Not much to be honest, except that they will all be at this year's
Digital Non-Conference in Cincinnati at the end of September.
The
announcement just came out this morning that the Founder of Pandora, Tim Westergreen, will be speaking at the event, along with America Ferrera from Ugly Betty. To be honest, I'm not sure what Ugly Betty has to do with it all but I'm confident we'll find out.
I attended
last year's event and came away super impressed. Breakout sessions where held throughout downtown Cincinnati and "forced" attendees despite the rain to get out and explore the city. I had the fortunate experience of getting to meet
John Battelle, one of the co-founders of Wired, and sit with him at his table before his keynote presentation.
One of the breakouts I attended last year focused on digital signage, which was great to have but I was a bit disappointed in the direction it went. That's why I'm pleased this year to be one of the panelists. The session is being led by Tim Burke (
Electronic Art) and I will be joined by Bill Collins (
Decision Point Media) and Christopher Hall (
Digital Signage Today).
Last year's discussion centered around digital signage as a dynamic advertising tool, which it most definitely is. But there is so much more that the technology can do and I hope the panel heads in that direction with the conversation and presentations. I'll make sure we bring up corporate communication networks.
During last year's panel, Bill made a comparison of digital signage networks to ice cream (hence the picture) that I completely disagreed with. So I plan on having some fun with that this year. Can anyone say PROPS?!
If you're interested in attending, you can
register today. It's a great event and not very expensive at all.
___________________________
Photo by Neil Conway
- By David Trounstine -
Recently I was asked to speak at the first annual
Digital Signage for Corporate Communications conference. It was a wonderful event where many of us got to share and learn about the experiences of working with digital signage in a corporate communications environment.
Corporate communications content really is its own beast, and all too often treated as a lower priority. I firmly believe that the better a company does at communicating important, relevant, and motivating messages to their employees, the better they will do at customer service, productivity, and worker retention. Informed employees are happier employees, and that's what we're all after.
The presentation I gave was geared toward the idea of treating your digital signage network as a company "television network". I encouraged communicators to think of their employees as their audience, and create content that was built for them. The use of personally relevant content is going to help foster a relationship between the employee and the information network, which will invariably lead to higher viewership.
I, for one, had a great time at the event, and I hope that the information I put together was informative and helpful. Here's my presentation. Enjoy.
The first Digital Signage for Corporate Communication was a big success (in my opinion of course) because for an entire day we had communication experts focused on how to best use the technology internally. The day-long event also included a tour of Eli Lilly & Company's network, in addition to content presentations from David Trounstine and Steve Crescenzo.
Digital Signage Today was kind enough to publish the list of
top opportunities and obstacles facing digital signage used for employee communication. The challenges faced by these networks are often quite different from those that are public facing.
Please check out the full detail on
Digital Signage Today but here's a sampling of what the group cited:
The Top Opportunities (in no particular order)
Flexibility – Forget cluttered bulletin boards and printing flyers. Recognition messages, HR updates and daily notices can be changed instantly and often through digital signage software. Also, you can play a variety of content, including static images and video.
Gives content depth & context – Through the use of images and/or video, digital signage templates, messages from screens can resonate better with workforces than flyers, whiteboard messages or company memos.
Interactivity – The network's messages will resonate better with an engaged user of digital signage. Interactive screens on the user level can also be used to access the company website or perform HR tasks, such as requesting days off or checking 401k statuses.
Break news to a non-wired workforce – Believe it or not, there are still members of the workforce not on e-mail all day. These groups can still be informed via update messages through digital signage.
Passive channel - E-mail can be very intrusive to an employee’s work day. Digital signage places key messages in the environment and lets employees digest the communication at their pace.
Reinforce & redirect – Digital signage can provide basic info and redirect employees to communication channels better suited to deliver the full message.
The Top Obstacles (in no particular order)
Money – We are still feeling the effects of a recession, and the initial non-reoccurring cost (capital expenditure) of a network is not something companies are eager to be shelling out.
Executive buy-in – This is along the same lines as the money example. CEOs have to have the final signoff on the network and are generally concerned about the bottom line. Executives have to be presented with a detailed cost/benefit comparison in order to get them on board. It’s best to do this early in the planning process.
IT – Successful digital signage is a collaboration between IT and marketing departments. Often times, IT staffs are strapped as it is without the responsibility of managing operations of a digital signage network.
Risk & security – Because operation of the digital signage network often lies on the company’s LAN infrastructure, proper IT security measures need to be put in place to ensure there is no misuse of the network.
