The Digital Signage Show's attendance up by 35%

October 22, 2008 by Dave Haynes

Last week’s The Digital Signage Show event in New York, co-lo’d with the East Coast version of Kioskcom, saw attendance grow by 35 per cent.

Lawrence Dvorchik, general manager for the shows, said he had 1,727 buyers come through the doors, up from 1,280 a year earlier. He described the response as “phenomenal,” particularly given the way the market was rolling up and down a bunch of blocks away on Wall Street.

While there were people there specifically for the Kiosk show, there was a roughly equal number there for the DS side of the show. And there was tons of crossover.

We chatted Wednesday about the state of the industry and the mood of people at the show. Dvorchik said there were still many companies or groups who had plans buttoned down and were poised to move, despite whatever uncertainties may be out there.

It’s clear, as a whole, that the kiosk and DS businesses are starting to somewhat blend together, as network operators and particularly retailers want screens that can deliver on engagement. Dvorchik calls it “customer-facing technology.”

One of the good things that may come out of the slowdown is a greater interest in this sort of technology, particularly if it can at least compensate a little for fewer staff on the sales floor of retailers. Some of those store operators may not be able to hire more people at $10/hour to answer questions on the floor, but there’s an increasingly strong argument to be made for a few bucks a day interactive screens can help inform, entertain and pre-sell in these kinds of environments.