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Kiosk Show delivers on promises

The event this week was intimate and focused. Now when will the orders roll in?

January 14, 2004

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- "Focused." "Intimate." "Exclusive." Those words were used to describe the Kiosk Show during its planning stages. And those same words came up again this week as I talked with exhibitors and attendees at the event. Mission accomplished.

The Kiosk Show ran lean and mean, quite literally. People were turned away in droves. Member of our own industry were told to stay home. Even the keynote speaker Gregg Whelan from Smith Barney joked that he had to provide Kiosk Magazine publisher and show producer Lief Larson with seven forms of photo identification to be let in. He called the audience, "the chosen few." And that was a correct assessment.

Chris Zimmerman, editor

Larson and his company Voyagi Inc. were adamant about keeping the show a certain way. They "privatized" the show so that exhibitors were completely integrated kiosk solution providers and attendees brought their checkbooks. KIOSKmarketplace and Kiosks.org Association were show sponsors. See related story, "Kiosk Show to get 'intimate' with attendees."

Some claimed that the show was too exclusive; that component vendors like touchscreen and printer manufacturers should not have been kept at bay. "We're all in the kiosk industry. And anyone who wants to shout about kiosks should be able to do so," said one vendor at the show. And that's a valid point. After all, are there really fully integrated providers in this industry? Clearly the kiosk business is about successful partnering.

But Larson defends the position that too many components can confuse potential deployers. And this show was a test to see if integrated solutions would be more clear to them.

Audience participation

The truest measure of the Kiosk Show's success will be whether leads turn into purchases. I personally saw that there were many big-name companies investigating kiosk technology at the show. I hope I get lots of press releases in coming months about deployments spawned at the show.

In all my years of covering trade shows in the technology industry -- from the monstrous networking shows like Networld + Interop, Comdex, Comnet and Supercom to somewhat smaller affairs like GlobalShop and Retail Systems -- I have never seen such audience participation during sessions.

When Alex Richardson, executive vice president of business development at Netkey, asked his 50 or so attendees who was ready to deploy kiosks, the overwhelming majority raised their hands.

When Sam Matheny, director of product development for FotoZoomer, asked his audience of 30 attendees to think about three things that the kiosk industry could concentrate on to improve in the retail segment, people spoke up with suggestions.

Most of these people were technology buyers. One man was from Philip Morris. A woman said she was from a mid-size grocery chain. Yet another attendee said his company was a large retailer looking for human resources applications.

Vendors speak

As I walked the exhibit hall and talked with some 25 vendors, some of the comments I heard include:

"They've done a great job of screening people. There's no use talking with 100 people if they are not buyers."

"The show is small, but very focused. We're seeing people with funded projects."

"There is definitely business coming from this show. It's very focused."

"Two years ago at tradeshows people were just talking. Now we see them with their checkbooks."

"I think small, regional shows can work well."

"This show is an experiment for us. We'll see what comes out of it, and if this is a good way to reach customers."

This show was an experiment for the whole industry. And I give Voyagi credit for taking it on. They didn't do it as a money-making proposition. And they certainly didn't do it for fun - it seemed very stressful at the registration desk to carefully screen participants.

They did it to find a new way to bring vendors and customers together. That was the promise.