Where’s A Good Place To Talk Digital Signage?

Last week was pretty busy for the Italian Association of Digital Signage Operators, AssoDS ^[1] at Promotion Expo in Milan ^[2] and a SMAU event in Rome ^[3] where we ran seminars on digital signage and proximity marketing and how these could help retailers during the recession.

^[4]Unfortunately these events mainly interest (existing) operators or people that want to enter into the digital signage business as a supplier of product or services RATHER than brands and retailers (i.e. real customers for the Digital Signage industry)

From a total of around 70 seats at each event we had as attendees; 15 from brands or retailers, 40 from the Digital Signage industry and 15 students.

My feeling in Italy is that Digital signage is what I would describe as an auto-referenced community and rarely able to talk with potential new customers (especially brands) at such events.

^[5]However, a good sign is that all the other booths at the two shows were using displays and various other digital signage solutions to explain their products and services.

It’s time to talk about technology and start talking about content, engagement and success stories.

To help retailers and brands the (AssoDS ^[6]) produced a very detailed list of competences in the Digital Signage industry and it seemed to be a very useful tool for visitors to our booth who found potential suppliers and experts for our national market.

On the reverse of this brochure we printed the official letter from the Italian Ministry of Development that describes how it will put tax away from Digital Signage. This is particularly positive as Italians are already under 55% fiscal pressure that’s absolutely a big barrier to growth in any business.