Read Industry Comments On DSE’s Demise

September 22, 2020 by Dave Haynes

Lots of great comments being added to Monday’s post about the business failure of Digital Signage Expo’s show management company, and what that means for the industry.

The latest one, from Jon Dodge at Freshwater in Grand Rapids, MI:

Freshwater has enjoyed sitting on the Advisory Board for the last decade. This was the one show where I knew I would be able to meet up with all of our partner companies and friends. Sad to see this organization come to an end.

There is some predictable upset about how the company handled the delays and booth deposits, and tried to pull the show off when it was pretty clear few people would turn up.

There are also many positive comments about the contribution the show had to the growth of the industry and its culture.

All comments are here …

  1. David Keene says:

    I can’t speak to the financial details of booth space, deposits, etc. That’s a shame, and very unfortunate. But keep in mind: the principals of DSE/Exponation, were risk-takers. I say that in a positive way: risk-takers in the sense that we all like to say about classic entrepreneurs – “they did not do status quo… they were willing to take risks to move their organizations to someplace new…” Of course, when we admire risk takers, we always admire the successful ones, we don’t mention the ones that took the risk and failed (but we all know that winners learn from many failures).
    Angelo, Chris, and team, were risk takers who in fact propelled the “digital signage” market forward, in key years. Even starting the DSE show was a risk. Sparring with the “Digital Signage Association” was a risk (the DSE won that battle…). Of course, others were key: Brad Gleeson, Alan and Jonathan Brawn, and many more. (And BTW, Brad and I, launched Digital Signage Magazine, in those years when DSE was the rising star, and that probably would not have happened without the DSE show…. so I too am grateful for DSE and Angelo + Chris + teams’ contribution.)
    But as we have learned so many times in 2020, this year is not kind to risk-takers. DSE was brave, and risk-taking in the best entrepreneurial sense, when they doubled down on DSE and instead of cancelling it, moved it to the fall. And be honest, when they did that, everyone thought that by the fall it would all be “back to normal….” The gamble did not pay off, but we can’t focus blame on people who chose to forge ahead, not sit on the sidelines, or hunker down.

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