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Digital signage begins and ends with business

Alan Brawn, Partner at Brawn Consulting, looks forward to the Digital Signage Expo 2015 this March in Las Vegas.

October 28, 2014 by Alan Brawn — principal, Brawn Consulting

Every year for over a decade, several thousand of us have taken advantage of the opportunity to attend and I might add, experience, the Digital Signage Expo. As someone who has been there all the way back to the early days when it was called the Digital Retail Expo, I can highly recommend once again this year that anyone interested in digital signage simply must attend.

For those who have not attended you might ask why it is a must do event. The answer is short and sweet. It is the only show that focuses 100 percent on the full expanse of the digital signage industry and most importantly, directly relates to the full range of constituencies that make up the industry. This includes the manufactures that make all sorts of products, both hardware and software, as well as the distributors who serve the resellers, and the designers and integrators not to mention the network operators, content creators, ad agencies and yes, the all-important end users. In short, the DSE really does embrace the totality of the industry.

​Glowing and well-deserved recommendations aside, there is actually a problem of sorts in all of this. Now that I have your attention, the problem is one of priorities for attendees. What to do first, what to see first, and what to begin thinking about at the outset? For us "old hands" we know we will walk into the show and literally be wowed and blown away by the some of the greatest technologies in the world. These are showcases of products in elaborate booths with literally hundreds of well-trained and well informed people manning the booths whose goal is to answer any and every question that you might have. From displays to software to peripherals to services, you name it and there are multiple vendors to look at in each category. It is akin to going to a fabulous restaurant with an expansive menu. Sometimes you just do not know where to start.

With no disrespect or disregard for all the eye candy and mind opening exhibits you will see, let me suggest that the best place to start is in the educational programs offered at the DSE. Although not as glamorous at first glance as a cleverly designed booth showing the latest 4K displays, education and the attainment of knowledge is really where it all starts. Once again there is a lot to choose from with topics of interest carefully selected by the various educational committees who take into consideration attendee profiles as well as reviews and suggestions from the previous year. In short, the educational programs are the result of the DSE listening to what the constituency actually wants and then giving it to them.

In the selection of topics both the subject matter and the presenters are vetted to provide the best of the best in terms of information and a positive and productive seminar experience. The topics fall under the general umbrella of the 7 Key Elements of Digital Signage, which are business, content, design, software, hardware, connectivity, and operations. In a sense it is like the game Six Degrees of Separation where everything we do relates to one of these key elements either directly or tangentially.

Of the 7 Key Elements in Digital Signage, the most complex element is one that is often overlooked and for those who guess it is the element of business, you get a gold star. It is easy to get lost among the glitz and glamor aspects of digital signage forget that in the end, it is a business. It may generate ad revenue or provide information to employees inside a company or a myriad of other objectives but it is a business and all business must generate return on investments or return on objectives.

The favorite axiom of many in the industry is that "content is king." Well it is not the king. It may be the crown prince but the true king is the objective and what you want the digital signage system or network to do. The network is a "tool" that does work for the company deploying it. If you do not know what the tool is intended to do, then how can you select the proper tool? In the seminar entitled The Fundamentals of Digital Signage Business & ROI/ROO we will explore the business reasons to deploy a network and how to articulate actual objectives and in the end how to measure the results. Another way to put it is to identify and define the tool.

For all the content advocates out there, yes good content is critical/necessary and one of the hottest topics today is the analysis and metrics or measurements of how content performs but content is the vehicle to deliver on the objectives and without clear objective there will be no "north star" to guide content creation. So for DSE 2015 I suggest you take advantage of the educational offerings and focus on your particular interest but the common denominator in it all is business and that might just be a great place to start. 

Alan Brawn, Partner, Brawn Consulting, will present Seminar 9 entitled, "Fundamentals of Digital Signage Business," on Wednesday, March 11th at Digital Signage Expo 2015 the Las Vegas Convention Center. To learn more about this session, or to register for this and other educational presentations, go to: www.digitalsignageexpo.net.

About Alan Brawn

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Alan Brawn is the principal of Brawn Consulting, an audio visual and digital signage consulting, and outsourced service provider. Alan’s industry experience spans over 4 decades. He is the past Chairman of the Digital Signage Federation and the Educator of the Year award is named after him. Alan was inducted into The AV Hall of Fame in 2004 and received the Fred Dixon Lifetime Achievement in AV Education from AVIXA in 2015. He was recognized as an AV Living Legend in 2023. 

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