Time To Pave The Dynamic Digital Park

March 18, 2014 by Dave Haynes

It’s a month out from the ISA International Sign Expo in Orlando and it’s reasonable at this point to suggest attempts to drop digital signage into the traditional sign industry’s big North American show have not been all that successful.

The “Dynamic Digital Park” off in one corner has lots of empty slots and the vendors who are there are the ones who were also there last year. The show’s PR people will undoubtedly spin it as somehow bigger in one way or other through percentages and voodoo, but this thing is clearly not a going concern. The park is a fraction of the overall footprint of the Orlando show. As of today, there are 17 booked vendors, of some 500 at the trade show.

Samsung being there makes sense, if they get the message right with their smart sign offer. But BroadSign is a rapid-eye-blinker. Great platform, no doubt, but a Maserati for a crowd that probably needs Fiat 500s for now.

The show floor has two days of vendors getting their speaker slots on the floor to show their pots and pans. There is also a full conference day jam-packed with the usual speaking suspects.

I was at the event last year when it was in Las Vegas and it led into NAB, though I was there with and for a client. I don’t think the vendors got it in terms of putting what they do in the context of what printing people do and need. And from what I saw, a lot of the people who wandered back weren’t really sure what they were looking at or why they should care.

The sign industry is absolutely one that needs to start to learn and embrace this space. Both industries fundamentally do much of the same stuff, but just ise different tools and have different outputs (though even those are blending). But a “park” in the back-40 of a show, that features a sprinkling of disparate vendors and tech and a mini-stage with parade of vendor sales guys droning on about their totally awesome products is not the path to glory.

Time to pave the park, drop the stupid Dynamic Digital Signage handle that no one uses or cares about outside this show, and get some better advice on how to evolve and blend the analog and digital sign industries.