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PLASA 2007, Earl's Court, London, September 9 - 12, 2007
| PLASA07, the first PLASA Show managed in-house by PLASA Events, closed with a record number of exhibitors already confirming their intention to return to the show in 2008. With the show floor packed on Sunday morning, PLASA also announced its acquisition of the A.C. Lighting North trade show, bringing the PLASA Events' team's expertise and drive to this fast-growing event for the north of the UK. PLASA07's new layout saw an easier-to-navigate, one-floor event occupy both Earls Court 1 and 2, where lower sound limits and a smoke-free atmosphere combined with exhibitors' determination to make the most of the new opportunities. "It all contributed," said event director Nicola Rowland, to "a fantastically vibrant feel wherever you looked - everybody really pulled out all the stops. It showed what we meant in promising this would be a show run by the industry for the industry." Visitor figures (not counting multiple visits and pre the ABC audit) are estimated at 12,252, just under those of 2006, whilst visitors making the journey to London from overseas rose from 27 per cent to 30 per cent, with exhibitors reporting a very high level of visitor quality. Among the many other significant events was the official launch of the PLASA National Rigging Certificate, the new, nationally recognised certificate of competency for specialist entertainment industry riggers. Live demonstrations of the scheme in action were followed by presentations of the first Certificates to successful candidates at the PLASA Awards for Innovation on the Monday night. The latter (for which there was a dramatic last-minute surge in nominations, taking the total to over 60) also saw eight companies scoop the Awards - beyerdynamic (GB) Ltd (Headzone); Electronic Theatre Controls (Eos); Fuzion plc (Coemar Infinity Wash XL); Litec Srl (EXE-Lodestar 650C1 + Datalogge); Marquee Audio (Revolabs Solo Executive); Protonic Software Corp (easyjob 4.0); Unusual Rigging (The Revolution Winch) and Vertigo Rigging (Vertex). The inaugural Gottelier Award, presented by Tony Gottelier's son Jonathan and voted for by the industry, went to Funktion One's Tony Andrews for his 30 years at the forefront of loudspeaker design innovation. |