I have been asked by many for details on the next event. All I can say at this point is stay tuned. I'm determined to make sure that each event is worth the time and expense it takes to attend events like these.
- By David Trounstine -
Some of our clients don't have the in-house expertise to create, manage and deploy their own content. That's why our team exists. In fact we have some clients who completely rely on us for everything that is shown on their digital signage network. As the economy has forced many of us to tighten up our budgets we are starting to enable these clients take on some of the creative work in an effort to help keep them in the black throughout these tough times. The process is tougher than you might think, but it all comes down to taking small steps toward the goal.
Charles Fleharty, MediaTile's Director of Content Development and one of the engineers behind the new Human Kiosk with 4G VideoPresence, in conjunction with our portal engineering team created a fantastic web-based application that we call Composer. Simply put is is a content editing tool that allows a user to change pre-built templates to include relevant and up-to-date information without the use of a cumbersome and expensive set of digital design tools.
Using Composer our clients can create great looking content with a few simple steps, all within their web browser. The templates can be custom built to the needs of a client. They can include a number of very cool dynamic functions such as RSS display, time & date, and even weather. All parts of the template can be animated, and when the user makes changes to the text or imagery the animation is preserved.
We met recently with a client who uses interactive content to engage their users and provide them with current event information relative to the local area. It would be very development intensive to provide them with a "template" version of this touch screen application, so instead we suggested moving some of that content out to an attractor screen. Allowing passers-by to see the content, and be encouraged to learn more by interacting with the touch screen.
We are pushing forward with the next version of the software as I type this, and the new features will really make the template approach shine. I highly recommend that our clients check it out, and if you aren't a MediaTile client consider making templates that work for your system to aid you in achieving your design goals.
- By David Trounstine -
Our partnership with Alcatel/Lucent and 4G VideoPresence has been mentioned several times in our blog now, but I just wanted to give the design team perspective.
4G VideoPresence is two-way video conferencing software for your digital signage network that will allow customers to connect directly to a specialist at the point in time that they have a decision to make. There has already been a lot of buzz around it, and we have interest from a number of different vertical markets.
With 4G delivery of content is going to become much less restrictive. "Store and forward" will be an option, not a requirement, as full HD video and interactive content will be able to stream to any enabled consumer electronic device. We are talking real time user interaction with Internet based content, and instant feedback to content providers.
Real time interactions draw users in, they also provide extremely useful information because it can be contextual and relevant. Using 4G to drive these real time interactions means they can happen anywhere at anytime, without the need for complicated infrastructure.
Bi-directional video chat is only the beginning... we have much more to come, so stay tuned!
As lame it sounds, yesterday was a dream come true. I've worked on digital signage at various employers for more than seven years now and couldn't be happier with how yesterday's Digital Signage for Corporate Communication event went.
Despite some travel issues and cancellations, we assembled a great group of communicators looking to discuss digital signage and learn more about how they can integrate it into their employee communications.
In my opinion, the best part of the day was our kickoff "show and tell" session where companies each talked about how they are using the technology and discussed some of the challenges they've faced.
My only complaint is that more companies weren't able to participate in the conversation so I hope going forward that we get more companies there and more companies using other digital signage hardware and software.
So where does it take off from here? Stay tuned...
The first-ever Digital Signage for Corporate Communication conference is just a week away and there are still seats remaining. Please sign up today if you run an internal network and are interested in hearing stories and picking up tips on how you can fine tune your network.
For less than $150, you get to see LillyTV, one of the world's largest digital signage networks dedicated to employee communications, along with hearing from two industry experts and a corporate communication guru. Not bad for such a low cost of admission.
Digital Signage Today ran a very
complimentary article about the event and I'm very appreciative of the attention it has received.
Several people have contacted me who aren't able to attend this session due to vacation or travel restrictions but are interested in attending a future one. At this point, I'm not sure what it will look like down the road, but the feedback received from next week's event will determine steps forward.
If you have any thoughts, please leave them in the comments section below.
(Today's Guest entry comes from Mike Foster, CMO and Co-Founder of MediaTile) 
It is always very satisfying when you can help local businesses do a better job of building community ties, while at the same time improving their product and service promotions. Our local supermarket chain, The Scotts Valley Market, has deployed a digital sign above their deli counter – in one of the highest traffic areas of the store with good dwell time.
