DSE asking speakers to figure out what they'll talk about 10 months from now … good luck with that

April 23, 2010 by Dave Haynes

In an industry that is changing rather quickly, it’s a little curious to see a trade show calling for presentation proposals now for an event that opens 10 months from today – but that what Digital Signage Expo is doing.

The deadline to get proposals in is mid-June – 8.5 months out.

If you make the cut, your final song and dance deck does not need to be until early January.

Some of the things people most need to hear about – like how to actually make money selling ads, and how this sector converges with mobile and social – are absolute moving targets right now, so how a proposal can do more than be about success stories and best practices, I dunno. Study the agenda and you quickly see that’s how a lot of this stuff gets fudged, and somewhat generic.

I get the need to map out the agenda and go to pre-press and all that, but get you plans in by June???

I never have time to though any seminars at the event anyway, but I rarely hear complaints about the quality for those who do make that their mission. There are still knuckleheads who go off message and just promote themselves and their product, but short of a Taser (I volunteer for that job!!!) I don’t know how that gets controlled.

Richard Lebovitz does a nice job with content (see the studies on the awards winners) and says quality control is important.

“DSE strives to provide a unique forum for an audience of diverse industry professionals to discuss and exchange ideas free from commercial content,” Lebovitz says. “Our attendees, who include 40 distinct end-user types from the US and 59 foreign countries, are primarily interested in how to successfully deploy and manage a digital signage system within their particular venue or venues. We are therefore looking or thought-provoking topics that will help our attendees achieve those goals.”

If you have somehow know what you are going to go on and on about 10 months from now, the form is here …

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