The Sixteen:Nine Mixer At InfoComm Is Tonight: Need To Know Information

June 13, 2023 by Dave Haynes

It is Sixteen:Nine Digital Signage Mixer Day in Orlando, with a big crowd registered for the networking event this evening, 6 to 8 pm. Here are some things to know …

Location

The event venue is Vu Orlando, which is about five miles due east of the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) and all the hotels in and around I-Drive. It will take about 10 minutes by car. The address is: 9460 Delegates Dr, Orlando, FL 32837.

I went by there yesterday. It is in a mixed-use area and the low-slung building doesn’t jump out at you. So make sure you have that address right for your driver, or if you are driving yourself, in your nav system. There is some available parking, but for dozens of cars, not hundreds.

If you are going to visit the open bar, ride-share or assign a DD.

Big thanks to the 2023 Mixer Sponsors!

Access

The most important thing to know is that you need to be registered. The event is being put on and managed by my friends at AVIXA, the trade association that owns and puts on InfoComm in the US and versions of it globally. Registration was done via the InfoComm site, and attendees will need an InfoComm badge with their name on it to get in. And that’s ONLY if the registration for that badge included registration for the mixer.

In other words, the InfoComm badge alone won’t get you in (10s of 1,000s of InfoComm attendees ave those). You need to also have registered for this specific event.

If you have indeed registered but, by mixer time, have not yet been to the convention center to get your badge, or are maybe coming from the airport, the InfoComm team will have a badge printer at the venue (Vu Orlando) to generate badges right there. The knock-on benefit is you will then be able to dodge the line at the OCCC the next morning and walk right into the show like a boss.

Walk-ups … just don’t

The Mixer is VERY, VERY, VERY sold out – like fingers-crossed-that-not-everyone-who-IS-registered-shows-up sold out. There’s always a percentage of people who plan to attend, but don’t turn up for a variety of reasons, including flight delays or booth-building that takes longer than expected.

If you have not registered, sorry. It doesn’t matter how nicely you word your email to me – I still don’t have any spare slots. Those emails have been coming in to me all last week and then on Monday. We’d love to have everybody in who wants to be there, but …

With the mixers I run on my own (AVIXA was keen on doing this one with me), I usually have wiggle room to allow some people who just show up to nonetheless get in – possibly without drink tickets. But this is a different kind of venue and different kind of arrangements. So if you are planning to just make your way over and talk your way in, don’t. Please.

The Venue

The event venue is a production studio, so it will have a different feel from the restaurants and bars where most networking events are held for trade shows. There is a lobby, and those people who ARE registered and DO have badges will be checked in and zig-zagged down corridors to the big production room and LED volume.

I had a look at the creative down for free by three studios, in exchange for exposure to hundreds of industry pros and the chance to play with a 155-foot curved canvas. All three pieces look great. Shots at bottom.

There is an open bar, and there will be food to graze on and tide you over until a real dinner. Or maybe make that your dinner, as your spouse or Mom won’t know dinner was eight quickly-inhaled, deep-fried something or others.

If you are heading down to Orlando today, have a safe, uneventful and on-time trip. Surprise! It’s insanely hot and muggy here.

I got various things done … considered the state of things … and pointed my rental car at Cocoa Beach. And I found a breeze, shade and a pier bar with a beer that cost, remarkably, $3.72.

Previews of on-screen content for tonight …