Off to DSE East

September 16, 2008 by Dave Haynes

The Digital Signage Expo East show starts today/tomorrow in Philadelphia, and I am heading down later today – hopefully getting there in time to takein  that planned tour with Barco of the massive LED wall at the Comcast Center.

I sent feelers out to clients and prospects over the last few weeks and got all of one person indicating he was going to be at the show, so I think it is going to be very, very quiet on the floor and in the conference rooms. I am doing a couple of sponsored workshops — on why you’ve lost your mind if you don’t use a solution that seems awfully familiar to what I sell — and may not see the SRO crowd common to my appearances. It may be me and the AV guy, but we’ll see. I’ll be brilliant, I promise! 

There’s no doubt the economic climate has a role in the tepid response to the show, but I also think there were already enough shows through the year (the Strategy Institute just had a session in New York last week and there’s a kiosk/DS show in that town next month). And anybody who travels a lot knows it may actually be cheaper to fly from the east to Vegas than it is to fly to Philly, and the hotels on the strip will certainly be less costly. So the only real saving will be in travel time, which is very tangible for some people … but probably not enough to warrant putting a show in the northeast.

One thing that will come out of the show, and I am just about tap dancing at my desk I’m so excited, is the Digital Signage Association MAY release a paper.

This is the association, run by a publisher for profit, that allows companies to pay a lot of money so said companies can say they are members of an official sounding association. I have been somewhat skeptical about the value of all this, and envious of the revenue potential, but my old boss Stu Armstrong (Enqii) is the president of it and they do have committees seemingly doing stuff.

DSA expected to release content best practices at Digital Signage Expo East

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Digital Signage Association announced this week that it plans to preview the release of its upcoming best practices report, “Best Practices: Digital Signage Content,” during this week’s Digital Signage Expo event in Philadelphia.

According to a news release, the release, the first of a series of best-practice reports coming from the association, will serve as a complete guide to content best practices for digital-signage deployments.

Following the presentation, the report will be available to all DSA members free of charge. The preview presentation is set for 4 p.m. ET Sept. 17.

“Developing and delivering information that can dramatically improve the effectiveness of a digital signage deployment is a key goal of the Digital Signage Association,” said David Drain, DSA’s executive director. “I am especially grateful to all contributing members the Content Best Practices Committee, and especially to its chairperson, Keith Kelsen of MediaTile, for directing this effort and presenting a preview of this work at this week’s event.”

Content Best Practices Committee members include Charles Ansley, president and chief executive of Symon Communications; Jimmy Dun, vice president of business development for DYNASIGN; Linda Hofflander, vice president and chief marketing officer for Wireless Ronin; Nancy Radermecher, president and managing director of John Ryan; and Greg Weaver, manager of digital signage networks for Microspace.

Ok, ummmm, there’s no one with a content background on this committee. … Just sayin …

The release does note that the report will look at things like the dynamics of the venue and the audience, which doesn’t take a creative mind.

So, I will now concede the association does more than just sign people up and create some air of officialdom for companies who feel they need it. But I will also note that anyone looking for tips on content strategy can easily find it online – particularly from Bill Gerba, who has written an extremely solid set of articles about content strategy and practices.

I’m not sure this was a hole in the knowledge base that needed filling by an association report.