The International Broadcasting Convention, more commonly known by its acronym IBC, is an annual trade show for broadcasters, content creators/providers, equipment manufacturers, professional and technical associations, and other participants in the Broadcasting industry. IBC is Europe's largest professional broadcast show and is held annually in September at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Frankly, I'm amazed that this entry hasn't been amended by any one of the purported 51,000 attendees last year (exhibitors+visitors with a 40/60 split) to reflect some of the more interesting and earthly facts and figures that I'm sire could be generated.
For instance, while it's fascinating that 70% of attendees are from Western Europe and Scandinavia, I'd be interested to know what percentage of first-time attendees have been hospitalised due to the molten filling of the traditional Dutch Bitterballen burning away their tongues and the entire rooves of their mouths.
Some Bitterballen yesterday
And while an impressive 21% of attendees boast the job title CEO, COO, President, Chairman, Owner or Partner, how many of the next 10 percentile (VP, EVP, Director) had hangovers that lasted any less than 4 days and which started any later than the Friday morning after the first day Thursday.
And how many actually made it to all their meetings...
I'd like to know how many litres of beer were served by the caterers, how many bottles of champagne? How many times do the indignant students that turn up at the demo booths at 6pm hear "You're our security?". How many times do the men's toilets between Halls 1&2 back up and what is the the longest chain recorded of ladies waiting outside their facility next door?
How many unsuspecting visitors to Amsterdam have been mown down by cyclists and scooter-ists whilst innocently going about their business either before or after the show? This will be my 6th IBC, but the bastards have got me every year so far and I'm sure I'll have dived for cover more than once by this time next week.
How many lasting relationships were born out of IBC? And how many babies, come to that?
And what was the effect of our spontaneous political protest last year, which we emailed to v.putin@kremlin.ru :
Pussy Riot: Staff Wanted
See some of you there and the rest of you on the other side...
