For any trade show, innovation is key. An exhibition and conference will always attract visitors, but what keeps them coming back year after year is the ability to see something new. The team at IBC has made this central to their planning for this year’s show.
In recent years, IBC—which takes place at the RAI Amsterdam, Sept. 12-15—has reflected the ongoing changes in the media and entertainment industry, introducing three central pillars across the whole show: innovative technology, changing business models and people and purpose. As the industry faces numerous challenges, such as the macro environment or trade tariffs, the theme of IBC2025 is “Shaping the Future.”
“We felt that where IBC has always been successful is bringing people together to be able to actually see technology, talk about technology, experience it and move the debate forward,” IBC CEO Mike Crimp says. “So this year, the overall theme is really about shaping the future at a time of dynamic change.”
Crimp hopes IBC2025 will be a collaborative environment where the industry can thoroughly examine not only new technologies but also innovative ideas. He believes broadcasters and vendors are eager to work together in this way, and IBC has a strong reputation for enabling such interactions.
Doing Things Differently
One of the biggest disruptors within the industry right now is generative artificial intelligence. This is leading to new entrants in the vendor space, bringing products and services that aren’t just applicable to the media and entertainment industry, but to other markets. “It’s something that IBC had seen for a while, and we’ve tracked that through our ‘Content Everywhere’ experience,” Crimp says.
IBC2025 isn’t the old-school trade show where you kind of lean on your stand and wait for someone to come past. It’s not just buyer/seller, the whole value chain has to interact with each other.”
—Mike Crimp, IBC
“We’ve seen at other shows, such as Mobile World Congress, how they can serve different verticals. So in terms of finding these companies, we’ve been much more, shall we say, hunter-gatherer than we perhaps were before.”
This move will be reflected within the new Future Tech Zone in Hall 14, where attendees can meet companies they may not be familiar with. “We’ve almost seen it become a trend where people come to IBC and have quite a lot of interaction discussing what they found in the corner or down the alley or in the little 10-by-10 stands.”
Crimp sees these opportunities as a way for IBC itself to be disruptive and lead to things “being done differently,” enabling companies that haven’t traditionally exhibited at the show to enter the media and entertainment market.
“IBC2025 isn’t the old-school trade show where you kind of lean on your stand and wait for someone to come past,” Crimp says. “It’s not just buyer/seller, the whole value chain has to interact with each other. We tried to embrace that as much as possible by creating things that people would think about rather than just receiving information.”
Away From the Exhibition
There’s always plenty to see at IBC Show, not least the conference, which takes place alongside the exhibition. Without giving anything away, Crimp promises this year will cover a “wide church of content and sessions” with senior executives discussing some of the industry’s current themes.
“We’ve kind of stirred that up with some more creative people and some people who might just want to challenge the conventional view,” he adds.
Other key features include the Innovation Awards, celebrating industry advances in five categories, such as content creation, social impact, and environment and sustainability. Winners will be revealed on the Sunday of the show.
The IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Program has continued to grow since its introduction in 2019. It offers both vendors and their customers the opportunity to work together in the creation and design of a service, whether that be around master cloud control, ultra-low latency live streaming at scale or creating a framework for generative artificial intelligence, as featured in some of this year’s projects.
“What’s happened is that the vendors see it as an opportunity to not sell a finished product, but to get broadcasters and streaming companies invested in that idea, literally invested because sometimes they’re sharing IP,” Crimp says.
“It’s kind of moved into being something of a ‘club’ whereby the CTOs and the vendors work together, and they get together for dinners and meetings and so on,”
he continues. “It’s got to the stage where the Accelerator projects almost point the way for the direction that the buying market is looking.”
While the JeAccelerator program has proven its worth to the industry, Crimp describes it as a “significant sign” that IBC is also delivering on its promises. “If you look at the sandwich board of brands that are involved, it is enormous. It is so impressive.” Visitors can check out this year’s Accelerators in Hall 14’s Future Tech Zone.
One idea that is being revived for IBC2025 is a Hackathon. The show is teaming up with Google on a challenge that will be revealed to everybody at the same time. Without giving away any details, Crimp describes it as “dead central to the themes happening in the industry at the moment.” Teams are invited to take part in the two-day event; each is invited on stage to pitch their solution and the winners receive a prize. Crimp sees the Hackathon as an opportunity for IBC to deliver on its “people and purpose” pillar, engaging with the next generation of engineers. “It will be really, really interesting to see if a group of hackers can create what they’re going to be asked to create in two days.
“It will also be in the Future Tech Zone in Hall 14. We want to make that hall a destination, so that people will go in there and be in the right frame of mind to be talking about innovation. I think the Hackathon could be really, really interesting, and something which we might be able to build on for the future. It is one of the things I’m most excited about, because I think it’s going to bring in a bit of a new audience. It’s going to show different ways of solving problems. Again, IBC is using our relationships to stage innovation.”
Essentially, innovation is what IBC2025 is all about. Asked to sum up the show in three words, Crimp says: “Innovation, fun, collaboration.” Roll on September.
Registration for IBC2025 is now open. More details are available at show.ibc.org.
