DSA No Longer Tied To CEW Trade Show

March 7, 2014 by Dave Haynes

cew-dsa

Got forwarded a note about the Customer Engagement World no longer being the official trade show of the Digital Screenmedia Association.

I didn’t even know CETW is now CEW, and guess I kinda sorta knew the November show in NYC was the “official” show but didn’t think  of it that way.

The note to DSA members says CEW and DSA “plan to continue working together on a variety of initiatives that support both organizations’ goals as we move into the future.”

“The DSA has just finished our strongest year ever, and we are very encouraged with the positive response from our members.  Several new services and innovative ideas have been introduced over this last year, and we are committed to continuing to develop and offer new solutions that benefit not only our members but also their customers,” says Bill Lynch, President of the DSA.

“We continue to value our relationship with DSA immensely.  Both parties recently agreed that the old agreement that was put in place in 2010 was too restrictive and simply unnecessary at this time.  We look forward to continuing our positive relationship with DSA by developing innovative new programs that will benefit the industries we both serve,” says Joel Davis, Founder and CEO of JD Events, which owns and runs Customer Engagement World.

I have no idea what was restrictive and unnecessary, but my guess is the DSA didn’t want to put all its eggs in one trade show basket and maybe the old agreement mandated that. Industry trade shows are great, but there are sooooo many vertical market shows and events out there that an industry organization might have reason to be involved with in some way.

Does this hurt CEW? I dunno. Kinda doubt it, as I don’t know that many take a booth or attend decisions were made based on the DSA ties.

It might actually help. The very aggressive, very bright guy who has run the show forever – Lawrence Dvorchik –  will tell anyone who’ll stop and listen that Kioskcom/CETW/CEW never was and never will be a digital signage show. Shaking off the DSA tie helps that. There’s no end of emerging technologies that can be applied to consumer marketing in retail, and digital signage is definitely but one of them.

As far as the DSA, and the DSF for that matter, their reason for being should have very little to do with trade shows. When I talk to the people who run the things I always say what’s important to me are compelling reasons to join. Which neither, so far, has given me.

Hope springs eternal.

Leave a comment