DSF’s NYC Cocktails And Controversy Event Next Week Focused On AI And Digital Signage

October 3, 2023 by Dave Haynes

The Digital Signage Federation is running an evening mixer and panel next week in New York, at the front end of what has been rebranded as Out of Home New York.

The “Cocktails & Controversy” session next Monday will focus on the topic of “AI and Digital Signage – Myth, Marvel or Magic?” 

My friends with the DSF asked me to moderate, so I will be poking away at Jeffrey Weitzman, the Montreal-based GM of Navori Labs, longtime creative and tech expert Jim Nista, who has his won small shop in Long Beach, CA, and Chris Grosso, CEO of the big media company Intersection.

It would be reasonable to wonder why there are no AI companies or specific AI experts on this panel, but AI is SUCH a broad topic I think bringing in people from AI-specific companies wouldn’t know much or anything about digital signage and digital out of home. I’d rather ask industry people what they’re doing, and what they’re hearing as asks and needs from customers.

Here’s how the DSF positions the event:

At this year’s edition of the popular “Cocktails & Controversy,” event, the Digital Signage Federation tackles the topic with “AI and Digital Signage – Myth, Marvel or Magic?” Industry veteran and Sixteen:Nine Founding Editor Dave Haynes truth-talks with the key industry leaders utilizing AI in their software platforms and explores how machine learning can take our industry to the next level both behind the walls, and in front of the customer.  Making up this panel will be Jeffrey Weitzman, General Manager Navori Labs, Jim Nista, Consultant and Digital Signage Creative Director, and Chris Grosso, CEO at Intersection.

We encounter AI on the daily with our everyday computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence: speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. How is artificial intelligence and machine learning present in the way our software operates ‘behind the walls’ and how might AI generate new forms of content for digital signage? 

This group of AI specialists will share the latest on AI use cases, de-bunk the myths we may propagate as an industry – and walk us through mind-blowing considerations for AI to future-proof digital signage and the way it is utilized today, and tomorrow.

“Cocktails & Controversy” is taking place at SONY’s Flatiron District offices as part of the week long Out of Home New York series of events and is sponsored by the DSF Advisory Council. The event begins with cocktails at 6:00 p.m. followed by the panel discussion.  The Sony Offices are located at 25 Madison Ave. between East 24^th and East 25^th Street in Manhattan.

OOH NY was for many years marketed as NY Digital Signage Week, but it has always been timed with the cornerstone event run by the DPAA, which is ALL about digital OOH advertising. Many of the other events are also primarily involving companies that supply or work with the DOOH market, so a re-brand makes sense.

I will only be in for a couple of days, as NYC is both hyper-expensive and exhausting. My plans are to hit some of the DPAA event (possibly bringing a translator who speaks ad tech), the Sony roadshow (at the same venue as the DSF event), and the annual party money guy Mark Boidman puts on at the Solomon Partners office in midtown.

I also want to go walkies in NYC and see some newish installs, as I’ve not been in the city since COVID turned up. Suggestions on what to see and where would be welcomed! Times Square is an obvious one for the newest big-ass boards, as well as the Krispy Kreme store (for the digital, not the donuts … gained five pounds on UK trip).

There are still some openings for Boidman’s party: