DSrupted 2015 Wrap-Up

Mike Pell of Microsoft on data visualization

At roughly 4:30 Wednesday I informed the crowd at DSrupted we were done, that I was in bad need of a beer, and that if anyone else was he or she should follow me across the street to a sports bar. Many did, as we tipped a celebratory pint to what I think was a very well-received second stab at a conference on disruptive technology in digital signage.

We had, I think, 115 attendees – including people from Israel, Australia and all over the U.S.

Full house

The venue was again really well-received (thanks TELUS), and we started and finished pretty much every session on the planned minute. The most impressive was Mike Pell of Microsoft, who managed, unaided, to make his last point exactly on minute 45 of his 45-minute talk.

James Robinson of Christie on display technology

The speakers were all really well-received, and the common themes of data and experience ran through everything, even the last display tech-focused session by Christie’s James Robinson. Stephen Eyre of TELUS managed to make an Internet of Things talk both interesting and funny.

Brad Parler on creative and engagement

Much of what we did in year 1 was repeated this time around, and that made things relatively easy and predictable. But I can tell you that even when you have a formula, it is a lot of work being both the organizer and microphone-toting host. Sheesh. My first pint went down quickly at Real Sports.

I did not have time to take notes, so I won’t be posting on the individual talks. One of these times I’ll hire a writer to do that.

To those who attended, thank you and please feel free to send me your thoughts, good or bad. A few have already.

And thanks very much to my sponsors: Rise Vision, PATTISON Onestop, Cineplex Digital Solutions, NEC Display and Christie, and host TELUS.

Closing panel, or as was suggested, worst boy band ever

It bothered me that my speaker list was all male, but that was all about circumstance and definitely not by design.

Here are some of the tweets that went out through the day …