominent personalities in the high-end specialty audio industry – who are also contracted exhibitors – call on the producer of AXPONA to cancel the event. AXPONA had already been previously rescheduled by its production company from the originally planned April 17-19 dates…to August 7-9, due to the expanding COVID-19 pandemic.
Now some exhibitors are publicly calling upon the show’s producer to fully cancel the event for 2020 altogether, as COVID-19 – and the economic damage it’s causing – continues to be a major issue.
