CETW – Day 1 Impressions
November 7, 2013 by Dave Haynes
I thought the crowd was pretty decent in terms of numbers, and there were lots of people coming and going. Throngs? No. Steady? Yeah, probably.
My very unofficial understanding is the numbers expected were up.
This is definitely not a digital signage show. It has several vendors with those capabilities, but also loads of vendors doing that I will never deal with – like thermal printers – and things I don’t get. I spent 10 minutes talking social commerce with a mobile tech firm and I still don’t really get it. I’m old. Leave me alone.
However, much of the stuff on the mobile marketing row was buzzword bingo language that largely eluded me and would elude most mere mortals, regardless of age. You have maybe 2-3 seconds to catch someone’s attention from a trade show booth. You need to get to the point very quickly and not assume passersby are fluent in buzzwords and phrases.
Show GM Lawrence Dvorchik has also steadfastly said his is not a DS show and puts the focus on enabling tech for engaging and servicing consumers. I get where he’s been going but it is such a diverse crowd it is hard to pin it all down thematically. One thing definitely says this is not a DS show is the near total lack of display guys, save some specialty stuff.
There are yet more companies doing video analytics, begging the question of Why??? One declared it was the future of retail. Sure it is.
I saw some things that were intriquing or just well done. I liked an interactive LED floor thing by company called brightlogic, and numerous iPad/tablet enclosures built for retail, notably one from company called BouncePad.
I chatted with the guys who pretty much took over Cisco’s digital signage book of business anduse their own software. Getting a demo today but was surprised to learn Appspace is a pretty big company.
Doing this on a tablet. Not best way. Did some rough notes last night and discovered the tablet app didn’t save them. It published them.
David,
You continue to be my favorite writer.
Thanks
I try to balance insight with a little snark.
What were you day two impressions?