When we hosted our Executive Club in Miami at the end of 2025, I had the chance to dive into more in-depth conversations with many of our guests. One of the brains I always enjoy picking apart is IV Dickson’s. He’s Chief Innovation Officer for SageNet and can always give you a very realistic assessment on hyped-up new technology – probably because the rate at which he visits trade shows can only be described as exhausting for the average person.
I asked him how he filters out technology that’s truly innovative versus what’s merely marketed that way – and what “innovation” actually means to him.
Check out our conversation in this video. You’ll also find the transcript below.
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Transcript:
IV Hi, how are you? Nice to have you. I’m pretty well. Nice to have you. How are you? I’m excellent. It’s always good to be in Miami. Yes, for me too. Yeah. I love the sunshine. Ivy, introduce yourself really quickly. Absolutely. I’m IV Dixon. I’m the Chief Innovation Officer for SageNet. So you’re Chief Innovation Officer.
Innovation as a journalist is a word that I don’t even register anymore. It’s so overused. It’s. It is. What’s your take on innovation is true innovation in technology and digital signage, not like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s a good question. Too many people think that innovation is always new, and so they’re looking for something that’s brand new that they’ve never seen that does something they don’t know.
In reality, innovation is taking pieces and parts that you have and utilizing them in a way you may not have utilized them before. And so a lot of what I do and where it becomes innovative is to say, Hey, I’ve got PA and I’ve got PB, they’re not connected today, but it makes sense for them to be together.
And that’s, do you have an example for that? Yeah. That’s a company who did really well in. A really great example of that is actually look at some of the things that are going on at QSR in drive through where voice ordering is then leading to dynamic menuing, which then is getting you upselling because you’re having a one-on-one communication and you’re doing it in a digital format.
So you have that flexibility and agility. That is an innovative way of using three or four subsequent technologies for that. And does that already work? It does, yeah. Yeah. We have customers actually that are doing that. We’re seeing people do it in the market. But you could also look at folks like Taco John’s out of Minnesota now and it’s a great example of what they’re doing at drive Through.
You, it’s those places where people are sitting down and saying, I know all these pieces can work. How do I make them work? And people are getting much more innovative in that process. Yeah. Yeah. So you go to a lot of trade shows. I don’t even know how many here, but I know it’s a lot more than I probably sometimes I hope.
Yeah, I can imagine. What’s something you look for in trade shows particularly? Oh, good question. You trade shows are those times when you have to try to figure out who’s showing you something that is smoke and mirrors versus something that has validity. Yeah. Even if it’s not ready for the market today.
And the example that I’ll give is, three and a half years ago, the first time I saw Muck Wave. And then you see, guys like Clear LED or you see I5LED . Coming into that realm of transparent or those things when they first were out there, they were like, Ooh, there’s value in this.
I’m not sure what it is yet. And that was only, let’s say three years ago, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I don’t normally go to a show like that, looking for a technology that I know I’m gonna use tomorrow. I might get lucky, right? I might find something as I’m walking the floor that I go, Ooh, that’s really interesting.
The other thing I go to shows like that for is where has someone taken the next step with the technology? And if you look at the evolution over the last 12 months of E ink, that’s a great example. Yeah. People were bringing out e inks that had no frames and they were like, Hey, we don’t have a way to manage this.
Now people are saying, here, you can touch and feel and hold this. You can put it up. We can manage that. It’ll go on the wifi. Those are the right steps to making something valid. That’s really what I look for in those trade shows. Yeah. What’s something that you see a lot of currently where you’re saying that’s all smoke and mirrors?
Oh, there’s probably two areas. Wireless video is still, go ahead. I can’t get behind it. It’s too fragile. Yeah. For the commercial market. It’s got a cool factor. It’s exciting. The other thing that is such a good example of something that looked cool and is a huge flop.
In my opinion is the spinning, hologram the fans. They are, they have this really minimal Oh, that’s cool. And then, you walk up and stick your finger in it and it stops and you’re like, okay, I can’t put that anywhere. It still stops people at trade shows though. Yeah, it does.
It stops people at trade shows. That’s a smoke and mirrors moment. Yeah. So that’s a moment where someone says. Oh, I want that. And then they go use it and it’s, yeah. Like it just doesn’t do what you think it’s gonna do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So in reverse what’s something that you wish you would see?
Oh, that’s a good question. What I really wish I could see is a software company who would get on board with, building a broader footprint around IOT and digital engagement. And the reason is those IOT devices are living out in their own realm. And then digital is living over here.
But when you’re building real digital experience, you’re bringing all those together and it can be very difficult to manage all of that. So you need one platform that like, that integrates. Iot and the CMS. Yeah. Yeah. It’s getting, you look at someone like Nexmosphere, yeah. They’re getting close.
They’re in that realm, but it’s, but at the same time, there are still some challenges with that greater thought process of that ecosystem. Okay. Yeah. Looking out for that. There you go. Or if anyone sees themselves qualified for developing a solution like that that’d be great. IV says that’s right.
Thank you so much, IV. Thank you. I appreciate it.