Tags: Europe, Manufacturers, Tradeshows, Kiosk Design, Kiosk Manufacture, Info Kiosk, Payment Kiosk

6/15/11

With 2,852 visitors and 130 exhibitors, the May 2011 KIOSK EUROPE EXPO and DIGITAL SIGNAGE EXPO in Germany had representation from international companies, retail brands, airports and banks. There was also a significant increase in visitors from agencies, media organizations and integration companies, according to a show press release.

Visitors spanned the world, coming from the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey, Russia and the far East, as well as the traditional core countries of Germany and the U.K.

A major theme of this year's show was encouraging people to take a holistic approach to digital signage and self-service solutions, which brought together hardware and software manufacturers, service and content providers and 3-D technology companies, the release said.

This year's show saw an increase of content companies exhibiting at the event, according to show officials. At DIGITAL SIGNAGE EXPO 2011, visitors chatted with content developers as well as technology companies to gain greater understanding of how to build a successful digital signage system. Exhibitors specializing in content creation included Beam, Visual Art, 3d-berlin, M4B, memedia, Videro and Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institute.

In addition to content, many service and integration companies exhibited at the event. This marks a major shift in the industry and demonstrates how it is maturing and expanding, show officials said. Pitney Bowes, DB Kommunikationstechnik, Veritek, Bassilichi and PM2S exhibited at the show, providing visitors with an opportunity to plan integration, service and maintenance into their projects.

"Exhibitor feedback from this year's show has been very positive," Jens Schindler, managing director of the organizer, hf media & events, said in the release. "We have had many exhibitors telling us it was the best show yet. Several companies doubled their stand size from last year to this year. They have already announced that they are going to double the size again at next year's show."

Next year, the events will build on the approaches of 2011, and will have a greater focus on customer interactivity in all its forms, Schindler said. This will incorporate mobile interactivity, and there will be a special section devoted to smartphone app development from a business-to-business perspective. The strong emphasis on content creation will also continue with more content developers than ever exhibiting, show planners said.

Next year's shows are June 12-13 in Berlin, Germany.

"We will build on the strengths of this year's events; there will be even more content developers and service providers exhibiting," Schindler said in the release. "Pre-bookings are already going better than they have ever gone before. People are seeing that the new location will give an additional boost to an already successful and well-established concept."