About
That’s me in the middle
I have been hanging around in this industry since the very early days. I’ve seen a lot, and even learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t. I’ve looked around and seen a few industry blogs, but what I’ve read tends to be product-centric and quite self-serving. People can’t seem to resist the temptation to shamelessly self-promote.
Given I spent 20 years writing and editing in daily newspapers before leaving and getting into this weird space, I thought I could revive my somewhat dormant skills and start a blog looking at the industry from a macro level. What’s being done out there. What works. What seems doomed from the get-go.
After a long career in daily newspapers, fed up with head office versus regional bullshit, I went over the wall in 1999 and joined Canada’s Elevator News Network, what was at that time among the most ambitious and successful digital signage networks in the world. I got the company going in Western Canada and then moved east to take ENN through its most aggressive expansion. We added 600 screens in a year, a huge task and a very big capex. I left after ENN was shotgun-merged with Captivate Network of Boston, having been walked off the plank along with the rest of the Canadian management team. I think our US colleagues picked up a few things from us, and Captivate has developed into one of the biggest and most successful players in this space.
I had a brief sojourn with a digital signage start-up, and then started work on what became Concourse Media, an ad-based network with screens positioned through the busiest commuter walkways underground Toronto’s business district. That’s still operating, but a couple of lean years, and kids in high school, convinced me to hand over the keys and get a steady paycheque. In hindsight, we were at least a couple of years early on the scene.
For a few years I developed the business in North America for a couple of the biggest and best digital signage software companies around, I went from one to the other following dollar signs and, in hindsight, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea as the second one seemed to run low on the cash it seemed to have plenty of when I jumped.
Anyway, circumstances led me to go in a new direction in Spring 2009. I thought I had a perfect gig all squared away, but that went sideways, quickly, for reasons that will probably have me head-scratching 20 years from now.
More than tired of the vagaries of working for others, I have finally listened to friends and set up my own gig, pressDOOH. In a nutshell, I do all the writing work that most companies in this space don’t have the time, skills or resources to do on their own. They could hire out to a formal PR firm and spent much of their time getting the firm’s people up the learning curve. Or call me. Unless you are doing something really weird, I already know your business. And quite possibly know you!
I am also a co-founder with Pat Hellberg and Paul Flanigan of The Preset Group, a consultancy focused on providing strong, bullshit-free advice, guidance and direct help to technology companies, networks, investors and other stakeholders involved in the sector. We work mostly with major firms, but we also help small companies.
My home base is in Burlington, Ontario, aka outer, outer Toronto, Canada, and in normal times, hotels and airports and convention centers.
I mostly do this for fun, and despite there now being dozens of other blogs out there, because it is needed. I try hard to stay unbiased, and if I take a shot at a company or person, it is not personal. It’s because the assertions being made in PR or in front of a mike are ridiculous, and someone needs a little written whack upside the head.
If the Emperor shows up with no clothes, I’m taking pictures and posting ‘em.
Everything posted is my personal opinion and does not reflect on my business partners or clients. Nothing is pre-approved unless I choose to get something fact-checked or OK’d by whoever I am blabbering on about. There are no warranties or other guarantees about the quality of the opinions. In other words, it’s a blog. But I adhere to disciplines I learned and refined working in some of Canada’s better newsrooms.
Wherever possible, I declare any vested interest I have in a subject. So you will see disclaimers if the company I am writing is a client. However, I have consulting clients who want my work kept in the background. In those cases, I make no declaration. But they know and seem comfy that just because I do work for them, that doesn’t mean in anyway that gets them a write-up on Sixteen:Nine.
I have done some 1,500 posts since starting this in February 2006, and there is a lot more information out there now. I decided a long time ago that I did not want to be a news portal and compete to be first with news. As I get busier doing writing for others, I have less time to write for this. So Sixteen:Nine is transitioning more and more into an information gateway and portal for my business interests. Much of my Sixteen:Nine time will be put to developing what I call DeepDocs – independent, influence-free white papers on subjects that don’t get enough attention in the sector.
There are lots of place to find the “Fine things to consider when … ” stuff, as written up for and by Acme Software. DeepDocs are very different.
This is how to find me now:
- Phone: 905-592-1612
- Email: dave at sixteen-nine.net or dave at pressdooh.com
Caught in the wild: Want to see me blabber on in an impromptu interview (and go bug-eyed and say “Uh” far too often???)
