News

Many miles traveled for kiosks

A trip to Amsterdam offered Kiosks.org Association Executive Director Craig Keefner an opportunity to observe how the association and the kiosk industry are positioned in Europe.

July 15, 2002

Craig Keefner is executive director of Kiosks.org Association. The Houston native resides in Minnesota, though he spends much of his time in Kentucky and traveling to kiosk events around the world. He is a sought-after speaker at a variety of kiosk events worldwide. For a fascinating slide show featuring his photos from Kiosk Europe 2002, go to this page on the Kiosks.org site.

As Executive Director of Kiosks.org Association, I enjoy the opportunity to visit Europe. Recently, I flew across the Atlantic to attend the Kiosk Europe 2002 show, organized by KioskCom, in Amsterdam.

It's easy to see from the Association's membership and composition of its Advisory Board that Europeis a very important component of the organization. Europe comprises 20 percent of Association membership. Add Australia and Asia and that number goes up to 25 percent. On the Association Web site we have our own listing of European members.

Craig Keefner

Traffic to the Association Web site is split 60-40 between U.S. companies and the rest of the world (primarily Europe). For reference, in 2001 the Association Web site had close to 200,000 distinct users. Traffic has almost doubled in 2002.

The latest Summit Research Associates report puts a revenue number of about $210 million for kiosks in the U.S. and more than $245 million for the rest of the world.

That revenue number for Europe is pretty close to what I see. In my opinion, government-related services represent the largest active market in Europe by far with gaming-entertainment second. By any count the market foundation in Europe is significant and geared to improve.

Getting the word out

This year's conference took place June 18-19 at the Okura Hotel, which was much nicer than the Wembley Conference Centre in London, where last year's show was held. Another advantage with Amsterdam is that a better ratio of UK and continental European attendees showed up.

Like in the U.S., Europeans are in various stages of recovery from the poor economic conditions of the last 18 months. Still, there are some bright spots in the kiosk industry, such as NeoProducts Ltd.'s continuing success, Germany's Sitekioskopening new offices in Florida, Wincor Nixdorf introducing new products, friendlyway AG making headway, and NetShift Software Ltd. setting up offices in the U.S. Netkey Inc. president and chief executive officer Alex Richardson was in Amsterdam working to develop a stronger European presence for his Connecticut-based company.

One new event at the conference was our first European Members Meeting on the show's opening day. Association chairman Dick Good gave a presentation on the association and detailed the organization and its mission.

In his recently published Chairman's letter on kiosks.org, Good said, "Having a global set of members and maintaining a global perspective is an important objective of our organization." The letter also includes a listing of Advisory Board members and his thoughts on the Association's first year.

At the members meeting, Elo TouchSystems' Mike Sigona, who is a member of the Association's Executive Committee, spoke for a few minutes. U.S.-born Sigona, Elo's market manager for Europe, is based in Munich.

For my part I worked on the upcoming announcement of a KOA relationship with ATMIA Europe -- NetWorld Alliance president Tom Harper and myself will be in Budapest this October for an ATMIA Europe meeting, by the way -- SPIN in the UK, and the German Multimedia Developers Group. We probably had close to 40 attendees at the meeting.

I ended up going to dinner with a couple of members from Germany, England and Austria. I got to sightsee a little bit for a change and that was a very welcome change of pace. Good enjoyed a nice dinner with Carina Asmussen and Johan Otterbeck of Swecoin in the restaurant atop the Okura with a fantastic view of Amsterdam. Kiosk consultant Stephon Herron (see Herron's KMC article "The two faces of Kiosks Europe 2002"), Summit president Francie Mendelsohn, and Sigona were also spotted there.

Reflections on a conference

On the conference overall I do want to personally thank consultant and former NetShift executive John Purcell of Purcell & Associates and also Lawrence Dvorchik of KioskCom and Miles Harley for all their assistance. Harley, who has been working with KioskCom, is returning to London and his home office to work on some new projects and we wish him the best.

The European market is so different in so many ways not only economically but also in the sheer cultural diversity between regions. Within the U.S. we have six or seven major microclimates (rural, metropolitan, tourist, etc.). In Europe, with the different languages and customs (and until recently currency differences), you are looking at 20 to 30 microcosms to factor in. For the Association -- with members in the UK, France, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Russia, Slovenia, and other points -- we are extremely attentive to all members.

A great way to learn more about the European market is to visit the Application listings under Solutions on kiosks.org, where we list different applications that members have deployed. There are many, for example, from Sitekiosk. Members such as Logina of Slovenia have hundreds of kiosks installed in government services. In Italy, we have Custom Engineering with their outstanding thermal/impact printers. Information on the burgeoning international markets is also available on KIOSKmarketplace through its Global News & Research Center.

Members of the Association also have received literally hundreds of Requests for Proposals that have come in to the site so far in 2002. Almost 50 percent of those RFPs were from Europe and other areas of the world outside the U.S., with more than $130 million budgeted.

For all things European, visit kiosks.org and browse through our many articles, papers, news, and member listings. Learn about the French market with CYBERDECK chief executive officer Alain Villenave, the German market from Eckhard Reimann, or read an in-depth paper by leading German kiosk expert Dr. Lars Fischer, interviews with NetShift's Tim Daw, NeoProducts' Mike Smith, and Halldor Sigurjonsson of Kudos Development Group Ltd. and much more.

As Executive Director of Kiosks.org Association, I can tell you that we do our best to keep you informed of all things European. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Association, click here.