InfoComm reflections
Walking around the Digital Signage area of Infocomm, it seemed the DS area was bigger in terms of square footage than all of Digital Signage Expo back in February and appeared to be less attended in terms of people and have fewer (139 by my count, as opposed to 170 or so at DSE), larger exhibitors.
I overheard this comment from two people walking in front of me: “It’s all the same shit.”
There were a couple booths that stood out…but in general, I agree with the commentator above.
It was very helpful for me, walking around, to see what everyone else is doing: it’s helpful to know what NOT to do. We’ve yet to fully figure out our business model, as we continue to try different things and work with early RedPost adopters to give them what they need. I’m not worried — eventually we’ll figure it out.
No one at InfoComm is taking quite the same approach that we are (not that we fully know what our approach is) although, as Rob noted in his blog, there are more and more people jumping on the “easy as 1-2-3 thing”:
Expect more and more of this to pop up as companies try to tap into all those little guys who are never going to be buying software and panels in the numbers that make enterprise level sales monkeys like me get all twitchy. There’s a lot of onesey-twosey stuff out there. BUT, the more companies who come into this area, the harder it gets to sort out what’s good and what’s crap.
Anyone who does take a poke at it better make it dead-simple, very affordable and compelling. It is one thing to stand out from the software mob by promoting a particular strength or capability. When the whole proposition is simple and easy, there’s not a lot of ways to look different, other than price and pretty packaging.
We’re headed into a “quiet period” (no, not the pre-IPO type of quite period) before we go out of beta this fall. A lot is in the works. Non-beta hardware. Non-beta software. A move to a new building. New employees coming on board. Oh, and more actual RedPost installations (I mean, that’s what really matters).
Thanks InfoComm for helping us refine our approach!
