Article

Bigger, better KioskCom marks optimistic outlook

The 2003 KioskCom event in Las Vegas was notable for a full house, business optimism and a number of near ready-for-market projects.

April 15, 2003

LAS VEGAS - With attendance up from 1,100 to 1,900, it's easy to say that moving KioskCom 2003 here from Orlando was a bright idea. But Lawrence Dvorchik, the show's director, said that was just one factor in the show's success.

"People are dying for information, and seem to take incredible interest in what people are talking about (in the sessions)," he said. "People enjoy Las Vegas, but I don't know if it was the change in venue or the changes we made, it all worked to bring it back."

Many sessions were standing room only in rooms that held 50-75 people, and not one of the 30 sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday failed to attract an audience. Dvorchik said that details of next year's KioskCom haven't been finalized, though he said sites in Las Vegas are among those being considered.

Among the most popular additions were a series of kiosks lining the venue that provided instant information on conference sessions and hours. Dvorchik said the kiosks were a unique way for sponsors St. Clair Interactive and IBM to show their expertise and provide a valuable service to attendees.

Discussions with dozens of folks on the show floor revealed a near-unanimous opinion - exhibitors left the hall with hot leads to follow up on, and projects in the pipeline are going to happen this year.

Terry Cooper of Telpar may have said it best when contrasting last year's event in Orlando with this one. During an exchange at the Las Vegas airport as he was headed back to Dallas, he said, "We've got plenty of paper (sales leads) to take back this year. Last year it was more like 12 printer manufacturers looking at each other."

Here are some of the highlights from this reporter:

Picture this - As the competition to Kodak's kingdom in photo kiosks grows, it's interesting to see another photo-related idea blossom. PictureMark's Ron Tonini says his company will set up its unique photo opp at 200 events in 2003, four times its exposure last year. Tonini said the next big project is a 40-city tour for the band Good Charlotte. The tour's sponsor, Honda, will offer concertgoers pictures from the show, but they'll have to answer a series of questions online to get the pic. Sounds like a great way for Honda to get the names of potential car buyers. As for Good Charlotte, well, their new CD, "The Young and the Hopeless" is in stores now.

When we come backÂ…When NetWorld's Bob Fincher opened his well-researched presentation on human dynamics, he took a page from every local television news broadcast in America. Fincher, an owner of KIOSKmarketplace.com, teased the audience of 35, saying that news of a "truly historic kiosk deployment" would come at the end of the presentation. The tease may not have been necessary, though it was the last session of the day and the post-show bar opened as the same hour. So what was the big news? Fincher explained a test being conducted at a Louisville, Ky. Wal-mart in which General Electric is using a small in-store space to sell large appliances, using limited inventory and, you guessed it, a kiosk. He said the companies are hesitant to talk about the pilot program, but that all concerned are optimistic it will become a new method for purchasing large appliances. As for Fincher's opinion, he said it will "dramatically affect retail all over the world."

CeroView from the top: Kiosk manufacturer CeroView's strategy for the show was different. The California company outfitted its four staffers at the show in eye-catching hockey-style jerseys and rented a skybox above the show floor, in lieu of an actual exhibit. CeroView hosted guests and its partners in the skybox, according to Rachel Lopez, and worked with five of those partners who displayed CeroView products in their booths.

While you're here. Among several new companies on the exhibit floor was Prophet Systems, a subsidiary of broadcasting giant Clear Channel Communications. Prophet is a producer of systems used by radio stations to automate programming, or you might say eliminate the need for disc jockeys on music stations. Roy Studviyn said the company was displaying two larger booths over at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where 90,000 folks were expected to attend the National Association of Broadcasters convention, reportedly one of the five largest annual shows in Las Vegas. Studviyn participated as a member of the software panel, unaware of the difficulty he'd have getting a word in with the talkative group that included St. Clair's Doug Peter, Apunix's Peter Berens and Alex Richardson of Netkey. Studviyn, explaining his company's prominence in broadcasting, called it the "Netkey of NAB."

Enter to win. The Redmon Group, which develops multimedia projects, had a flashy booth for its first KioskCom. Development director Ken Cline said the company entered the KioskCom awards competition for its museum kiosk for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and decided to try making its presence felt in the kiosk industry as well. Cline, whose project finished second in the Government project category, said the Alexandria, Va.-based firm would likely return because it expected to enter another project in next year's awards competition.

Don't I know you?Â… A familiar face found in an unfamiliar spot was James Winsor, who was a busy man in a green shirt extolling the virtues of KDS Pixel Touch. When we last checked, Winsor was developing a kiosk division at Arral Industries in southern California. Winsor said he left Arral in January as the firm was divesting its kiosk business. He explained he took February off, then hit the ground running at KDS Pixel Touch in March. Pixel Touch, which is best-known for its touchscreen business, hopes to build its kiosk and software division under Winsor's guidance. The 13-year-old company recently bought a new 30,000-square foot facility in Ontario, Calif., and plans to expand its staff from 20 to 30 employees.

Remember the term "VC"? It was refreshing to meet Julie Chen, who came to the KioskCom show from Atlanta seeking partners and "VC" money to move forward with a patent in the photo kiosk space. Chen, whose company is called 1020 Innovations, LLC, explained that she'd cashed in a few years ago when she worked at a Silicon Valley startup (Xros) that was purchased by Nortel and went public, and she and four other engineers are now developing a new patent. Among other things, the patent has a technique for printing digital images on heat transfer paper, allowing such applications as tattoo patterns, on multi-functional kiosks. She said she met several potential partners at the show. She's seeking $150,000 to fund a prototype.

Special software, really special - Sure, there's a lot of talk about software from kiosk-related companies. Touchpoint Solutions Inc. vice president Shamira Jaffer explained that her company's Catapult software has been 30 months and $6 million in the making. Catapult, Jaffer said, was deployed slowly with a handful of clients, and only last month did the Delaware-based firm begin marketing the product. Already, the back-end management software system is being installed on a deployment of 3,500 digital jukebox kiosks during the next two years. It was recently chosen as the backbone for an unspecified 20,000-unit worldwide deployment.

Coming from KOA - More than 50 people stopped in for a few beers and the Kiosks.org Association annual meeting on Monday night. After Association president Dick Good presented a full report on a healthy and growing association, executive director Craig Keefner announced a new initiative for Retail Systems, a retail trade show that attracts 6,000 visitors in Chicago. For the June 9-12 show, Kiosks.org will have its own area on the exhibit floor. Opportunities for members to participate are available.

The Color of Money - The color of new $20 bills is changing this fall, and that means a flurry of changes are in store for bill acceptors manufacturers and the people who own them. That was one of the messages sent by MEI at the session on cash acceptance. The session, which in general made the point that if you don't accept cash at a kiosk you're missing a significant portion of the population, was popular with chocolate fans. MEI, part of the Mars candy empire, handed out M&Ms to those who showed up. Later, John Petkus of Hemisphere West said software to update bill acceptors is easily downloaded, even from a PDA, but that changes in currency are a constant concern.