Article

On the road with kiosks.org, part 1

Kiosks.org publisher Craig Keefner reports on his whirlwind European tour, bringing you the latest from the Continent.

March 27, 2002

Editor's Note: Never let it be said that Craig Keefner, publisher of kiosks.org, won't travel the world to find out what's hot in the kiosk industry. During the past week, Craig's been on a road trip to Europe. Here's his travelogue.

It was in America that Horace Greeley declared his famous, "Go West young man!" I decided instead to head east, to Germany, in fact, for a four-day whirlwind tour, and then to London for three days to visit developers and companies there.

Here's what I saw:

Friday 11 May

I got up early, to try to catch up on e-mail, do all those last minute "things" and by 2 p.m. I was at the airport, checked on my flight to Amsterdam.

Saturday 12  May

It had been 24 hours since getting up the day before and 16 hours of travel. I finally arrived in Munich and my hotel. Klaus Trox, CEO of Friendlyway, took me for a very nice walk along the river. Much enjoyed, and much needed. Later we headed to the local Biergarten (Hofbrau Haus) and sampled the local brew and talked.

Sunday 13 May

I woke refreshed and quickly showered off the remaining jetlag. I headed over to Friendlywayheadquarters with Klaus. I toured the offices (very impressive) and we settled into the expansive conference room for hours of back and forth discussion. 

Andreas explained their end-to-end solutions and strategies. Friendlyway is focused on clicks and mortar projects. Roy went over business development for us. I am very grateful for the time on Sunday you three made for me.

Later we walked across the street to the sports center outdoor restaurant, knowing the distinct possibility of seeing Boris Becker there (we didn't). We enjoyed lunch anyway and went over additional presentations and discussions.

The weather in Munich reminded me of Minnesota with its clear, blue skies and 68-degree temperature. It was beautiful there.

Later that day Klaus dropped me off in the center of the old town of Munich and I got to do a little well deserved sightseeing (instead of office discussions) for an hour or so.

Thanks very much for a wonderful trip to Munich and for the latest on Friendlyway.

Monday 14 May
 
I flew to Muenster and got in at noon. Christoph Niehus of Sitekiosk www.sitekiosk.com picked me up and we went straight to their offices where we settled in for hours of discussions and demonstrations. Andreas joined us for some of the discussions, breaking away from his team of developers.

In case you haven't seen it, Sitekiosk is one of the cleanest and most reliable (if the most reliable) software I have worked with. Christoph has some of the best hardware device support of any package. Configuration of the client is straightforward and deceptively powerful. Sitekiosk is one nice piece of software!

Later that evening we had a great dinner and then headed back to the hotel (to check in). I think it was around 1:30 a.m.

Thanks for the great visit, Christoph. I look forward to coming back to Muenster and visiting soon.

Tuesday 15 May

Christoph of Sitekiosk picked me up at the hotel and I caught my plane to Berlin. Once in Berlin I headed to the SMARTKIOSK 2001 Conference. I was very pleased to meet with Matthias Flurh, manager of the conference.

Perhaps 100 attendees and delegates enjoyed the technical discussion of kiosks and marketing. There were 10 or more exhibitors including Swecoin. The documentation package for the conference was extrordinary!

I spent time with developers such as eTouch, client companies including the German government job division (the Bundestag?), and Deutsche Telekom. The level and quality of attendees was extremely high.

I checked in with Eckhard Reinman, and we had a long discussion. Eckhard is a contributing columnist to KIOSKmarketplace.com, and a very well respected guru of the kiosk industry in Germany. Kiosks.org looks forward to supporting and working with people such as Eckhard and Matthias any way we can help.

Elo TouchSystems sponsored the SMARTKIOSK conference and is to be congratulated and thanked for their support of the German kiosk community. There are great things going on in Germany for sure.

Wednesday 16 May
 
I left Berlin and flew to London. I caught the Heathrow Express and then got a cab the rest of the way to the hotel (I was staying at the Berners).

