The Digital Signage Insider

I've mentioned KioskCom, the self-service technology tradeshow before ("The beginnings of a digital signage industry organization"), but I'm not sure if many people realize that there is in fact a second self-service and digital merchandising tradeshow worth visiting, simply called The Kiosk Show. Before we get started, note the difference in the URLs, because it's confusing: www.thekioskshow.com is actually registered to KioskCom, while www.kioskshow.com is registered to The Kiosk Show. It seems a bit backwards to me, but I'm guessing that the KioskCom guys got there first :)

While the KioskCom show typically draws a larger crowd and features individual parts vendors (e.g. lots of software-only companies, hardware-only companies, peripheral-only companies, etc.), The Kiosk Show focuses entirely on complete solutions which target specific business problems. Consequently, you'll often see companies band together to display turnkey kiosk packages that feature hardware, software, and back-end services.

Another thing that I like about this show is that they screen attendees to make sure that the floor is filled with pre-qualified sales leads. Everybody in attendance is either a vendor with a booth, or a potential customer who has in some way or other demonstrated a desire to implement a kiosk project. As vendors, we'll often get emails mentioning some of the top attendees ahead of time, and the list is always full of Fortune 500 names, major retailers, and the like.

Consequently, what you end up with is a small show with only a few dozen vendors and a few hundred attendees. The vendors can focus on the solutions that they've had the best successes with, and the attendees can be assured that they'll have the complete attention of the vendors for some period of time.

This year, WireSpring will be at The Kiosk Show displaying turnkey kiosk solutions featuring our own kiosk and digital signage software, custom kiosk and digital signage hardware fabricated by White Mountain Solutions, and customer lifecycle management back-end services and applications from Zimmerman Business Management Systems.

Additionally, our VP of Sales, Michael Smith, has been invited to speak at the show, and will be conducting a seminar titled "How to Leverage Digital Retailing Throughout the Customer Lifecycle." The talk is going to focus on using digital retailing technologies like self-service interactive kiosks, digital signage advertising displays and in-store television networks to improve sales of big-ticket and high-decision items. There will also be seminars by other companies on all aspects of self-service technology and digital retailing, so if this is an area that you're thinking of getting involved in, you should make an effort to attend. The show is coming up soon -- October 7th and 8th, but there are still tickets available.

Note: I'm not in any way affiliated with the kiosk show (other than that my company is exhibiting there).