Some 450 Attendees At Last Week’s Digital Signage Summit In Munich
May 29, 2024 by Dave Haynes
The team behind last week’s Digital Signage Summit event in Munich have pushed out a summary that says it pulled 450 attendees – mainly from Europe but several from much further afield.
Now, if you’ve not been to this event, 450 might not seem like many people … when European trade shows like ISE pull some 74,000 unique visitors. But this is a conference, not a trade show, and heavily populated by senior level people from most of the big companies active in the European and Middle Eastern digital signage and pro AV sectors. So it’s an apples and oranges thing, and I don’t think the venue could hold many more attendees without losing the event’s unique charms and value.
“The summit,” says PR, “discussed trends like the growing importance of software, whose contribution to projects will exceed that of hardware for the first time, omnipresent topics including the need to significantly reduce energy consumption and industry challenges such as the slow adoption of new technologies.”
This year’s line-up of industry leading sponsors included Google ChromeOS as Headline Sponsor, Lenovo, Intel and Google ChromeOS as Premium Event Partners, M-Cube as Badge Technology Sponsor as well as Framen as Stage Sponsor.
Craig Francis, Digital Signage Partner Manager and Product Expert, Google ChromeOS EMEA: “I think DSS Europe is one of the key moments in our calendar for digital signage. It’s great to meet all of our friends, colleagues and partners here. It’s so great to learn what’s happening in the industry, and really just to see what opportunities there are to collaborate together and how to grow the ecosystem as a partnership.”
Johanny Payero, Director, Global Advanced Solutions Marketing, Lenovo:, “This is our first time officially being a Premium Event Partner, and we’ve had some very meaningful conversations, we’ve had really great opportunities for new partnerships, expanding into more of the digital signage space, so it’s actually been a really good show.”
Co-hosted by invidis Consulting and Integrated Systems Events, DSS Europe played host to exhibiting industry greats such as DynaScan, Sharp NEC, Sony, Samsung, Ameria, and Vanguard displaying innovative solutions from the digital signage industry. With a worldwide demand for more sustainable solutions, DSS Europe presented a dedicated ‘Green Signage Hall of Fame’ with a host of brands including Signage OS, Absen, PPDS, LED Studio, Cingerine, First Impression Audiovisual, Visionect and Broadsign demonstrating a range of solutions and software specifically chosen by invidis for their green credentials.
Alan Kaufman, President, DynaScan: “DSS Europe is a very important event for us. It reassures us that we are moving in the right direction. We need validations like the ones we get from events like DSS Europe, otherwise we sit in a bubble and lose our connection to the market.”
Alongside the exhibition area, the extensive conference programme featured expert industry figures and emerging disruptors from across the digital signage and DooH industry. The two-day agenda boasted 49 keynote addresses, best practice sessions, workshops, panel discussions and networking events, with 81 speakers taking a deep dive into a wide range of the industry’s key topics of discussion around this year’s summit theme ‘Connecting Signage: The Shift to Software-Defined Visual Solutions’. Focussing on software and IT security, 13 sessions featuring 30 thought leaders discussed what the industry needs to know about this defining component of the digital signage ecosystem. The demands on development and service continue to rise, but standards and certifications are missing – a particular challenge when it comes to IT security in an increasingly networked world. The possible future of digital signage software was presented with Samsung’s VXT, an experience platform which could be a gamechanger for the industry but whose approach is questioned by some.
The official launch of the invidis Digital Signage Software Compass on Day One seeks to address one of the key areas of uncertainty in the software market. The vendor-neutral CMS comparison tool works with a scoring model for the most relevant topics for each category. Compass offers comparison categories such as User Interface, Operations, APIs, Innovation, Security, Complexity, Multiplatform Support, Sustainability, and Commercialization.
For the first time, the DSS Europe 2024 agenda also included a Women in Technology Networking Event. Hosted by Lenovo, Intel and Google ChromeOS the event was very popular and triggered a lot of conversations. One of the topics covered was how unconscious bias can translate into AI, potentially creating an AI bias. Payero: “Everyone is saying ‘We should have done this before, thank you for the idea’, so I’m excited to keep leading it and making sure that we continue the conversation.”
For a final exclusive industry insight, attendees were given first access to the newly released invidis Yearbook, featuring market intelligence and a focus on the topic “Signage Software” with comparative analysis and detailed background information. The invidis Yearbook is available in English and German and will be available to download shortly.
I have a hard copy …. pfffft!
Florian Rotberg, Managing Director of invidis and Summit co-chair concludes: “This year’s summit has reached new heights, with an outstanding level of invaluable industry knowledge presented, exchanged and demonstrated across the incredible two-day event. As the premier strategy conference for digital signage and DooH, we have wholeheartedly succeeded in bringing yet again another unmissable event, unravelling the major trends and showcasing the revolutionary technology that will influence our industry for the year ahead.”
Good event. Worth the big flight and cost from North America and I can assure any C-level person doing travel budget approvals that just because it is Bavaria in the summer (the event is more typically first week July, but a big footy tournament forced a date switch just for 2024), this is no boondoggle. VERY valuable 2-3 days.
I managed to grab the audio from three sessions I was involved in – two moderating, the other with me getting snarky on a panel – and will reproduce those as podcasts over the next few weeks.
Photo at top is that rarest of things – a good pic of me, actually smiling???!!! That’s Peter Critchley of Trison UK in the middle, Tim Hoddy of Uniguest and Jan Reiners of Broadsign on the right.
Very well said Dave, it was a great conference with so many good conversations and I hope my next one I get more of that summer.
Hard copy FTW.
Cant wait for the ‘snark’ but also the payoff…
That photo is actually a good representation of how much fun it was on your panels, Dave (even after enthusiastic Old Fashioneds)! Thanks again!