Robert Koolen (furthest to the right)
Hi there. We took a few minutes and sat down with Robert Koolen, Scala President, to get his input on DSE 2010. We settled on 5 questions to pick his brain about digital signage, the Scala booth at the show and a little bit of everything else. Check it out…(and thanks for your time Robert!)
1. Talk a little bit about the DSE experience this year…how may it have differed from years previous?
It was just as exhausting but at the same time extremely gratifying to see that optimism is returning to our industry. There is plenty of hope and enthusiasm for the industry to grow as evidenced by the almost 20% increase in leads we saw from 2009 to 2010.
2. I see Scala took home some awards this year…that’s gotta feel good, right?
Awards are always good! Scala is of course thrilled to have earned such accolades, but the most important characteristic to us is that we received honors for our work across a slew of industries. We earned a Silver and Bronze Apex Award for installations in the Education and Healthcare category, a Gold Award for our work in Public Space deployment, a Gold and Silver for Retail and a Bronze in Transportation. Additionally, these awards are simultaneously earned by the partners and customers who worked hard on these deployments.
3. You referred to more interest in Scala at DSE as evidenced by the increase in leads…why do you think interest was up?
A lot of factors played into this one. The placement of our booth at the entrance of the show and the design of the booth with Christie Digital’s MicroTiles was an innovative use of their product never before seen. Most designs implemented with the MicroTiles have them displayed symmetrically…we used them in a novel staircase configuration similar to the bang (!) in our logo. So, Scala was really “stepping it up” in every way.
4. So…what about next year?
We have already committed to DSE 2011. It’s been a good show for us and we’ll continue to support it as long as it serves its purpose of meeting our objectives but more importantly expanding the digital signage industry. The best way to grow the industry is to reach out to more people and DSE is good at doing just that.
5. And what about social media at DSE 2010? It certainly seemed to be more involved…
It was…we definitely used all aspects of social media to our advantage in maintaining a high profile at DSE. We found ways to use it to be an integral part of how we can reach out and communicate. It certainly helped us in many ways – we made the top 10 in most tweets at the Daily DOOH. All shared news and social networks really help to build the digital signage community.
Plus, it’s nice having different places to announce when you’ve won awards.
Got a sec? Check out Scala’s at Twitter, Facebook (has photos from DSE) and LinkedIn.