As the doors close on another IBC the general feeling is that things could have been a whole lot worse. The organisers have just confirmed attendance at 45,547, including exhibitors, which is 7% lower than 2008. If exhibitors are excluded the figure fell by only 5%. This is considerably “less bad” than pre-show predictions, which understandably were based on other major 2009 events where attendance had fallen by 20% or more. Certainly the feeling walking the show floors was that it was just as easy, literally, to “bump” into old colleagues as in previous years. More importantly, feedback from exhibitors was generally positive. As our own research indicates, the full year outcome for the broadcast and professional media sector in 2009 is expected to be an overall 14% decline in sales. Even with a stabilisation at this stage there is nothing much that can be done to offset the severe downturn which began late last year and continued into the first half of 09. But it does now seem as though we have hit the bottom, and as several exhibitors pointed out to us, deals are being signed and customers continue to plan for the future. It may not be a comfortable economy just yet, but life goes on. Overall we are expecting this to translate to an upturn of nearly 5% sales growth in 2010. Client Reading: Media Storage Offers Hope During Economic Gloom