Life beyond digital signage

We travel the world to attend, produce or chair trade shows and industry conferences. But display, flagship stores and behind the scene photos are not everything we brought back to the office. During the holidays we took the time to travel down memory lane and picked a few of the 5.000+ 2019 photos telling stories beyond digital signage. A personal tour by Florian Rotberg

Estonia – this tiny country at the Baltic Sea was one of our first trips in 2019. In the middle of winter by -20° C a cold but memorable week. German Out of Home Media owner Ströer had organized an official Smart City / eGovernment trip to Estonia We met dozens of smart city startups, visited the Estonian eGovernment showroom and attended a reception by the German ambassador. A fantastic opportunity to exchange ideas and to learn how Estonia managed to be develop the most advanced European nation. One of our most important learnings – the right mind set is as important as technology. Germany and many other nations still have a long way to go.

My personal highlight was picturesque Tallinn and the Estonian National Museum in southern Estonia close to the Russian border. A must visit not only for digital signage fans.

We traveled more than 200k miles by air and a decent amount of time in trains and on the road. That leaves a lot of time to think about life, the state of our planet and to analyze trends of drivers in this challenging year 2019.

It is frustrating to experience how much potential Latin America would have had if politics would be more kind. The US economy keeps moving full steam ahead as Europe and China lose traction.

One of the most exotic places invidis traveled to was Panama. The tiny country in central America squeezed between two oceans and most famous for the Panama Canal and shady offshore banking.

But Panama offers all of the above and then much more. The highlight was the Biomuseo designed by Frank Gehry. Not only the architecture is spectacular but also its location at the entrance of the canal. The rain forest is just an hour from Panama City and worthwhile a visit. A must see are the ship locks of the Panama Canal. Fascinating to experience how the global trade is channeled through this small country.

On weekends the waterfront is excellent for a run as traffic is blocked for a few hours. A trend we have experienced not only in Panama but also in Mexico City and Sao Paulo this year. It is great to see how Latin America megacities are slowly opening for pedestrians, bikers and guys like us enjoying a morning run while on business travel.

Basel / Switzerland has been a frequent stop for invidis in the past years. Home to one of your consulting clients we regularly travel to the lovely Swiss city bordering France and Germany. If you have a chance spend a weekend in Basel visiting some great museums and the spectacular Vitra Campus.

In summer you need to jump into the Rhine river as the locals do and float down through the old town. Afterwards enjoy a glass of wine or a cold beer on the river banks

Las Vegas is a regular stop in our annual conference travel plans – either for Infocomm, CES or like in 2019 for Digital Signage Expo (DSE). We are not a particular fan of the city, Pacific Time jetlag and the casino crowds. But we must admit, the city offers great views like the sunset view from Palms hotel off-strip.

The negative image of the city is most likely based on our time being locked into windowless convention center and casino restaurants. A morning run along the strip makes up for a lot and we promise we will give Las Vegas another chance. Infocomm 2020 we’re coming.

Dubai is just a comparable short hop from our home base Munich, and we spent much time in the desert in the past ten years. All to often in and out with no time to explore the nice sides of the emirate.

We hosted a M&A workshop at the Dubai Sailing club this year. A very basic meeting venue just right for our packed agenda. Not much distraction until the sun set over the Arabian Gulf.

Even we have been to Dubai countless time we still enjoy the Arabian hospitality, the boldness to reinvent the city every few years and the vision of a happy nation. 2020 will be an important year for Dubai as the world expo kicks of in fall. A must visit next winter for digital signage experts and everyone interested in experience a glimpse of the future at Expo 2020

Readers of invidis are familiar with our longstanding coverage of Russia and CIS region. Our annual conference has been the most important digital signage event for ten years now. Moscow is a fascinating city – a very lively, exciting place in summer to visit while coming to the Russian capital in wintertime is not recommendable.

The city has changed dramatically in past decade, especially in the last two years cleaning up for the FIFA 2018 world cup. Gorky Park, the greater Red Square area and many places in downtown Moscow have improved dramatically. In some parts Moscow feels like a Western European capital. But for those looking for some exotic even soviet-style moments, there is enough left to be discovered.

One place is the Europeyskiy shopping center right next to Kiveskaya train station. The mall is owned by a businessman from the Caucasus and his taste reflects in the light design of the mall. A total overkill of LED in flashy colors. But not only the shopping center but the adjacent Radisson hotel, train station and pedestrian bridge transform this part of Moscow to a color festival.

In October 2019 we went to Beijing to catch another glimpse of China technology and retail reality. It is always fascinating how fast China is adapting to global changes in demand and politics. Today’s Beijing is almost like a Swiss clockwork – tidy and efficient. It comes at a price which is obvious for western visitors. But Beijing offers some of the best designed retail concepts and the role of mobile payment in everyday life is breathtaking.

Barcelona is becoming the new digital signage hotspot when ISE moves from Amsterdam to the Catalan capital in February 2021. But Barcelona also hosts the Smart City Conference & Expo the world-famous World Mobile Congress. We visited Barcelona for a few occasions in 2019 – and stepped inside Sagrada Familia after a few years. The light reflections in afternoon are just amazing and for an exception completely analogue.