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CETW: Voices from the Customer Engagement Technology World show floor

The inaugural Customer Engagement Technology World show is in the books, and the reviews from the show floor are in.

November 15, 2010 by Christopher Hall — w, t

With digital signage, kiosk and mobile technologies, the focus is now shifting to what technology can do, practically speaking, rather than on what technology can do, technically speaking.

The issue now, then, is how deployers can use technology to engage with their customers, then, rather than how deployers can deploy this technology and how it works.

Reflecting that shift, the former KioskCom Self Service Expo and The Digital Signage Show tradeshows put on by JD Events merged to form the Customer Engagement Technology World (CETW) show.

The inaugural CETW show wrapped up last week, and during the show industry leaders reflected on the show's new name and new focus.

Electronic Art LLC owner and CEO Tim Burke noted several highlights at the show, including a remote-controlled, mobile customer service telepresence device that roamed the show floor from its home base at the Vgo booth, as well as multitouch and social media applications.

"I think it (the new show focus) is really good in that it seems they have more of an integrated feel to it, instead of being digital signage over in one pavilion and kiosks over here and components back there," Burke said as he manned the Digital Screenmedia Association (DSA) booth at the show. "You're seeing a lot more convergence and a lot more solutions versus just technology. So I think they're really making a step in the right direction for the customers, in that the customers come, and they can get exposed to all sorts of solutions and technology in one fell swoop."

Longtime digital signage analyst, consultant and evangelist Lyle Bunn called the re-positioning and re-focusing of the show "a naturally occurring phenomenon."

"It's because technology isn't waiting for a tradeshow to be introduced or to be unveiled, but what does have to happen at shows is a meeting of minds around best practice," he said. "And so where people came, speak eye-to-eye, confidentially often, about the applications of technology on the tradeshow floor, that's the big win.

"And the natural move is to what the technology can do, what the business processes can do, the value to the enterprise, to the business. That is where everybody wants to focus. So why not call 'em as we see 'em? It's about customer engagement, whoever that customer is, patron, retail customer, staff member, supplier, whoever that client for the communication is."

Ashley Flaska, vice president of marketing for NEC Display Solutions, says that "the new show format is great."

"The convergence of the two sides, the digital signage and the kiosk sides, are a perfect combination together, because everybody's looking for digital signage and kiosks in one simple solution," she said. "So, again, it's great for us, it's great for all the exhibitors here, that this is now one big happy family."

Digital screen media innovator, analyst and author Keith Kelsen also felt the change in the show reflected the changing trends in technology and in customer engagement efforts, noting the inclusion of mobile technologies in several of the tradeshow's educational sessions.

"First of all I think that because we've gone from a digital signage show to a digital signage, kiosk and mobile (show), it's really including all the screens that we need to include ... So I see that as a trend and I see it as an improvement for the show itself," Kelsen said. "I also think that DSA's involvement in it is critical now. That is going to push our industry forward so fast and so much more cohesively."

And Brian Ardinger, CMO for Nanonation, which provides software for both digital signage and self-service kiosk solutions, says his company has pushed for exactly this kind of convergence for essentially the entire decade the company's been around.

"We really don't think it's wise for most companies to take a siloed approach to their technology, because then you've got one vendor for signage, another for kiosks, another for mobile, (so) it makes it much more complex and much more difficult to get a real ROI out of that scenario," he said. "Plus, customers, they want a consistent message, they want a consistent brand experience across those different types of technologies. They don't care what the technologies are, it just has to provide that consistent experience."

Ardinger says the converged technology ideal is "a great way to go."

"More and more of our customers are looking at that," he said. "They may come to us and say they want a digital signage experience, but as they start getting into understanding how they can use these technologies to engage their customers, the idea of blending these types of technologies together and leveraging the technology and their resources and the expenses across those platforms makes a lot of sense."

Jay Wilson, senior VP and CTO for rVue, hadn't attended the previous KioskCom shows to give him a frame of reference to compare, but says the show's "intimacy" is a great benefit to those trying to reach into the digital signage and kiosk communities.

"I mean, there's only a couple times a year where you can get this many people from the same space together at once, to really talk to each other and communicate, so I think it's a great show," he said.

The change in focus is good, Wilson says, but could go still further yet.

"I think that it needs to continue to migrate more to the Internet and mobile and that integration," he said. "So I think the show potentially could get a lot better with that kind of a change to get these mediums a little more closely aligned, because for those of us in DOOH and the Internet, we want them to be a little closer than they are."

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