Their goal is to augment existing promotions, while also informing shoppers of all the community activities that they are involved with, including Chamber of Commerce events, such as the upcoming art and wine festival. They also run local weather and a national news ticker to keep shoppers engaged and entertained while waiting for deli orders. It’s great to see that digital signage has become such a common and well understood medium. This is right in line with the recent Arbitron study, which estimated that 155 million adults in the US remember seeing a digital display each month.
I’d also like to point out that one of our resellers, Vivid Digital Concepts (www.vividdigitalconcepts.com) is in the business of setting up digital-signage network operator franchisees who deploy and operate their own community-based and owner-operated chain-wide networks. So...if you’re thinking of getting into the business, they are a terrific starting point. And because it’s a MediaTile cellular and web-based solution, the only infrastructure you need on-site is a power outlet (that’s my shameless plug!).
If you go to other corporate communication conferences (or any conference for that matter), they always run an impressive list of logos across the screen of companies who have attended in the past. It always looks good, but how long ago is "the past?"
Since this
Digital Signage for Corporate Communication conference is a first-ever event, I can't show the logos of past attendees. But I can do better, showing you the list of companies who have already signed up are confirmed for this event. Needless to say, I'm pleased with the response.
In addition to a "Show and Tell" portion of the event, we also have three outstanding speakers supporting the event, including David Weinfeld from
The Preset Group, David Trounstine from
MediaTile and Steve Crescenzo from
Crescenzo Communications. It's important to note that Steve was recently voted #1 speaker for the third year in a row from IABC. I'm thankful that we have all three gentleman helping out the event.
We are less than a month and there are still plenty of seats to be had. If you run a digital signage network that supports internal communications,
sign up today.
Several digital signage gurus have suggested that tickers (or crawls) run on digital signage networks are somehow maming the industry. To raise awareness to this "plague," David Weinfeld from
The Preset Group have suggested that today, July 9, be
Ticker Free Day 2010. Even the folks over at
DailyDOOH are falling in line.
But why you ask (and I do, too)? Apparently, they are hoping to prove that networks can run relevant and engaging content without tickers.
Of course they can. Networks can also be run well without video. They can be run well without Flash. They can be run well without the inclusion of weather. It all comes down to content and the choices made. Who knows? Maybe we'll see No Flashy Flashy Day around the bend. I hear September is kind of slow.
I love Cap'N Crunch cereal. It might be my favorite. So if somebody told me that July 9 was Free the Cap'N Day 2010 and that I shouldn't eat the cereal, I wouldn't go along with it. Why? Because I like Cap'N Crunch cereal. That's great if somebody else doesn't like it, but I do.
I blogged that I recently went on a
mid-pilot visit with one of our clients running a corporate communication network. We sat down with groups of employees to discuss what they liked or disliked about the network and what could be done to make it better.
Take a guess what the most positive feedbak tied to? Information in the ticker. Our client did a nice job of mixing up the ticker content between both internal news as well as external news (like weather, sports scores, etc.). The employees liked it. And if this company participated in the Ticker Free Day 2010, employees would not like it.
Take another guess if they are going to participate Ticker Free Day 2010 by removing their ticker. David does acknowledge in his post that not all tickers are bad and that they can be used the right way.
So I propose that instead of just telling people not to use tickers, let's teach them the right way.
Apparently, I ruffled a few feathers with a
previous post, but I stand by my statement that I do not think enough is being done to help educate corporate communicators running digital signage networks.
Officially today, those running internal networks can sign up for the
Digital Signage for Corporate Communication conference. The cost to attend the event is very nominal, only to cover the expenses of putting on the day-long event. I don't care if you're a MediaTile customer or not. But if you want help and guidance on running your internal digital signage network, you should make every effort to attend.
I want to be clear that this event is
NOT a MediaTile sales pitch. This is entirely about pulling together a network of like-minded corp comm pros who are looking to make digital signage a viable communications vehicle within their organization.
Eli Lilly & Company, who runs one of the largest corporate communication networks in the world, will be the host of the conference. We have outside speakers coming in, like David Trounstine (
MediaTile's Creative Director), David Weinfeld (Principal at
The Preset Group) and top-rated internal communications speaker Steve Crescenzo (
Crescenzo Communications). Let's make
August 10 a great day.
So if you know of other corporate communicators running a digital signage network, please share the information with them.
**
MediaTile customers: please contact your sales rep for a discount code to attend the event. **
In recognition of Independence Day, MediaTile's corporate headquarters will be closed Monday, July 5. Our office will reopen Tuesday, July 6, 2010.
