Lydia Schendel -- SXSW Interactive has continued to grow year after year since its launch in 1994, with the explosion of Social Media being its main driver.
Smartphone/Digital Signage interactivity is really the future of many kinds of "digital signage", and certainly DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home, or digital advertisements that market to consumers in public places.) Digital signage and DOOH are both becoming increasingly interactive, and more and more often, mobile phones and Smartphones will be used to interact with big displays.
While many of the purely mobile technology-focused sessions at the event will be intriguing on several levels and warrant attendance as Mobile/Digital Signage convergence evolves, here are a few SXSW Interactive 2012 sessions that directly address DOOH, In-store marketing, Wayfinding, and other issues at the heart of digital signage and DOOH rollout strategy.
Alternative Channels of Digital Distribution
Monday, March 12, 12:30PM - 1:30PM, Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon K
A panel of digital content experts will discuss digital advertising and its potential for activating consumers and building brand loyalty. Included on the panel is Adrian Capobianco, President of Quizative, an innovation agency that specializes in creating engaging digital advertising campaigns. During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Quizative helped Nike bring their FORCE FATE campaign to life on their retail store windows in Canada. The screens were powered by eyemagnet, and were projected onto 3M Vikuiti rear projections films. Along with promotional content for Nike, the screens displayed congratulatory messages when Nike-sponsored athletes won medals, as well as photos taken by fans at the games and posted to Facebook.
Designing Tomorrow’s Digital/Physical Interfaces
Sunday, March 11, 11:00AM -12:00PM, Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon FG
This talk will cover interface design for multi-touch devices. The session’s description mentions a move beyond the “brain+fingertips+glass=interaction” school of thought that guides many current designers. David Merrill, President and Co-Founder of Sifteo will speak on the panel. Sifteo is best known for their Sifteo Cubes, which provide wireless touch-screen gameplay on a tiny 128 x 128 color TFT LCD screen.
Tech + the Evolution of the In-Store Experience
Sunday, March 11, 3:30PM - 4:30PM, Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon K
A panel of professionals in the technology and brand management industries will discuss how in-store technologies are changing the shopping experience. Among the topics to be covered by the panel are strategies being implemented in retail stores, such as augmented reality, touch screens, and Kinect. The talk will also cover how these tools impact sales, and how to measure ROI.
It's Alive: Interactive Machines That Captivate
Friday, March 9, 5:00PM - 6:00PM, InterContinental Stephen F. Austin, Capital Ballroom B
This session will feature interactive machines, including the LiveStrong Chalkbot, the Unilever Share Happy Smile Machine, Real Art’s Santa Claw and Welcome2College’s Mobile Automated Research Vehicle. A panel will discuss how they used emerging technologies such as integrated facial recognition software, microcontrollers, and Kinect to create effective interactive marketing solutions. FK Funderburke, Senior Manager of Digital Merchandise Strategy for SapientNitro, which specializes in creating digital brand experiences. The company worked with New Balance athletic shoe stores to launch an iPad app, equip sales associates with iPads to conduct transactions and inform customers, and build in-store kiosks that house the tablets.
The Building Blocks for Indoor Navigation
Saturday, March 10, 11:00AM -12:00PM, Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon J
A panel of experts in the indoor mapping and indoor positioning industries will explore the future of indoor navigation using Smartphone apps, which are often implemented alongside digital signage used for wayfinding. The panelists include Ankit Agarwal, CEO of Micello, a company which creates indoor venue maps and navigation content for location-based services, and Chris Broadfoot, Developer Programs Engineer for Google, who works closely with the Maps JavaScript API, which allows Google Maps to be embedded into separate web sites and mobile applications.
