DSE 2018 Foot Traffic Back To Recent Year Averages, But End-User Percentage Up

April 11, 2018 by Dave Haynes

After a seemingly slow day two for foot traffic at Digital Signage Expo a couple of weeks ago, I wondered how the trade show organizers were going to spin the post-show attendance story. The numbers are now out, and DSE is touting how buyer attendance was better than ever.

Atlanta-based Exponation, which has run the show for all of its 15 years, says 2018 end-user attendance represented almost 45% of the traffic for the two days in the exhibit hall. That was up, percentage-wise, over 2017.

The show says a spike to 4,900 attendees in 2017 owed somewhat to three other events – GlobalShop, Cinamacon and Pizza Marketplace – being on in Vegas at the same time, with GlobalShop attendees in particular having free access, as well, to DSE. This year GlobalShop was in Chicago at the same time, and DSE may have been hurt on the retail side by the fast-growing ShopTalk conference held a week prior to DSE in Vegas.

Total attendance was 4,032, which is pretty much the number it has been at for the last five years – not growing, but stable. The show says 93.3% of total attendance comprised of end-users, system integrators and advertising/brand executives. International attendees were 17.5% of the overall attendance, coming from 60 countries.

We’ve been exhibiting at DSE for 13 years now, and this was another successful conference,” says Broadsign CEO Burr Smith is a DSE press release. The quality of exhibitors, speakers and panels continues to improve, and we always have a wonderful time meeting with customers and partners, both old and new. We’re already looking forward to next year.” 

Those comments are in line with some feedback I got after my post talking about the weak Day 2 foot traffic. Exhibitors tend to be less concerned about the numbers of total people through the show than they are with the numbers of new opportunities that develop out of planned or impromptu booth meetings and demos.

DSE says the brands attending the show included: American Express, Arby’s Restaurant Group, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Emory University, Honda, Los Angeles Public Library, Macys, Marriott, McDonalds, NASA, Rite Aid, Smithsonian, Starbucks, Tampa International Airport, UCLA and United Airlines.

DSE 2019 is March 26-28 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

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