Dylan Jones, Jones Digital Media
Walking past the pink Cadillac, the Rat-Pack era showgirls pulling fast on shared Marlboro Light and the Vegas style Elvis, alone and looking remarkably youthful and svelte on his portable stage, I feared the worse. Welcome to the Las Vegas Convention Center and SGIA 2010 – for a moment, ladies and gentlemen, reality has left the building.
A little less conversation...
This is a huge event for the printing industry. The hanger-like Expo floor is a whirr of enormous printing machines, but machines seems to primitive a word for these state-0f-the-art, digital devices that are spewing out beautiful, poster-sized prints in seconds. And if I’m at all interested, I can attend a number of seminars on exactly how these devices work, along with a number of others on Marketing Opportunities in Garment Decoration, Single Pass Ink Jet Panel and one simply titled “Sign Law”- which for some unexplained reason is cancelled, maybe due to lack of interest (these printer types do seem a little lawless with a rebellious streak- or maybe it’s just the ink fumes)
Eventually, I head on-over to the Digital Signage Zone to check-out the goods. It’s impressive. SGIA has carved out a good-sized space, with vendors with more familiar names like NEC, SCALA, Symon and Black Box are fielding questions from print companies who are intrigued, if not down right befuddled, by this mysterious new addition to the convention. 2010 is the first year SGIA has included digital signage, and from the looks of things it’s a smart move. There’s lots of interest and the first few educational seminars of the day are well attended and improve as the day progresses.
There’s much to talk about, too much to cram into one post, so I’ll be updating later today and tomorrow with my highlights, low-lights and thoughts what could be done better for next year. For now, I’m trying to track down Svelte Elvis to see if he can get me any free-passes to Cirque De Soleil’s Elvis Tribute-Viva Vegas.
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