Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
#InfoComm11 is truly a hard core AV show and so when we ask “Is #InfoComm11 Any Good?” we ask in terms of our industry: digital signage, digital out of home etc.
We’ve made the trip in alternate years to Las Vegas and Orlando for quite a few years now and in all that time we have seen a very poor digital signage representation. The problem has been with the organisers who have always failed to delineate a digital signage zone correctly and keep it pure.
This year they have done a pretty good job but there is still plenty of work for them to do; their floor signage is much better but there are stil lots of random vendors in the zone poised to confuse the unsuspecting punter as to what constitutes digital signage.
With the spat between DSE and CETW seemingly veering on the ridiculous in terms of dates in calendars (the 2012 events are a mere two weeks apart in March as you can see in our industry events calendar), we feel that #InfoComm11 has the opportunity to become the preeminent DS show in the US should they decide that’s what they want to do.
We bet that the likes of ComQi and Scala will have written more business at this show than any other in the US this year. Customers like OOH folks and retailers are thin on the ground unless accompanied / on free trips from the larger screen manufacturers but there is an undeniable thirst for digital signage product and knowledge from the AV community and the one place where you find that said AV community is here in Orlando one year and Las Vegas in June the next.
Quite simply, based on the evidence of this show, Europe has the best two shows in the world: ISE in Amsterdam in Feb and #ScreenmediaExpo in May in London. All of the events in the US have a hell of a lot of catching up to do with those but it’s our feeling that it is more likely to be an event that draws in 30,000 punters like this one than those say in California that draw in maybe 3,000.
June 17th, 2011 at 12:54 @579
I would have to agree, for sheer number and quality of leads from both resellers and end users, InfoComm takes some beating.
If you have a clear channel focused product and sales strategy then shows such as InfoComm and ISE are the ones to be at.