ShowEast is Cancelled

[Leo Enticknap]

From Digital Cinema Report:

ShowEast organizers announced today that this year’s conference, which had been scheduled for November 8-11 at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida has been cancelled.

Citing COVID-19, company travel restrictions, fear of flying and large-crowd gatherings have drastically limited the number of attendees to ShowEast in Miami Beach, they said. Despite a solid program of business sessions and screenings, former supporters are staying home until year's end.

Last year’s in-person show was replaced with an online event because of the COVID-19 pandemic

“We need to do what is best for the industry,” said Bob and Andrew Sunshine in a joint statement, “and without the usual number of delegates, we feel this is the prudent decision to cancel ShowEast. We apologize for the late notice and any inconvenience this decision may have caused.

I wonder if the former supporters staying at home are doing so because CinemaCon didn't live up to their expectations, and/or they decided that the money was only there to do one trade show this year, and so it might as well be the bigger one.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I have decided for myself that traveling abroad currently isn't worth it. Before you know, you end up stuck somewhere for an unknown time-span. While we've seen COVID measures being tuned down almost universally the last few months, the situation seems to be slowly turning again, as the northern hemisphere is starting to prepare for the coming winter. Just a few days ago, Morocco has started to block all flights from a bunch of European countries, leaving thousands of tourists stranded there with no clear way out and some countries are even implementing new lockdowns or are at least considering to do so...

It's one thing when your return flight gets cancelled for whatever reason and you need to spend a night or two at an airport hotel, but it's an entirely different thing if you end up fighting with thousands of other people for the same non-existent tickets...

[Leo Enticknap]

Agreed completely, but I'd be surprised if this is a factor in ShowEast being abandoned for this year. Most of the attendees for both the big trade shows (CinemaCon and ShowEast) are domestic. The almost zero international presence, for the reasons you give, didn't stop CinemaCon from happening. And there are no internal travel restrictions within the USA, apart from a negative test requirement to enter Hawaii (or proof of vaccination that took place within the state of Hawaii).

But veering off topic a little, I haven't left the country since February 2020, and would be reluctant to do so in the near future, for the reason you give (the risk of getting stranded). We're currently exploring the feasibility of my mother coming over for Christmas, and although there don't seem to be any remaining legal barriers, we can't find any travel insurer that will cover being unable to travel because of changes in government regulations after the ticket was bought but before the outbound flight (which seems to me to be the biggest risk involved in this), and I don't like the idea of her having to wait for four hours in line upon arriving back into Heathrow, which is reported as happening regularly. My current thinking is to try to find her an itinerary that departs from Heathrow (which, given that she lives only 12 miles from it, is the obvious departure/arrival point), but comes back via a one-stop into Gatwick or London City, and accept that we're basically gambling the price of the ticket.

[Marcel Birgelen]

It's probably a lot of factors combined, but eventually mostly COVID-19 related. I guess that CinemaCon was a pretty expensive/low yield experience for most exhibitors in this industry. You were there with the company you work for, so you may have a better idea if it was worth the efforts and resources. But all factors combined, I indeed think that most exhibitors, CinemaCon was enough for this rather difficult "startup year".