CETW Moving Back To Las Vegas In 2013
April 2, 2012 by Dave Haynes
Customer Engagement Technology World is heading back to Lost Wages for 2013, after a two-year stint in San Francisco. The show will go in May 2013, the spring version running roughly six months after the fall version set for November in New York.
I sent a note to Lawrence Dvorchik, the General Manager for CETW, on the heels of last week’s event, asking how things went off.
“Pre-registration was at an all-time high, quality of buyers was extraordinary and content was unprecedented,” says Dvorchik. “We continue to receive rave reviews about the topics and speakers. Each incredible keynote was standing room only, to the breakout sessions and tech talk theater sessions being packed.”
“As Phil Cohen put it: ‘we have succeeded in reinventing the show and making it completely different and unique from DSE and InfoComm’ – which as you know was our goal. CETW encompasses all types of engagement technology, including digital signage, interactive self-service kiosks, mobile, tablet and more.”
Making a very clear distinction with DSE is a hugely important move for Dvorchik and Joel Davis, the JD in show organizer JD Events. For whatever you may think of DSE – and I thought this past one was the best yet and the numbers seem to suggest that as well – the CETW was never going to eclipse that particular machine. And the digital signage industry does NOT need two shows.
So casting a wider or at least different net is wise, and emphasizing the quality of the conferences and speakers is also smart. Richard Lebovitz of the DSE does a really good job on that show’s curriculum, but I doubt I am the only one who thought there were just too many choices day by day and hour by hour this year. I couldn’t get a handle on it all.
I would have thought SF Bay and Silicon Valley would be a target-rich environment for attendees, and the location does make it easy to get some serious digital industry speakers who can break off for a morning in the city, but not three days away at a trade show. But if you read tech blogs you know there is already no shortage of tech-based trade shows and conferences in that area. CETW was yet another one – different, sure – but another one.
With DSE shifted back a week to its usual late February stretch, and this show in May positioned differently, CETW should draw more of the DSE exhibitors and attendee budgets – even if that crowd is not what the show sees as its core.
The show does butt up a little against InfoComm in Orlando, but that’s primarily a gear-head show that has a lot more people talking about resolution and data throughput than how to excite and transact with consumers.
I didn’t hear much from industry friends other than positive comments about the conference line-up. Did you go? (use the comments).
Interesting, though we think that the industry (whatever ‘industry’JD Events think they are in) would be best served by the West Coast show disappearing completely – allowing them (and whatever exhibitors they get) to focus on NYC
Bottom line though, the DSA is not serving their digital signage members by sponsoring a kiosk show.