Three DSE Pre-Show Education Sessions To Consider

March 1, 2012 by Dave Haynes

Just a few more sleeps and one very early alarm setting before I head to Lost Wages for Digital Signage Expo. Admittedly, I have been so freaking busy getting the Preset Group Mixer sorted, and also trying to earn a living, that I have not paid a lot of attention to the education sessions that surround the actual trade show.

My overall impression is that Holy Crap, there’s a lot of different educational things going on. The email promos have been coming at me endlessly. There are all kinds of sessions going on at the LVCC the day before the actual exhibit hall opens, setting up people nicely to be in need of a happy hour cocktail (hey, someone should do a mixer!!!).

I am busy busy busy all day Tuesday in meetings and trying to figure out what I forgot to figure out for the mixer, so I am not getting myself further educated. But were I doing so (and I have clients who have asked me), here are the three I would think about going to.

MOBILE MODELS YOU CAN BELIEVE IN

2:00pm – 5:00pm

Since the creation of Apple’s mobile ecosystem, hundreds of thousands of mobile apps have been developed, billions of apps have been downloaded and countless numbers of mobile use-cases have been created. The change has been so profound that industry titans such as Google, Amazon, Nokia, Research in Motion (RIM) and Microsoft are all now pursuing Apple-like models of their own. What has all of this innovation and change meant for the digital signage industry?

The “Mobile Models You Can Believe” workshop, sponsored by Symon Communications, will attempt to answer this question. Industry experts on the convergence of mobile technologies with digital signage will discuss their real-world convergent implementations and share with event attendees lessons learned — both good and bad.

Has some good people, like Preset escapee David Weinfeld, now the Chief Strategy Officer at Screenreach. The session is led by Steve Gurley, who has been all but hollering at this industry to pay more attention to mobile.

DIGITAL PLACE-BASED ADVERTISING SUMMIT

8:00am – 5:00pm

A day-long set of sessions on Digital OOH. There are some solid speakers and I like the diversity of the subjects.

• Keynote: Global Digital Out-of-Home Media Forecast Details
• Digital Place-Based Media: Contextual Engagement Details
• How Media Strategists Are Successfully Selling Digital Place-Based to Brands Details
• DOOH 3.0: Digital Experiential Strategies Benefiting Brands Details
• Place-based Video Works! A Case Study in How Place-based Media Drove Results and ROI Details
• Reach, Relevance and Receptivity — Using Digital Place-based Media to Reach Consumers in Relevant Life Contexts, When They Are Most Receptive to Your Message Details
• Developing Effective Ad Creative for Digital Place-based Media Details

DIGITAL SIGNAGE 360: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

9:00am – 12:30pm

Put together by the man from Henley on Thames (DailyDOOH), the session has the intent of “providing technology providers, systems integrators, network operators and advertising agency executives an overview of the opportunities, challenges and achievements in the use of digital signage and digital out-of-home networks around the world. The event, which will cover EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and take a wider look at Latin America and Asia as well, will provide an ideal opportunity for anyone looking to network and do business outside their current region.”

Some good speakers, like Manny Almagro from TPN in Chicago (but giving his vast Asian POV) and Neil van Wouw from Tokyo.

Many of the other pre-show education sessions have their merits, as well, but if I had to choose, these are the ones. There are some sessions with some – repeat some – speakers who just plain speak too often, really don’t have much to say or can’t help but peddle their pots and pans. Sorry, but true.

I’d suggest the Install Tour of Lost Wages but it is sold out, which says something.

Safe travels.