InfoComm 2009

Since I’ve personally lived in just about all the states where tradeshows regularly take place, sometimes I feel like I’m “coming home” so to speak when I visit these shows. Orlando and Vegas are two places I have lived, it was a bit more nostalgic for me this time because it’s been several years since I’ve been back to Florida–what a beautiful state.

Attendance

Overall, attendance seemed down from last year’s exhibition. That’s been the case with all the shows I’ve attended in the last 15 months. I’m sure it could probably be blamed on the economy. That seems to be standard lately: blame lack of success on the “economic conditions” of the country. Hence, it would seem the lead gen ability of the show was down, except for those who were there for a reason. I heard rumored that 50% of tradeshow attendees already have an agenda when they visit any show and the other 50% are there primarily for the SWAG. And, if you have to spend $250k on a booth just to have meetings with people, it might be worth it to rethink your marketing platform. There was still a grip load of people in attendance, but even the first day lacked the regular crowd attendance usually attending such a large show.

Exhibitors

Like last year, Crestron was gaudy. Scala had a small, but nice booth. I really like some of the display booths. Samsung, LG, NEC, and Sony all had some “pretty” booths. I was also impressed by a few of the telepresence companies. One had developed their own copy of Microsoft Surface “in-house.” It was sweet. You could pass docs between offices by sliding the files across the table. It was also integrated with touchscreen lcd displays.

Attendees

I ran into Dave Haynes, in passing, as he received a demo from the CoolSign gents. It was the first time I’ve had that opportunity. He detailed his 26-day stint and unfortunate layoff of his last job. Sad story. I really don’t think he’ll have any issues finding anything. He mused about breaking into Lyle’s space as another one of the industry’s Lone Rangers. But he was not hedging his bets; he had 4 or 5 interviews for positions while at the show. In fact, our discussion had to be cut short as he bustled off to a quick interview.

Lyle Bunn could be seen, but only if you didn’t blink. He was running around like the Energizer bunny from booth to booth. Catching him is generally like cornering the sasquatch. I’m actually crafting this at the Orlando airport. While we were checking in a moment ago, I saw Kayye’s “Rave” crew as we went through the checkpoint strip-down. They were fully identifiable with their garb. I meant to get to the POPAI standards with Gerba and the POPAI crew, but was too busy to attend.

Like Marty Lash of LG, I agree that InfoComm is a great show for “gear heads” and geeks. Hence the success and huge displays put on by Crestron and Extron. I’m in love with technology, but not solely for technology’s sake, so I don’t place myself in the “gear head” category. However, I always love speaking with a few nerds. They’ve the most interesting things to tell you.

Technology

Geeks can also show you cool, but sometimes useless, devices. Such was the case at this year’s InfoComm. Besides your typical holographic displays etc., we ran into one fellow controlling the screen’s content via a “laser” (you have to say that with a voice like Austin Powers). He even had a glove with multiple “laser beams” wherein he was able to control a stick man on the screen. The application of such a technology is beyond me. I discussed it with others and all we could do was laugh. “Gear heads”? Certainly. There were some one-off tweaks of former technologies I’ve seen previously, but nothing so new as to catch the eye and warrant an “awe!” from me. It was fairly standard. I still love the large format, 100″ displays. I can’t wait till the prices drop to the consumer level. A boy isn’t a boy without his toys.

Closing Thoughts

Bluntly put: digital signage is not there yet. Although, in many instances proven, it’s lack of wide acceptance by external sources (i.e. those who have the money to spend) was very evident in the amount spent by those exhibiting in the digital signage section of the show. Either they’re not spending because they don’t have or they’re not spending because this is not the place to gain viable sales leads. Shows are often about the pomp, to prove that you’ll still be around with a tanking market. It’s at least about the “puffer fish” show of a future viability. My take.

My real thoughts are that there are many more industry specific tradeshows where digital signage vendors could make much more of an impact on their bottom line. I would ask for some comments regarding this below, but I’m sure you’ll have a hard time spouting them off for the competition to see. I should do a post on the possible tradeshows you could attend apart from InfoComm. What do you think?