Over the extended holiday weekend, all phone calls will be routed through MediaTile’s standard after-hours call center. In the event you should experience a critical or major support issue with your digital signage network during this time, please indicate the severity of your situation to the call center and you will be routed to an appropriate MediaTile support representative who will be on-call over the holiday weekend.
Out of personal frustration that the major digital signage events and associations pay very little attention to the growing amount of corporate communication networks, I have decided to do something about it.
With the help of Chris Bias and
Eli Lilly & Company, I will be hosting the Digital Signage for Corporate Communication conference on August 10 at the Lilly Corporate Center in Indianapolis, IN.
The day-long event will provide attendees tips, tricks and techniques for running an internal digital signage network and improving communication. And as an added benefit, I hope the day will provide great networking for those involved. I hear all of the time from clients that they want to know who else is responsible for running an internal network.
And maybe the best news of all for some of you, the event will be
FREE for
MediaTile customers as a thank you. Non-MediaTile customers will also be able to attend at a nominal fee. The event will not be a sales pitch so we'd like for anybody running a corporate communication network will feel comfortable attending.
Lilly runs one of the largest
corporate communication networks so part of the day will include a tour at the Lilly Corporate Center. So whether you've had a network for a while or are just starting one, you'll get to see one of the best in the world.
So block out the date and please stay tuned for registration information. I hope you'll be able to join us in August.
One more thing to potentially plan for is that Steve Crescenzo, an internal communication guru, is running his
Corporate Communications 3.0 workshop the following day in Indy (August 11). It will be a great two days of corp comm learning. As a favor to me, Steve will also swing by our digital signage conference to share some of his wisdom.
It will make for a grew two days in Indianapolis.
(Today's Guest entry comes from Mike Foster, CMO and Co-Founder of MediaTile)
Sprint has included our 3G/4G cellular digital signage as a key element in their public 4G road-shows, the first of which is in Kansas City this week.
Our
HumanKiosk will be prominently featured in Sprint’s 4G Retail solutions “vignettes”, showcasing the live, 2-way video chat using our
MediaCast SaaS content management system and 4G Video Presence technology. With 10x more bandwidth over 3G networks, 4G eliminates any remaining variance between hard-wired, high bandwidth networks while providing all the advantages of a cellular solution: more secure, more flexible, easier to deploy, higher reliability and linear scalability. I’m excited to be in Kansas City as this 4G road-show kicks off.
Sprint has accelerated their marketing efforts around 4G, and is now offering 4G services in more than 30 US markets. We are very excited about the 4G opportunity, including the soon to be released 4G LTE platform from Alcatel/Lucent and VerizonWireless.
4G networks could very well be a tipping point for the entire digital signage industry, accelerating deployments and enabling new market opportunities. If you’d like to know more about the impact that 4G will have on digital signage, please visit Digital Signage Today and download the newly updated version of the "3G/4G Cellular-based Digital Signage" guide. This guide includes the latest 4G information and commentary by carriers, users and integrators.
(Today's Guest entry comes from Mike Foster, CMO and Co-Founder of MediaTile)
For everyone interested in how 4G wireless broadband networks will affect the digital signage industry, please visit Digital Signage Today and download the just-released version of the “3G/4G Cellular-based Digital Signage” guide. As the CMO and Co-Founder of MediaTile I’ve been working closely with Digital Signage Today for the past three years to create these “Cellular” guides to explain both the technical and business advantages of using 3G wireless broadband as the fundamental network for digital signage deployments.
The new guide includes the latest 4G information and commentary by carriers, users and integrators. With 4G now available in more than 27+ US markets from Sprint, and 4G LTE technology poised for release by end of year, this guide is a must-read for digital signage network customers, operators, deployers and vendors alike.
Here’s what contributing editor Richard Slawsky, of Digital Signage Today, had to say about the impact that 4G will have: “Although 3G networking provided a breakthrough for digital signage, 4G is expected to be the ‘tipping point’ for a new generation of wireless digital signage deployments, as it eliminates any remaining variance between hard wired, high-bandwidth networks.
I spent the day with one of our current digital signage customers who's looking to expand their network to help with a new internal branding campaign.
First, I love going behind the lines (so to speak) and seeing how our clients are using all sorts of measures to improve communication with employees.
Second, I love when they use digital signage to do it.
There divisions and lines of business have gone through some recent shuffling and they are banking on digital signage to help them through the transitions.
