DSruptive 2014 Conference, Toronto

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

A new conference, DSrupted 2014, scheduled for Sept. 17 in Toronto, aims to take a look at how steadily evolving web services, micro-computing and display technologies are disrupting and reshaping the emerging digital signage market in North America.

dsrupted_logoThe full day event will have a set of experts explore in detail the services and technologies that are here or on the near horizon, and their implications for digital signage end-users and vendors.

Subjects to be explored include micro-computing, cloud and web services, HTML5, display canvases and data-driven content.

“The people who attend should walk away at day’s-end with a really solid grasp of what’s here, what’s coming and what actually matters,” says organizer Dave Haynes, a digital signage industry consultant and writer. “This stuff is really important, and a half-hour talk here and there at trade shows doesn’t cut it. That’s the big reason why I put this together.”

DSrupted already has a commitment from Google for a senior product manager to talk about the current state and future of cloud services.

“Google is now active in digital signage, through Chrome For Business,” says Haynes, “and I think a lot of people will be very interested to hear more.”

Haynes says that DSrupted 2014

  • Will have speakers who’ll each have an hour to talk and field questions;
  • Most or all speakers will be subject-matter experts from outside the digital signage industry eco-system;
  • There is no pay-to-speak;
  • The audience will be limited to just 200, and networking time and tools are baked into the event.

DSrupted will be at the downtown Toronto head office of event host TELUS, in the Canadian telecom giant’s conference centre. Early plans are also in the works for a digital signage industry networking function on the evening of September 16th, also in downtown Toronto, ahead of the DSrupted conference.

Admission to the one-day event is $335, and includes snacks and lunch. Haynes said he is reserving a block of tickets he’ll make available to a pair of university digital media programs, so some selected students can attend..

DSrupted 2014’s sponsor/supporters so far confirmed include:are: TELUS, Rise Vision, Pattison OneStop, Cineplex Digital Solutions, LG, and the Digital Signage Federation.


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