#LondonIsThePlaceToBe Will Continue…
In his opening remarks at The DailyDOOH Gala Awards back in November 2013, OVAB President and NEC Display Solutions Manager DOOH Solutions, Dirk Hülsermann called for a London Media Week – at the same time coining the phrase #LondonIsThePlaceToBe.
London Digital Signage Week of course, took place some five months later (May 2014) and is due once again to take place May 18-22, 2015.
Dirk’s point was that London is very much leading the way when it comes to the adoption of digital in the outdoor industry and much of the world is watching our fair city (and the rest of the United Kingdom), desperate to learn as much as it can from the people and installations that make it so dominant in the digital out of home sector.
We took Dirk’s words as a cue to interview some of London’s leading lights in the sector (including of course, Dirk himself): –
- Stacey Knight, Director of Digital at JCDecaux UK
- Steve Cox, Marketing Director, JCDecaux Airport UK
- Tim Cartwright, Head Of Digital, Exterion Media
- Alex Hollingdale, Product Director at Clear Channel UK
- Dirk Huelsermann, Head of VUKUNET EMEA
There are perhaps two other things to note about the London talent pool; gone seemingly are the days of the OOH merry-go-round – the Head of Digital at JCDecaux, Stacey Knight, previously worked in online, Alex Hollingdale (who has, since being interviewed, left Clear Channel) was also one of many recent appointments in the outdoor sector to come from a non-OOH background (and although not featured in our book this year we note that Kinetic CEO, Stuart Taylor, also comes from a print background).
New Exterion Media CEO, Shaun Gregory is also a great example of this trend of recruiting super smart people from outside the industry.
This fresh new talent pool entering the OOH market has challenged conventional thinking and we believe has helped drive change in the OOH industry.
Starting again in October we will once again be interviewing the leading lights of London so watch this space!
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