The Self-Service & Kiosk Association on Monday held its semiannual advisory board meeting, one day before the KioskCom Self Service Expo floor opened. During the meeting, SSKA president V. Miller Newton, the CEO of Netkey Inc., announced plans to step down. The news comes after NCR Corp.'s recent acquisition of Netkey, which provides kiosk and digital signage software.
During the meeting, Newton spoke of the NCR deal, which he said has been in the works for several months.
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| SSKA interim president Janet Webster, whose appointment was announced Monday, prepares for the advisory board meeting with executive director David Drain. |
"Despite the recession, Netkey is having a banner year, and I think it's a reflection of the self-service industry and where it's going," Newton said. "It's exciting to be part of a global organization that's got the reach and distribution of an NCR. NCR will clearly have the reach to take the Netkey platform where we want to go."
The outgoing president says he plans to move to Milwaukee, to be closer to family and to take a new position as head of an enterprise software company.
The association's executive committee has named Janet Webster, founder of Creative Solutions Consulting, as interim president. Webster formerly worked for the U.S. Postal Service.
"I'll tell you, there's no better person to lead the SSKA into its new era," Newton said of Webster.
Other business
Also at the SSKA advisory board meeting was Joel Davis, founder and CEO of JD Events, which runs KioskCom and The Digital Signage Show. Davis spoke with board members about JD's strategy for prequalifying show attendees — an effort the show spearheaded a few years ago to ensure quality attendance.
"Not only do we try to attract qualified deployers, but we actually reject a significant number of non-deployers who want to attend," Davis said. "We do what is a tedious and very difficult exercise to try to make the audience as pure as possible for everyone attending."
Even after rejecting 488 potential registrants this year, 17 percent more than the show turned down for 2008's New York event, Davis says attendance is up 5 percent year over year. More than 1,600 people were expected to hit the show floor this week.
"In spite of the economy that we're all dealing with, we're very encouraged by the results here in New York," Davis said. David Drain, SSKA's executive director, said the association will continue to focus on attracting new members over the next year, particularly vendor members.
Drain also said the association's strategic partnerships with KioskCom and several other tradeshows, as well as a Web site revamp and social-media initiatives, will be top priorities. The association's Twitter account is @sskioskassoc.