One of the features they love about MediaTile's approach is MediaCast, our
digital signage software. Because it is entirely web-based, they can now give more people access to contribute content to the network. And with Composer, our embedded content creation tool, they can now take advantage of flash templates so that content contributors can focus on the message and not the
I've never had the chance to attend the National Restaurant Association Show so yesterday was my first time. Our
digital signage technology is tucked away in the AT&T booth (#5666) in the Technology Pavilion.
Yesterday I was pleased and surprised at not just the sheer volume of attendees looking at digital signage for to improve communication with customers (including menu boards) but more importantly the variety of companies. There was everything from smaller "mom and pop" restaurants looking to jazz up their customer communication all the way to some of the largest food retail chains in the country.
But some of the best conversations I had was with colleges and universities, who are looking to use digital signage for menu boards and share nutritional information but to also have the signage in place for crisis communication if needed.
All in all, those I talked to liked MediaTile's approach to digital signage. They liked the simplicity of our
Digital Sign in a Box (32" on display), as well as the robustness and ease-of-use our software provides. Clearly, this was not their first exposure to signage and past hiccups seemed to be the complexity of installs. We simply don't have that.
I heard over and over, "We just want it to work." Ours works.
I had a good time at yesterday's National Hardware Show social networking panel. I felt kind of like a goof up there with the three other professionals but I hope my points came across. One of my fellow panelists spoke that he's glad this competitors aren't taking advantage of social media. It gives him more room (so to speak) to maneuver in the space.
I couldn't agree more. I love the fact that MediaTile is really the only digital signage software and hardware provider regularly blogging,
Tweeting and
Facebooking. I started our social media program as a way to differentiate our company in the crowded digital signage marketplace and I think it's working.
I reply back to people on Twitter who mention MediaTile and search to who else is talking or asking questions about digital signage and I try to help them out. We have customers commenting and forwarding our Facebook posts. And then there's this - our blog, the crown jewel (in my opinion) of our social media program.
So I relish in the fact that many of our competitors, who are both larger and smaller than us, don't regularly blog, Tweet or Facebook. That's their loss and our gain.
Cellular and SaaS-based Digital Signage solutions have finally come of age. Over the past quarter, I’ve attended
CES,
Digital Signage Expo 2010,
The Digital Signage Show,
KioskCom, and
NAB, and it was clear that cloud computing is definitely on everyone’s radar. And most everyone is seeing the silver lining of this solution – the inherent reliability, simplicity, scalability and security that it provides.
Customers, strategic partners, vendors, and managed service providers are much clearer on the pros and cons of a cloud-based digital signage solution. The beauty of 3G, and now, 4G cellular and SaaS solutions is that the network naturally scales to support more media players as they are deployed while providing the built-in reliability and security. Unlike client-server architectures and LAN-based solutions, computing in the cloud is "off premise" and "off network", enabling network operators and vendors to allocate increasingly more of their time to be focused on the content running across the network, as opposed to running and maintaining the technology behind the digital signage network.
Interested in learning more about Cellular and SaaS? I penned an article that was featured in the latest issue of Digital Signage Magazine; look for the special supplement, "
Wireless Networking and Content Delivery."
Keeping it Simple,
Earlier this week, our
award-winning HumanKiosk was given a pat on the back from
Digital Signage Today. The article highlighted how new technology will change engagement through digital signage.
Keith Kelsen authored this article and is also the author "
Unleashing the Power of Digital Signage – Content Strategies for the 5th Screen." Pulling a bit from the article, Keith writes:
I am always impressed by the impact of technology on media and then the impact that will have on us as viewers and media creators: Even how we define "viewer" is in flux right now.
Looking back at the technology advances of the last year and where these may lead us, we can see where "viewer" will become "participant" in the near- and long-term future.
In the near term, displays have delivered on the HD promise, but where do we go from here? What about the connected technology that creates a whole new form of engagement?
When I speak about connected technology I am talking about multilevel, multidynamic, multidimensional connections. These areas have and will create largely new, connected display systems that will transform our viewers into engaged participants.
In one type of connected displays, we have a digital signage network that allows us to change content, update ads, and receive feedback in what I call "Linear Connectedness."
With our HumanKiosk, there is true two-way interaction and communication with the viewing party. Not only are they able to interact with the content, but they have the ability to provide real-time feedback. Very powerful stuff.
For those attending NAB this week in Las Vegas, the Human Kiosk is on display in the Verizon Wireless booth (
#SU8502). Check it out.
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