Amid all the trade media bustle just ahead of the massively busy Integrated Systems Europe, it was quietly announced that the business events company Questex had decided to discontinue Digital Signage Experience (DSE) as a stand-alone annual event.
It was only sort of a surprise, and when it went down, I was way too busy in Barcelona to do much more than acknowledge it.
Back home, I have more time to dig into what happened and the implications for the digital signage industry.
Questex picked up rights to the show when it bought the assets in 2021 from the family-owned-and-run Atlanta company that started and ran DSE since the mid-2000s. An important side note: Exponation founder Angelo Varrone – nice, nice man – unfortunately passed away suddenly last month.
Exponation had entered into bankruptcy proceedings when COVID took over our lives. But the show was already, by 2020, in serious decline. I privately called it a dead show walking for several years before the pandemic finally took it out, with exhibitor counts steadily dropping and a lot of the manufacturers with the deepest marketing pockets directing their money to larger or more specialized shows.
The rebooted DSE in 2022 unfortunately looked a lot like the old DSE, which I thought was a big tactical mistake. The old one wasn’t working anymore, so why emulate it all the way down to very similar branding and artwork?
The 2023 version was so pokey in terms of the scale of the show that I wrote a post openly wondering if Questex would bother with a 2024 edition. It did. And 2024 was even smaller. But I was quietly told the format was going to make a wholesale change for 2025. New type of event. New location.
You don’t want to say copied, but the format was certainly inspired by what Invidis has been doing for years each spring with its Digital Signage Summit Europe in Munich. It is a conference and networking event that also has a modest trade show component. I’ve often suggested it works particularly well because the event is run at a hotel attached to a busy, well-served airport, and is too far from the city to compel attendees to go “out” for meals or drinks. So everyone is together for 48-60 hours.
The reboot of the DSE reboot ran in San Diego last fall – a conference and networking event first, and trade show second. The Questex people offered to fly me in and put me up, to be part of it, but I had to decline. I think I’ve indicated why a few times, so I won’t get into that yet again.
From all I heard and read, the new format was well received. A much better take on what the industry at large needed and wanted. But it very evidently was not enough to warrant continuing.
I know almost zip about running business events, but assume registrations for education and networking-focused events don’t generate the kinds of revenue seen by more traditional expos, where vendors rent patches of exhibit hall floors and buy sponsorships.
My gut also tells me that while San Diego is a very nice place to be pretty much any time of year, it is a long way from the east coast, and not always involving a direct flight. It can be a full day of travel there and quite possibly a godawful red-eye flight back. It is substantially easier and faster for me to fly into central Europe than get to San Diego.
The middle of the U.S. – like Chicago or Minneapolis – would be much easier for all concerned to get to, though an event in that region in November would almost certainly not involve extracurricular stuff like golf outings. It could be cool but lovely, but it could also be snowing and cold. Or outside of Dallas, where there are numerous companies???
The current political climate also means some people from Canada, Europe and Latin America who might go to an event, would not travel into the U.S. for their own political, immigration or safety reasons.
Toronto makes some sense, but like the other locations, it would work best if it was earlier in the fall and at something like a resort away from the big city and its diversions. If it was run right in the city, people would scatter at night.
As awesome as Nashville might seem for an industry gathering, who’s going to an evening networking mixer in a hotel ballroom when Lower Broadway’s live music bars beckon a few blocks away?
Then there’s the much bigger question … who would organize and run this???
The Digital Signage Federation had its own existential crisis when the original DSE went down, given that it got what amounted to an annual allowance from Exponation, which helped fund the almost entirely volunteer organization. When that money disappeared, the DSF pivoted by putting much more effort into the regional networking events it would arrange when the board had its quarterly meeting. So if the board was meeting in Seattle, there’d be a mixer organized to pull in people from that region. With DSE down, those Mix and Mingle events were amped up and sponsorships secured to help promote and run the events, and also generate funds that now help pay for DSF’s admin and travel for board members.
But the DSF board is volunteers, and all of its members have full-time jobs. Some execs are also CEOs … so they’re already super-busy.
Practically, there’s no real ability in resources or funds for the DSF to take on a full-tilt conference.
So what about Invidis? Could it pull off a version in North America? Maybe. Probably. Their regional events are already managed by Integrated Systems Events, the company that runs ISE for AVIXA and CEDIA.
I’d love to see a version of DSSE over here, and I suspect the team is at minimum looking at it. One of the things that needs to get navigated there is the indirect relationship Invidis has with AVIXA, which co-owns ISE and both owns and runs InfoComm.
The InfoComm team has for many, many years tried to carve out digital signage as an industry focus through tactics like the D-Sign micro-conferences put together by the DSF, and dedicated zones or “pavilions” on the show floor. I think it is entirely fair to suggest it has never really generated the impact desired.
Like ISE, InfoComm is a broad show serving a wide variety of technologies and interests. Sure, there is tons of industry and technology cross-over these days, but my wild-ass guess is 4 in 5 InfoComm attendees aren’t going there with digital signage applications and needs in mind.
Invidis shares office space with the company that builds and runs ISE for its owners, and it does high profile education sessions at various regional InfoComms run around the world, as well as the main one in America. All that means Invidis doing an event that at least kinda sorta conflicts with the mothership show needs to be worked out.
ISE itself is way, way, way too big to be regarded as an effective central gathering event. There are soooo many people I know who were there, who I never even bumped into. Plus like InfoComm, it serves too many varied interests. People want an event that is about their industry, not just one that incorporates it among many technologies and interests.
I’ve not chatted about this directly with the Invidis principals, but it’s a safe bet they’re talking with other interested parties. The San Diego event in late 2025 borrowed on the DSS Munich format, and attendees liked it … so there’s that.
I know there are “weeks” in London and New York that incorporate some learning and vendor demos, but I’ve been to the NYC ones a few times and never thought a few cocktail parties with the same faces at each of them was worth the $500 a night hotels and everything else associated with being in those costly mega-cities. Plus the UK online publication DailyDOOH, which promotes these events, has been far more focused on ad tech and the digital OOH business in recent years than on digital signage.
So will someone come up with an event that is focused on just this industry? Dunno. But it would be great, given it is needed.
While the markets, applications and interests in the tech stack that encompasses digital signage have both broadened and grown, it is still a somewhat distinct ecosystem and “tribe” of like-minded companies and people. Tribes benefit from getting together to share ideas and experiences, show (or at least talk about) their products and services, and hang out in a way that’s good for developing and nurturing relationships. A lot of people still went to the old DSEs – even if their companies had stopped exhibiting – because it was an efficient way to “touch” a lot of business contacts in two or three days. Versus flying all over the place for different meetings.
I’d be super-surprised if there is anything pulled together for 2026, but maybe some company is looking at this ecosystem, and thinking it can make an event happen next year that meets the need, and makes sense as a business venture.
If you are thinking of going to the DSSE event in May in Munich, it’s worth it on a number of levels. Plus the beer and giant pretzels are damn fine. I’ll be there.