Rebooted DSE Starts To Announce Exhibitors; Adopts NYC-Inspired Floor Plan For Hall

November 17, 2021 by Dave Haynes

In looking at the background on the DSF partnership with Questex, I noticed the business events company has started making announcements about exhibitors who have now committed to the Digital Signage Experience floor in late March in Vegas.

There are only seven eight listed right now, but I have heard from at least a couple of big hardware companies that have also made formal commitments to have a substantial presence on the floor. The big ones take up the largest and best positions, but they also – I assume – validate the show and compel the smaller exhibitors to also commit to booths.

Those companies that are already in:

Update – They just announced Peerless-AV as a Gold sponsor and exhibitor.

I’ve no doubt there’s been some reticence for vendors to commit because the show is effectively new and untried in its rebooted form, but also simply that the pandemic that refuses to end is a cloud hanging over the marketing teams at numerous companies.

In looking at the floor plan, it is very different from how Exponation did the show through its 15 or so years.

First, this has (and I have no idea why) a New York City theme and layout. Instead of the major exhibitors being in the front or front two rows, and the booths getting smaller the further back you went, this layout has a main avenue that runs the length of the hall. So attendees walk down what’s called the Avenue of the Americas and the big booths are to the left and right. There are a bunch of side streets that are like NYC side streets, all lined with allocations for 10 by 10 booths. So there inference here is that while there will be big flashy stands, the hope and expectation is that the show will be backfilled by a pile of smaller guys with bootstrap-grade marketing and exhibit budgets.

There is also a an area at the rear called Times Square, and evidently geared to the bazillion little Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing LED manufacturers who, often, don’t have offices or full-time sales and support presence in North America, but are hoping to get a foothold. It’s hard to show a video wall in a 10 by 10 area, so I suspect part of the idea here is to buy multiple units, to gain some visible presence.

The show is making what I think is the wise move of incorporating the conference and education sessions into the show hall, as opposed to sending people to some other part of the convention center, as was done with the old DSE (save for specific on-floor sessions). With this set-up, to see and hear the keynote attendees will have to walk down the “Avenue of the Americas” to get to that session.

 

 

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