2014 will mark the 54th DFA/IFA conference. The show has had an interesting history since launching in Berlin 90 years ago.

1924: 242 exhibitors meet in Berlin for an 11-day conference on the development of radio engineering. It was called the DFA, standing for ‘Deutsche Funkausstellung’, literally German Radio Exhibition.

1925-1939: The show is held annually in Berlin, coming under the patronage of the Third Reich’s notorious Minister of Propaganda Dr Josef Goebbels.

1940-1949: World War II and its aftermath interrupt the show.

1950: The expo returns, this time in Düsseldorf, with 211 exhibitors presenting across three halls. Düsseldorf would host the DFA again in 1953 and 1955.

1957: The organisers move DFA to Frankfurt, where it attracts 199 exhibitors but this number collapses to only 87 at the next show in 1959.

1961: Now being organised by the Television and Broadcasting Division of the Trade Association of the Electrical Engineering Industry, the DFA returns to Berlin, where numbers improve. Berlin hosts again in 1963.

1965: DFA goes on the road again, with Stuttgart hosting the conference for the first time. It returns to Berlin in 1967 and then back to Düsseldorf in 1970.

1971: The show rebrands itself the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) and settles into a permanent home in Berlin, where it is held biennially until 2005.

1979: A then-record 525 exhibitors attend the conference.

1995: 765 exhibitors from 30 countries make the shortest IFA on record — ‘only’ nine days — the busiest yet.

2003: The show downsizes its length again, to only six days, but IFA finally cracks the 1,000 exhibitor mark.

2005: IFA moves to an annual format.

2008: IFA welcomes home appliances into the show for the very first time, creating a “hitherto unprecedented level of product diversity”.

2010: The 50th edition of DFA/IFA sees 235,000 visitors attend the show.

2013: Last year’s show had 1,500 exhibitors entertaining 240,000 visitors, of which 46,000 were international guests.

Upcoming in 2014: IFA Keynotes Confirmed: Samsung, Beko, Intel, Nest and Sennheiser to set agenda in Berlin

The 2014 IFA Consumer Electronics Show takes place in Berlin, Germany; 5-10 September 2014.