The trip was starting to catch up with me as we pulled up to the hotel. I had started to pay the driver when my door opened. The bellman was there to take my bag. Problem was some other guy next to the bellman was apparently running late and was in a big hurry for the cab (and for me to get out of it). I counted out the money and then the fellow outside grabbed my suitcase and hauled it out of the cab right in front of me.

Boy, was that guy in a hurry, I thought to myself! It took a few seconds, but suddenly I realized it was Alex Richardson of Netkey. I owe you one, Alex!

Thursday 17 May
 
The conference began at 9:15 a.m. The location of the conference was the five-star Dorchester hotel in center of London. The clientele was high-level. I recognized Eric Schmidt, the President of Novell.

Normally I'm the shy type, but having recently met Arnold Palmer, my verve was high. I managed to introduce myself and we had a nice conversation for 15 minutes or so.

I think the number of people in the conference room varied from 30 to more than 50. High quality attendees included BP Amoco.

Lacy Curtis-Ward of Access Conferences was the manager and must be congratulated on the extremely high quality of the conference and the attendees. The timing of this event with my interest in Europe couldn't have been better. I have to say this has been the most worthwhile conference I have been to this year. There is not a single negative to report (except that Rob Brown's car broke down on the M1 and we all missed him and Raidnet). GREAT JOB!

I led off the talks with a presentation, "Leveraging Kiosks and Retail." I delivered some numbers regarding the number of installed kiosks and the projected revenue/numbers breakdown for Europe and US. I also inserted a new section covering wireless statistics and technology paths.

My focus for retail revolved around applications like gift registries and airline ticketing kiosks, how those original mortar applications were extremely successful, and how those applications have now been extended into Internet services and the expansion of services that have since been added to those channels.

Francie gave a really nice presentation. Francie always includes lots of nice pictures of different types of units (something I rarely do). She was her energetic self, which was surprising, as I knew she had just arrived via Los Angeles and the good old redeye flights. She showed no signs of weariness.

For sheer examples of terminals that are deployed (or were pulled later), Francie and Summit are the best to go to for that information.

Other kiosks.org members were included favorably in her presentation included Netkey (Borders, Family Meds) and KIS (Webstop). The Friendlyway PDA application for IR transfer was also highlighted.

Francie, that was the most enjoyable presentation I have ever seen you deliver. According to my informal poll several of the people there had purchased her latest report. My findings were that in the latest report, there are more relevant facts, surveys and analytical information than ever before. Read more from Francie out on KIOSKmarketplace.com and be sure to check out her storefront and product showcases there!

Stephan Herron followed Francie and crystallized where the European market is for touchscreens. He described the multiple channels, including Web, call centers, interactive TV, mobile, appliances. Marketwise, the Internet kiosk and service demand has been strong. Elo TouchSystems is the dominant touchscreen force in Europe these days, I think. I also want to personally thank Elo TouchSystems for their sponsoring of this event. THANKS!

John Purcell of Purcell Associates and Netshift spoke after tea and biscuits. John spoke on "How To Project Manage a Kiosk Deployment." He covered company types, business models, and most common problems, among other subjects.

John focused on Management and Planning processes for new kiosk deployment and projects. John was very well prepared, and delivered in his unique Irish manner an incisive and controlled view of how kiosk projects can be successful.

I had a chat with Nigel Seed of Netshift. It was very good to see you again Nigel! Netshift has several announcements coming up. Commenting on the high activity, Nigel said, "It's really great to see the market, and how strong it is for us." (As a fellow investor I am sure Nigel was referring to the kiosk market and not necessarily the stock market.) :-)

Bob and I had a great dinner (Italian) with Stephan of Elo TouchSystems. We had coffee afterwards and the cream they gave us was so heavy it kind of oozed out of the little decanter. Best cup of coffee in days!

At 2 a.m. I finally hit the sack.