Tales From The ISE Aisles: Two Weeks Later And I’m Still Tired

February 23, 2017 by guest author, Mitch Leathers

Guest Post: Luis Villafane, Maler Digital Signage

ISE ended two weeks ago, and I’m still tired.

Luis Villifane

I fell asleep on the plane before we took off from Amsterdam to Madrid. Then slept again from Madrid to Coruna. I got home, kissed my wife and kids, handed them presents, and took a two and half hour nap.

I woke up not knowing where or when I was … Had some coffee, talked to my family, had something to eat and went to bed and slept for 13 straight hours.

As I said, I’m still tired.

ISE was amazing … ly expensive. Kidding. It was really good. We had so much work we could not spare more than an hour to visit the stands outside Hall 8. I did see LG´s tiny stand (way to go guys!!!), and felt really sorry for everyone that spent tons of cash for a space near them … or behind them. .

Anyhow, we had tons of visitors to our “cute and simple” stand in Hall 8. It was a great time, as well, to meet and touch base with other software DS companies.

I had a wonderful chat with the guys from ICON Multimedia from Spain (Deneva). A really nice “while smoking chat” with Maarten Dollevoet and his VP from BroadSign about the London Underground (it was my first baby after all …).

I met the TriplePlay sales guy from Spain, and I finally met Dave Haynes.

I also had a very nice chat with Damon Crowhurst, (former Scala, current Samsung); and a few more that I just can´t say — wink wink,  back off people…!

All of them were super nice, extremely friendly and wonderful (although they are blind to think they can compete with our solution).

Then, I also went to the Scala booth. 🙁

At any rate, you are all wondering where my usual 16:9 guest ranting is … well, here goes:

• When we got to ISE to view our space, we found that it was full with someone else’s crap. Empty boxes, food, trash … took me about an hour to find someone to take care of it.
• ISE needs to set up extra time for exhibitors to be able to visit the show, as well. Really. From the time they open for exhibitors to do the set-up for the day, until the time they open the doors to the public, there are only a few minutes left to wonder around. Thus, I was running like an idiot dropping business cards and hoping that they will remember me (not a chance).
• ISE must place security, and not have the exhibitors pay extra for it. Someone stole an iPhone charger and also a small opened candy box left on our table. (NOTE: the candy box disappeared the same day that Adrian from DailyDOOH left his business card on one of our monitors… coincidence?  ;-]
• Internet connection: 1mb for almost 1,000€ for four days!?! … No comment here, as it is quite obvious.
• Lift trucks. Our delivery arrived quite late on Sunday, and the company at the show that rented the lift trucks closed at 7pm. So, we had to unload by hand. My arms still hurt. If we were allowed to work until midnight, all services offered must also remain open. You need to realize that some of us don’t have an endless budget to bring 120 people to build the stand in 20 min … we need our energy for the four days coming, not for unloading.
• Water. You cannot charge 3 euros for a 40 cent water bottle. You just cannot. It should be illegal. 40 cents its already too much, for 3€ the water should come from directly from the clouds surrounding Mount Olympus, and Zeus should sign every bottle.

Overall, ISE was a great experience. We made four “extremely nice” business contacts, a few “really good” ones, and several hundred crappy ones.

I had really nice chats with competitors; I had a good laugh with some old business partners that have made a lot more money than me. I met some very nice people.

Rants aside, ISE was worth the money and the effort.

Editor: Just to add to the whining, someone in the ISE press room permanently borrowed the warm gloves I had in the pocket of my coat, hung up in the press room. It was cold, and I’m guessing they weren’t expecting snow in Amsterdam. The thief could have been from Spain, I suppose. Hmmmm.

Maler, by the way, is the new sponsor for Projects, the sister 16:9 Podcast that takes a deep look into how great digital signage projects came together.