Review & Prospects: Promising Start to the Year
Torsten Jacobs, General Manager N&M
No sooner had “Best of Events” in Dortmund come to a close than the next major trade fair came along for the team at N&M. This year’s “Integrated Systems Europe” (ISE) in Barcelona also confirmed that N&M has every reason to be positive about development in the sector and the prospects for the rest of the year ahead. Four hundred exhibitors from ten nations came to the Ruhr region, and 87,000 visitors in the Catalonian capital underlined the leading role of the “ISE” for the AV industry.
Upon his return from Spain, N&M director Torsten Jacobs summed up his visit as follows: “The products and solutions on display were an impressive reminder of our industry's innovative capability and its economic stability along the whole value chain.” Hybrid moving lights, brand new developments in lighting such as the Astera Quickspot and interesting detailed solutions in the field of LEDs for customising media presentations are coming together to create brand new design options. Development in the audio field is also continuing apace, as illustrated by the CCL system from d&b audiotechnik. Jacobs was also pleased by the strong desire of market participants to advance the immensely important role of live communication in the B2B sector.
Christoph Rupieper, General Manager N&M
Following a successful 2024 for the company, which closed with a twenty percent increase with revenue of 132 million euros, N&M is optimistic about the new fiscal year. As Christoph Rupieper, N&M director in charge of finance, reports: “On the basis of our forecast and existing orders, we can expect a positive business development in 2025.”
The “BrandEx” award in silver in the “Best Formats Event” category further contributed to the good atmosphere within the company: this went to the “facts and fiction” agency for its “Demokratiefest” project for the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection; in its role of technical services provider, N&M once again supported the renowned event with its expertise. At the BrandEx Awards 2025, the initiators honoured the best projects of the year in the field of live marketing and brand architecture.
141 submissions from 66 companies underwent the multi-stage application procedure. Furthermore, N&M once again achieved top positions in the ranking of event service providers published by the “BlachReport” trade magazine: N&M reached three top spots and one second place in the fields of “Lighting”, “Video and Media Technology”, “Overall Execution” and “Sound”.
Last year N&M made further investments in equipment, the most prominent of which were in the new MAC Viper XIP moving lights from Martin Professional and Topaz LED panels from ROE Visual. N&M recently also entered a partnership with the “These Guys” software and data specialists for the future-oriented fair and event evaluation.