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One man's perspective of KioskCom 2002

Kiosks.org Association executive director Craig Keefner spent last week at KioskCom 2002. Here are his thoughts on this year's edition of the industry's largest trade show and conference.

March 10, 2002

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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 KioskCom 2002, go to this KioskCom link on the Kiosks.org site.

Last week's KioskCom 2002 trade show in Orlando, Fla., presented the kiosk industry an opportunity to meet and discuss the latest happenings in the industry. As executive director of Kiosks.org Association, the meeting gave me a chance to walk the floor, make the hospitality suites, meet folks outside, kick off a new phase for Kiosks.org Association, and evaluate the industry's progress.

I arrived Saturday, March 2, relaxed and ready for the show's opening session two days later. In the lobby was Miles Harley of KioskCom and his enthusiasm for this year's show was evident. It has been a tough last 12 months for the industry - and even more so for other industries - but Miles' optimism was infectious. I know I was feeling upbeat about it all and looking forward to seeing how the rest of the industry would be feeling.

Craig Keefner

To kick things off though, I did something unusual on March 3: spent four hours touring Orlando with British Telecom on a kiosk hunt. The folks at the BP Connect looked at us with curiosity as we crowded around and tested the store's e-kiosk, then stepped back and took photos. This scene was repeated in many other retail establishments (McDonalds, Office Depot, Eckerds, and Wal-Mart to name a few).

The show hadn't even started and I was already feeling more upbeat!

The show opened March 4 with several seminars and workshops and the Orange County Convention Center was a busy place. The day would be a bit more special for me as that evening the association hosted its second annual dinner at Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge.

The dinner, for our advisory board and committee chairmen, was an opportunity for us to rekindle the personal relationships, put faces to names, and generally strengthen the association. The dinner ended with a personal visit from Arnold Palmer, who said a few words, thanked us, and asked us back next year. My only regret was not introducing him to our resident golf nut, Kiosk Information Systems Inc. president Rick Malone, who idolizes Palmer and was too paralyzed to muster a request to shake the golfing legend's hand and introduce himself.

KioskCom formally got underway on March 5, with Eastman Kodak Co. director of Digital Retail Systems, Consumer Imaging and association president Rick Rommel delivering the keynote address. Attendance at trade shows in the United States has been dramatically lower in recent months and KioskCom's attendance was a bit down over last year, but it was most definitely better than I had expected. The main hall was filled with people for the keynote and a positive air was clearly present.

March 5 also brought on the main conference tracks and the opening of the exhibit hall. I am sure the exhibitors wished there was more time allocated to the exhibitions, but they always say that. Each year there has been more time for attendees to wander the exhibit hall thanks to the industriousness of KioskCom executive director Lawrence Dvorchik.

I had meetings all day long without a break on March 5. The day reached a crescendo at 6:30 p.m. when industry representatives and end users gathered at the Rosen Plaza Hotel next to the convention center to attend the inaugural Interactive Kiosk Excellence Awards, hosted by Compaq. It was a wonderful reception and the winners' excitement charged everyone up. The reception was a perfect high note. Afterwards was an awards dinner (also hosted by Compaq), which was wonderful - relaxing over dinner and listening to the winners talk about their projects.

March 6 was the exhibitor's day in the spotlight and it was non-stop. Again, the floor was not as crowded as some years but there was more floor space. Ironically, I think the travel restrictions served to create a more qualified list of attendees. There were representatives from Wal-Mart, American Airlines, and Target along with other current and potential end users. A major high point came when I signed Wal-Mart on under the association's brand new user-customer membership program. Rick Rommel came up to me later and explained how he had just signed up the U.S. Postal Service. No matter what happened from that point, it WASa great show for me and I know it was for others as well.

That evening we had our inaugural association members meeting. Again the room was filled - almost 100 people attended - despite the fact it started at 6 p.m. and work had begun to take down the exhibit hall. People I had only heard about such as Tom Young of IBM were there, along with representatives from smaller companies such as New Zealand-based Deep Video Imaging Ltd. Both IBM and Deep Video contributed during a comments period at the end. To see that type of support from large and small outfits was very encouraging to me.

The association actually has required a lot more effort from me than running kiosks.org did in past years. You always hope you have done the right thing and that your members support you. So far I believe both tasks have been accomplished.

On the show's final day, March 7, I helped out Lawrence after all the assistance he gave us by chairing the technology sessions. It was something different and pretty enjoyable for me, as I provided guidance and interjected my thoughts - i.e. interrupting, which I excel at :-). Seriously it was lot of fun and the sessions were well attended. The presenters and I were all a bit surprised at the positive turnout and that ended up energizing us.

Later that day, I jumped in the cab and left for the airport, where I would say goodbye to 70-degree weather and brace myself for a blizzard back home in Minnesota. Reflecting on things while sitting outside the airport I decided that, all in all, it was absolutely the best KioskCom I have ever been to. The sheer positive outlook of everybody was exciting. In addition, with Wal-Mart, Intel, Diebold, and Wincor Nixdorf participating in the association, I see the industry gathering some serious strength and finally - this year I promise - emerging up that mythical side of the hockey stick.

We are very much a growing and energetic industry and KioskCom signaled that.