From January 30 through February 1, 40,000 beauty professionals attended ISSE, up 21% from 2009 and breaking the show’s all-time attendance records. The show featured 397 exhibitors, which is up 3% from 2009.

Bruce Selan, the Professional Beauty Association’s (PBA) new chair, spoke about trade show attendance and his predictions for the rest of 2010. Selan noted that trade show attendance was down across most industries last year, including regional beauty shows, because of the economy, then said: “What we’ve seen so far this year is that in January — whether you’re talking to salons, to distributors, or to manufacturers — I haven’t talked to one person who has not said that January was not an absolutely terrific month. And if the salon business was good in January, chances are distributor and manufacturer business will be good in February and March. I think we’re off to a very, very strong first quarter. Overall, for the industry, the month of January has been terrific.”