Keynote presentations at the 1.5-day event – which commences on 2 February, the day before ISE 2009 – will be given by Str_er Out-of-Home Media CEO Udo M_ller and Jung von Matt/next managing director Simone Ashoff.
The conference programme was devised primarily by display technology expert and Lambent Consultancy principal Tony Lowe, and Christoph K_ller, a co-founder and managing partner of business and management consultancy G_rgen & K_ller GmbH. From the start, the intention was markedly different to that underpinning many other recent DOOH-based gatherings.
“There have been quite a lot of business-oriented conferences on DOOH, and most of those have engaged speakers from the supply side to present the technical structure of DOOH business,” Lowe (pictured) told II. “Although the rate of adoption is now increasing, DOOH has had quite a slow start, so what we decided to do was put together a series of talks that covered the interests of the creative side of the business – the hope being that those already deeply into DOOH would share their experiences with those considering a move into this form of advertising.”
Accordingly, the conference will incorporate just two technically oriented presentations – Lowe’s own overview of the latest developments in display technologies, and DailyDOOH.com editor-in-chief Adrian Cotterill’s assessment of content management systems and other critical DOOH applications.
In the main, however, the focus will be on the practicalities, pitfalls and potential benefits of implementing a DOOH network. In addition to the aforementioned speakers, the packed conference programme also includes such notable industry executives as Arbitron senior account manager Rob Winston, ECE flatmedia managing director Oliver Poppelbaum, NeoAdvertising CEO Christian Vaglio-Giors, Paula Oliver from specialist advertising company JCDecaux Airport, London 2012 digital signage co-ordinator John Jefferson, and Nicky Cheshire from Alive’s CBS Outdoor division.
A presentation from LocaModa CEO Stephen Randall on the new era of interactivity between mobile telephones, the internet and digital signage sounds particularly intriguing. “Stephen has some visionary ideas about where the industry is going, so that should be a fascinating talk,” suggested Lowe.
The event will culminate in a panel discussion on the brand-building possibilities of DOOH technology that will draw on case studies from Samsung, Ford Motor Company, The Co-operative Group, Bayer AG and London 2012.
While the creative dimension is set to dominate the schedule, Lowe is convinced that ISE’s core audience of system integrators, installers, suppliers and AV consultants will find much to savour. “I think they will get a much better idea of what is required of this technology,” he says. “There is undoubtedly room for improvement in some areas – for example, with LED-based displays, it can sometimes be very difficult to read the smaller fonts. It would be a really great outcome if the supply industry realised that it has got to do something about that problem!”
