Article

The man behind KioskCom

The head of Self Service Expo and The Digital Signage Show talks.

April 13, 2008

The Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas will become the epicenter of the self-service and digital signage industries this week as thousands of professionals gather to seek, share and compare at KioskCom Self Service Expo and The Digital Signage Show. The co-located trade shows are set for Wednesday and Thursday.

The shows, abuzz with educational sessions, networking opportunities, special speakers and exhibit floor activity, will be fueled by limitless planning, consideration of the tiniest details and the ultimately important execution of ideas.

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Behind the curtain, juggling the strings, is Lawrence Dvorchik, general manager of the shows.Self-Service World spoke with Dvorchik to find out what it's like to prepare such an event and what makes it a success.

SSW:What is the purpose of creating an industry-specific trade show?

LD: We created it a long time ago. We started in 1997. It was very much to meet a need for a niche that wasn't being met. There was no big business in it. Very few people even knew what it was, let alone started talking about it.

SSW: What was that first show like?

Lawrence Dvorchik, general manager of KioskCom Self Service Expo and The Digital Signage Show.

LD: It was much more of an educational show. About 100 attendees, there were maybe 10 or 11 exhibitors and it was very much about education. It wasn't the business it is now. Very few were successful. We tried to educate about best practices.

SSW: Compare that to the last show.

LD: There is no comparison. The last show was 200-plus exhibitors, 3,000-plus people and it's just a whole different ball game. It's still about the content and it's still about providing the right education but there's so much more that goes into it now than there was before. There's a lot more detail behind it. There's a lot more to consider and ways to make it a successful event for everybody from the exhibitors, to the attendees, to the speakers, to other stake holders who are there.

SSW: With the new digital signage show, is it double the work?

LD: Not really double the work. It brings a different type of work into it because every market has its own nuances, special things to pay attention to. You're still doing a lot of the same activities, you just have to focus on what makes each one unique and special and go about it that way. Is it double the work? It could be. It's definitely more work.

SSW: How long does it take to plan and produce a show?

LD: We spend a full year. We've already started for Vegas next year. Our New York event, we're still knee-deep in that at the same time we're running this one. It's not, "Hey, we should just pick it up and start now."

SSW: What's the most challenging aspect of putting on a trade show?

LD: A big challenge always is drawing in the right attendees. A trade show is only as good as the attendees it brings in. That's really what it's about. It's about the interaction between the attendee and the exhibitor and helping to facilitate that interaction and those discussions.

SSW: Are the attendees important to the exhibitors as well as their fellow attendees?

LD: Yes, because the fellow attendees want to see as many like-minded colleagues as they can, and to have the opportunity to network with people who have the same issues they face. They want to talk to people who have been in the same boat as them and people with whom they can compare experiences.

SSW: How do you overcome the challenge of bringing in the right people?

LD: We spend a lot of time determining who the right people are. We spend a lot of time determining what it is that's going to attract them.

SSW: How do you determine a show's location?

LD: There's a lot that goes into it. There's no easy way to determine a show's location. You spend time determining what's going to be viable for attendees to get to, what's going to offer the best services.

SSW: What makes a trade show successful?

LD: By whose account? There are a lot of stake holders involved and the definition of successful is different for each one of them.

SSW: Let's start with attendees.

LD: I think for the attendees it's the ability to get an education. It's the ability to meet with the people they need to meet with and learn what they need to learn so they can walk away with actionable items and have clear-cut plans for the future.

SSW: And the exhibitors?

LD: They need to walk away having met with a mass of quality prospects. That's why the overwhelming majority of exhibitors are there — to increase their business development.

SSW: What about you?

LD: Nobody's screaming at me for two days, or a week afterward. Silence. (Laughing.) Success for us is determined by the success of the stakeholders. We happen to pride ourselves on not just the fact that we have delivered a very high-quality audience for 12 solid years and helped to build this industry and the recognition for kiosk, self-service, customer-facing technology into what it is now. We also pride ourselves on the overall experience for every stakeholder. If the experience is worthwhile to all the stakeholders and there's a good chance that this becomes the type of thing they are interested in going back to regularly, if we've done that, it becomes a valuable piece for them. And that's what we want to do, make it a valuable business entity for everybody, make them want to be there and need to be there because so much is happening there.

SSW: When does the work behind the show end?

LD: It never ends. It's a 12-month, 24-hour-a-day job because we're looking at what's next, what's important for everyone in order for them to feel like it's a good value. I guess technically the show officially closes when the last exhibitor is packed up and the last crate is off the floor and we're out of there. But we're on it all year round, it never seems to end to me. It's been 12 years, though. Why should it end now.