This article originally published in Self-Service World magazine, March 2007.
As Self Service Expo enters its second decade, organizers are bringing several changes to the annual Las Vegas event — including a new name. The show, formerly known as KioskCom, is now called Self Service Expo.
"We renamed the show because it's expanding to cover much more than kiosks," said Lawrence Dvorchik, senior show organizer. In addition to that self-service mainstay, the show also will include other types of interactive self-service as well as digital signage.
JD Events purchased the Self Service Expo brand in 2005, and acquired The Self-Service & Kiosk Show from NetWorld Alliance (publisher of this magazine) in September 2006. That month, the team got together to brainstorm some strategy. The result was the broader strategy based on the perceived needs of the marketplace.
"Digital signage is just a different hardware and some different peripherals and things like that. We're seeing the same people respond for digital signage who respond for self-service."
Dvorchik said the format of the educational sessions is different this year, too, incorporating a variety of cross industries focused on specific content. Each panel will have three speakers from different industries to discuss how a particular issue impacts their business.
For the second year, the show will offer Self-Service Street: The Real-Life Kiosk Experience. Open during exhibit hall hours, Self Service Street allows visitors to experience how unique technologies and applications such as kiosks, digital signage and other self-service technologies will look and feel in venues such as airports, supermarkets, post offices and restaurants.
Several new applications will be unveiled on the Street, and attendees can rank the pavilions. Recipients of the most votes will be announced at the show.
The self-service industry equivalent of the Academy Awards will take place with the presentation of the Self Service Excellence Awards. The awards were launched in 2002 "to honor the most successful and innovative self-service and interactive digital media solutions." More than 150 companies across multiple industries have received awards, with past winners including BMW, SONY, FedEx, Daimler Chrysler and ExxonMobil.
Self Service Expo's Self Service Express Tour (separate registration required) takes participants on a kiosk and digital signage tour around Las Vegas, a city booming with many kiosk and digital signage deployments. Attendees will hop on the Self Service Expo Express Tour Bus and be delivered to various kiosks around town, viewing, using and field testing them in their natural environment. Tours will be led by industry and
deployment experts, and at each stop will be joined by representatives from the deployment location, explaining the benefits they have seen and expect to see from the kiosks. Tour stops include: Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino (digital signage with advertising, kiosks), Palms Casino Resort (live-action self-service wagers) and Hooters Casino Hotel (digital signage with advertising, multiapplication kiosks for gaming and non-gaming).
 |
| KioskCom's Self Service Expo expects 2,500 attendees at their April show in Las Vegas. |
The show will give particular focus to several industries.
"The mainstays are retail and hospitality," Dvorchik said. "But we're seeing much more in healthcare and food service. Anywhere where the process can be better, from reducing customer wait time to providing faster and more efficient credit checks."
And that's the way it ought to be, he said.
Dvorchik expects about 2,500 attendees, with available booths up to more than 200.
KIOSK Information Systems is a platinum sponsor of the show and participates in several Self Service Expo events. They will take a combination of 14 standard and custom products this year, said Marketing Manager Cheryl Madeson, including six solutions competing for Self Service Excellence Awards. New standard products will include the debut of KIOSK's DESKTOP Series; custom solutions include entries from Leroy's Race and Sports Book and ISI Ltd., TIO, the Army Recreation Machine Program, Dave and Busters, and many other KIOSK clients gearing up for national deployments.
"We put a lot of value in KioskCom," Madeson said. "The show has been the starting point for several major accounts for KIOSK. It's also a great showcase for our customer solutions, and we put serious attention to getting them the spotlight they deserve on their deployed solutions."
Valerie Killifer contributed to this article.
