I’m Back
October 2, 2023 by Dave Haynes
I’m back. Anything happen?
For a big change, I actually took off an extended amount of time and through September didn’t do anything more than glance at emails and clear off most of them, so I wouldn’t come back to 3,000+ messages this morning.
My wife Joy was very impressed I didn’t even bring a laptop with me on a week’s trip to the UK, though I did do several meetings and site visits while there. Because we were there.
As half-expected, Halifax and the lower half of Nova Scotia had a hurricane – Lee – but it was relatively tame, taking out a few branches on our property but not even knocking out power. It did knock our flight back four days – the airport measured a gust of 137 kmh on the day we were supposed to fly, so that was, umm, prudent.
The trip over was great, in particular, to catch up with some industry friends in and near London.
We trained it up to Cambridge but stopped at the town/village/I dunno of Audley End – and were picked up by Jason Cremins for a visit to the countryside offices of Signagelive, where he is CEO. I’d never been to the offices – and a lot of people are dispersed and work remotely. But they have a big hardware QA and staging area, and a big room dedicated to remote meetings and product education – something the company does really well.
Lots going on with these guys, directly and via partners like Entwined in Australia.
We also had a great lunchtime catch-up in London with Trison UK CEO Peter Critchley and his client director Daniel Marosif. Critchley says his solutions-driven company – formerly known as Beaver but known a subsidiary to Spain-based integrator Trison – is seeing a LOT of growth in airports and sports and entertainment venues.
More on that separately.
We spent a lot of time in mass transport and I will do a post separately about boring but highly effective signage on subway and rail lines.
I also found a place in London (see main pic) that has Vedett Extra White on tap – my absolute fave Belgian beer, but have only seen in groceries in Amsterdam and, very weirdly, on tap in an Italian place in Shenzhen, China??? This one, if you like your Belgian whites like Blue Moon, is at Boro Bistro, right off London Bridge and immediately adjacent to Borough Market.
Happy to have taken extended time off, but also happy to get back at it.
I’ll be in NYC next week for a couple of days – mainly for the DSF’s Cocktails and Controversy event on October 9th. I am moderating and the topic is “AI and Digital Signage – Myth, Marvel or Magic?”
Myth doesn’t seem like a word that applies, but certainly the other two.
Then it is DSE in early December in Vegas, and ISE at the end of January, in Barcelona.
Thanks again for taking the time to travel up from London to meet us, Dave.
I am pleased you and Joy are safely home (and hopefully storm-damage-free) and look forward to catching up online and in person at ISE next February.
Welcome HOME Dave! I look forward to each and every post!
Thanks Tim