Russ Curry, Ministry of New Media
The 8th NEC Solutions Showcase welcomed just over 1500 unique visitors through the doors of Millbank Tower last week, May 18-19 2016 and reaction to the event from the AV industry has, as always, been overwhelmingly positive.
Neil Hartigan, General Manager UK & Ireland, NEC Display Solutions told us “Yet again attendance reached levels higher than expected which proves that the concept of demonstrating practical solutions is exactly what our clients want to see”.
Reflecting the reputation that the Showcase now commands, it was clear to see that the event, as it has done for the past few years, continued to attract a pan-European wide audience. Exhibitors told us, and we felt ourselves, that visitor numbers were evenly spread over the two day event.
It was clear to see that quality and diversity of attendees which the event now attracts, clearly positions the NEC Showcase as a hugely important and valued industry event with exceptionally high visitor expectation. With approximately 40% of visitors being high profile end users, the Showcase’s unique total solutions approach is very appealing. Steve French, solution architect at Deutsche Bank summarised it nicely by saying “it’s not about tech, but usage of tech and how it can be applied to different environments”.
NEC hand-picked 30 best of breed Solutions Partners to bring solutions to life, presenting application scenarios within key vertical sectors including Education, Retail, Corporate and Transport, offering visitors a real life experience.
Neil Hartigan said that he was “absolutely thrilled by the commitment shown by our Partners, without whom the Showcase could not be the unique and successful show it has become”.
He added that “They have all keenly embraced our USP for offering a visitor experience, with Pixel Inspiration’s travel store solution a particular highlight for many who enjoyed a cocktail at the end of their ‘retail customer journey’!”
Keith Dutch, sales & operations director at Peerless-AV who were NEC’s exclusive partner for mounting solutions at this year’s Showcase also said “NEC’s support was outstanding throughout, attendees were all of a high quality, and the venue and floorplan worked well. The Showcase is a unique event in the European AV calendar and the NEC team never fails to improve year on year. Following a successful few days at the Showcase, we have some exciting new business leads to follow up as a result.”
Visitors were treated to a spectacular three minute projection demonstration of 3D pixel mapping, edge blending and warping techniques alongside NEC large format displays in the ‘NEC Experience’ as they entered the Showcase (see above), Richard Bovingdon, head of interactive at Midwich said he was “blown away” by it, adding “who said projection was dead?”.
The visual experiences continued on the top two floors of Millbank Tower where the views over London were spell binding. With much of the AV industry in attendance, networking is a key element of the Showcase which was drawn to a close with an InfoComm drinks event, just one of many items on the London Digital Signage Week calendar of which the Showcase is pivotal.
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