From what I see the Commission is serious about this, they referred three times (Barroso, Almunia and at the end Dimas) to the 'breakthrough' of GDP in the 1930s and about replicating that with this conference.

I have a hunch that Catherine Day has something to do with that, to be insider-y.

The European Parliament seems similarly serious, as did the various statisticians from Eurostat and from the Member States, the OECD and to a certain extent even the World Bank.

The EU did not move on this conference as a mere showcase. If they did, they failed in a rather spectacular way, because as you say there was little media reporting on it. But the crowd they selected is not one you'd gather for a mere publicity stunt, I'd think.

Of course the EU is more than the people organising this conference, more than the Commission, more than the European Parliament. In order to really move in a big way on this matter, the Commission needs to convince the Member States to allocate more money to their statistical offices and perhaps also to Eurostat. If that will happen/work is an open question.

And then there are other challenges, like opening up information...