Tag Archives: Rock Wall

Friday’s 4-1-1, Looking Ahead to DSE Style

The Digital Signage Expo (DSE) holds a special place in my heart. It’s the first conference I covered as “press,” it’s the first time I was really in the know, behind the scenes, the first time I met all of my industry friends face-to-face – in a lot of ways, it was THE thing that really put my blog on the radar for many in the industry. I will be eternally grateful to Geri Wolff (responsible for organizing the entire thing) for taking a chance on someone she’d never heard of and letting me in (as press).

So, Monday, I’m off again for this year’s DSE. I’ve got a different schedule this year because I’m taking part in a few pre-conference activities and by the time it’s over, I will end up missing the last day of sessions. But this is a busy time of year back at work (preparing for SXSW) so I’ve got to make a couple of sacrifices. Today’s Friday 4-1-1 is dedicated to some of the things I’m looking forward to this year.

1. There’s nothing more important than relationships and I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some really great people in this industry. Most of them will be here this week and I’m looking forward to seeing them again. I talk to many of them on a daily basis so I’m sure we’ll pick up as if no time has passed since we actually saw each other. There’s no substitute for face-to-face time and I’m going to take advantage of it.

2. The Preset Group Mixer – I wasn’t able to attend last year, although the guys at Preset were kind enough to invite me last minute. I was buried in SXSW to-dos. Not this year. I’ll be there and I’m really looking forward to it. I suspect I’ll see alot of people that I already know, but many more who I don’t. The guys at Preset are top notch, so I suspect this mixer will be the same.

3. Christie MicroTiles’/Arsenal Media’s BuzzWall – 7′ tall, made up of 41 tiles, multi-touch, multi-user, recently installed for the Miami Dolphins. Sounds a lot like the Hard Rock Cafe’s Rock Wall, just different hardware (which I suspect is what makes this pretty cool). Here in Dallas, Jerry doesn’t even have one of these in his place. I’ve got to see it in action.

4. Wednesday morning’s morning sessions – DSE/DSF has really done a good job this year of focusing the educational sessions. There are various tracks, and they’re actually good and seem to be geared to more than 101-type sessions. There’s a content track (fantastic move!), an interactive technology track, a business track, and 6 others. Wednesday morning, I’ve got to decide between the Content session, the Marketing/Advertising session, and the Interactive session. All look to be awesome. At this point, the Advertising/Marketing session is the favorite.

“Uh-huh” – Like I said, Geri Wolff, has been extremely kind to me and I can’t thank her enough. She’s kept in touch with me over the year and has really treated me well. I’m looking forward to thanking her face-to-face.

“Duh” – I’m teeing it up for a little golf outing with Dave Haynes, Bill Trainor, and Andy Bruce. I haven’t played in a couple of years. I have no idea how it’s going to be. If nothing else, it will no doubt, be fun. Hope I represent, though.

If you’re going to DSE and you’d like to get together, drop me a line and let me know. As always, thanks for reading!

Billboard Yourself – What Are You Made Of?

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I’m late to this in Internet time, but I just stumbled upon it and thought it was a great example of the 11th Screen – merging the offline with the online, the physical world with the digital world.

The whole concept here for Billboard Magazine was to show what music is made of, in the form of getting down to influencers on specific musicians. For instance, you can see that Eminem is “made up of” Ice T, Run DMC, LL Cool Jay and Vanilla Ice. Each musician is a mosaic of these influencer musicians. Pretty cool.

Then, any individual can walk up to this screen, turn the dials to correspond with their particular “influencers,” and see what they’re made of. Then, they can instantly save a photo of themselves to Flickr, which is a nice use of a social component.

The only downfall that I see is that it is single-user. This could keep many people immersed at the same time. I also don’t see any tie-in back to the magazine, which in the end, should be the goal – get something out of bringing this experience to the masses from Billboard Magazine.

That said, I think it’s a great example of taking a physical object (fabricated unit with dials on it) and digital components (like a screen and camera) and creating an immersive experience out of it. Then, being able to share it with a social community like Flickr. This, of course, racked up many awards last year (Clio and a Cannes Grand Prix). Nice work, AlmapBBDO.

Side note thought – I was at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas earlier this year and interacted with their Rock Wall and the other technology in their store and they could really learn from this. While all of the Hard Rock’s technology and experiences are cool and certainly immersive, they aren’t personal and they don’t extend beyond the store. Here, in this example, you can see how easy it is to a) make it personal and b) extend it beyond the physical location. In my mind, both of these elements really separate good from great, shallow from deep and meaningful experiences.

What do you guys think? Would love to hear your thoughts. Shout back if you’re so inclined.

Top 5 Moments of DSE 2010

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As you’ve read from previous posts, I found DSE to be very rewarding. My top 5 moments:

1. Hard Rock Café Access – My first impressions from everything there were mixed – overwhelmed, underwhelmed (in a weird sort of way), giddy, and confused. Stepping away from it all, I’m able to digest all that I experienced there. No matter what, that Rock Wall really does rock. MS Surfaces are fun to play around with and I’m sure that if I were dining there, I would play with the booth touch screens to the point where it would probably be annoying. Truth be told, with all of the interactivity there, there might not be a better place for lovers of the 11^th Screen world to go, including me. Interestingly enough, I just saw that these were featured in what I consider to be the gold standard in industry recognition – the new Communication Arts Interactive Annual (yet to be published online).

2. One-on-one discussions – the information and knowledge that I took away from the formal sessions paled in comparison to all of the one-on-one discussions I had. Guys at the Preset Group, Symon Communications, Reflect Systems, Muzak, Digital Signage Today, Daily DOOH, Arinc, and Daktronics – I enjoyed meeting you all and I look forward to continuing the conversation. We are all excited about the future of digital/interactive out of home.

3. The different & consistent perspectives of the future of DOOH – everyone talked about the future of digital out of home being bright. They also talked about the barriers we face – lack of consistency, measurement, and stories. There are many companies in the industry doing the same exact thing, but there are far too few stories and proven success. The industry, agencies, media planners/buyers, and clients need all three of these things – consistency, measurement standards, and stories.

4. The on-the-floor workshops – I attended Keith Kelsen’s and Gary Kayye’s small workshops and they were, hands down, the best formalized sessions offered at the show. Both are industry leaders and visionaries and I would recommend everyone hear them talk.

5. Mobile and social integration into digital signage – by extension, mobile and social integration into digital signage makes it interactive signage. I look at this as interactive out of home – 11^th screen. I believe that this is the immediate future of DOOH. Content will always reign, and the better, more relevant the content is, the more people will be compelled to interact with it. But once you connect people through content, you have deeper engagement. And with deeper engagement, you strengthen relationships. With strong relationships, you have trust and with trust, you have loyalty and advocacy. I saw two companies integrating mobile & social – LocaModa (who you’ve probably all heard of, thanks to Jumbli) and Aerva (who I just heard of) – watch out for them both, especially Aerva. They have a great offering(s).

Again, none of this would have happened without the folks at DSE. They were really good to me and “thanks” on paper just doesn’t seem like it can capture my gratitude. I look forward to seeing them again.

How about you guys? What were your top moments of DSE?