A well-deserved vacation is in order for David Hidalgo Ayala, show director for the IBTM Americas meeting and event industry trade show.

His tireless efforts—he averaged about two hours of sleep for most of this week—and that of his team helped launch a successful debut of IBTM Americas. The show, a result of a merger of IBTM America, previously held in the United States, and IBTM Latin America, hosted in Mexico City, concluded Thursday with nearly 5,000 meeting and event professionals having attended at the Centro Citibanamex conference center in Mexico City.

The 5,000 attendees included 600 exhibitors and 700 hosted buyers, who had 12,500 appointments. Overall, there was a 50 percent increase in attendance over last year’s IBTM LatinAmerica.

While the show gives destinations and marketing groups in Mexico a center stage, about 54 percent of the exhibitors were from outside Mexico. New exhibitors included representatives from such destinations as Portugal, Canada, Tahiti, Thailand, Japan, New York City and Los Angeles.

“Yes, maybe I can get a little sleep now,” Hidalgo Ayala said. “But it’s been worth it. We set our expectations and we achieved many of our goals and we also exceeded some of our numbers. There were some issues and areas where we can improve, but this was an opportunity to do business in a new atmosphere.

“At the end of the day, everyone here made it work. We’ve been the center of the meeting and event industry for this week and we’ve been able to take advantage of the growth in the industry.”

Education was a strong focus with eight forums on such topics as event production, sports events, pharma and technology and innovation. Two research papers were released during the show and in total, there were nearly 30 education sessions featuring 40 speakers.

Meeting Professionals International delivered four of the education sessions and the MPI Foundation hosted its second annual Rendezvous networking event through IBTM in Mexico City. 250 attendees helped raise approximately $12,000 for industry scholarships and education to support growth in the MPI Mexico chapter.

One of the challenges cited by Hidalgo Ayala revolved around the nature of the predominately Spanish-speaking audience.

“This is an area we need to think about how we can help facilitate strong networking and business opportunities,” he said. “We had a very diverse audience and we want to build some bridges for our industry. This is something we’ll be looking at how we can improve on.”

Darren Green, senior vice president for sales at the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board, agreed with Hidalgo Ayala on the language challenges, but overall was pleased with the show. It was the first time that Los Angeles had been at the Mexico event.

“Los Angeles is a gateway city and destination for South America and Mexico,” he said. “Mexico is the No. 1 inbound market for LA so we can see an exciting upside to the MICE business by being here. There’s a lot for us to learn here so it was worth our time.”

Green added something that Hidalgo Ayala will like hearing: “We would definitely come back again next year.”

The 2019 show will move to July. The current September date would conflict with IMEX America, the largest meeting and event show in the United States. IMEX is moving its show from October next year.

Two studies were released during the show. ICAA released a report on the growth of meetings and events in Mexico—which has more than tripled in the last 10 years—while IACC released a study showing that the top priority for meeting and event planners in the Latin American region is delivering against an audience’s increasing expectation for tailored experiences and creative engagement driven by new technologies.