Put together thousands of creative, like-minded buyers and sellers dedicated to an innovative industry undergoing a digital revolution and serious business is sure to occur, recession or no recession.

That’s exactly what took place at the National Association of Broadcasters’ NAB Show, the world’s largest annual electronic media trade show and conference for broadcasters, digital media and entertainment professionals, held April 14-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Despite the fact that attendance was flat with the year before, NAB boasted an uptick in exhibitor participation and an almost 10-percent increase in size, with just under 1,600 exhibitors spanning 825,000 net square feet of exhibit space, according to Chris Brown, NAB executive vice president of conventions and business operations.

Last year, NAB drew 92,708 attendees and 1,550 exhibitors to a 785,000 sq. ft. floor, he said.

“That’s our largest jump in space in the last six or seven years,” Brown said. “We were running nicely ahead (on attendance) for a while but that goes to show you that pre-registration patterns are unpredictable. We all know our whole industry tracks the economy pretty closely, so it’s been choppy.”

He added, “but maybe we need to change the dialogue and put the focus around the reality that what drives our show are the people here doing business, quality attendance and what comes out of that. There’s a lot of business being done here.”

And with the media and entertainment landscape experiencing a huge shift toward online content across an ever-broadening spectrum of digital platforms, NAB must not only focus on growing its participation, but also give its audience good reasons to show up.

That means staying ahead of the industry’s latest innovations and trends with more and more cutting-edge offerings, including streamlined conference content and on-floor education sessions, expanded and fine-tuned show floor pavilions and new platform launches, including the Startup Loft that showcased the industry’s newest and most innovative media technology companies.

But from all appearances, NAB participants seemed to be taking advantage of everything the show had to offer, with robust educational sessions and steady show floor traffic throughout all three exhibition halls.

Long-time Exhibitor Mark Boyadjian, marketing and communications manager of Neutrik, had no complaints about the quality and quantity of buyers he was meeting at NAB.

“It’s been a very exciting show, and we’ve had a lot of foot traffic,” Boyadjian said.

He added, “Especially over last year, everything is still kind of slow going, but it seems to me that the budgets are still there, especially with equipment and the new technologies in their infancy that are continuing to grow. If you’re going to have meetings, if you’re going to make some kind of impact with the products you have in this industry, you need to be here.”

Attendee Steve Graham, owner of PC Prompting Systems, agreed that even though he was only able to come to the show every two years, NAB was a more than worthwhile investment of his time, money and energy.

“It’s an important show for me because I have to stay up with all the latest technology, which is growing exponentially,” Graham said.

He added, “So if you want the latest you need to come here and see it, touch it and try it out. When I come here I know where I want to go, and I get what I need.”

NAB will return April 8-11, 2013 to the LVCC.