Education on Display

Exploring shop experiences with digital signage.

There is an extra focus this month on the art and implementation of digital signage—as our issue takes a look at recent exterior and interior installations along with some added bonus coverage sprinkled throughout these stories about the role sign shops played in the process.

For those shop owners still investigating these opportunities, our Operations column on page 32 (“Evolving Digital Involvement”) provides further details and suggestions from manufacturers that can help you (a.) make an informed decision about why these offerings could be a good fit for their business, and (b.) better understand what their shop should do to get more involved and offer this technology to clients or be brought onboard preexisting projects.

“Studies show that we are not retracting on [digital] but rather improving and evolving. To stay relevant, you need to provide what the people want,” says Roxanna McCoy, director of Operations at ThinkSIGN.

For shops already involved with these types of jobs, it’s imperative to continue cultivating a healthy working relationship with communities and planners— especially as some of these entities find themselves addressing this quickly evolving technology and rethinking ordinances and regulations (and creating potential roadblocks for the signage side).

Now is a good time to let you know that our magazine is going to be co-hosting with ISA a pre-conference dynamic digital workshop devoted to this subject matter on Tuesday, April 11 (the day before ISA International Sign Expo begins).

This half-day “Combatting Codes & Regulations” workshop at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas will feature a mix of sign industry officials, digital signage specialists, and sign shop owners as they discuss their stories and their advice related to the planning and permitting of digital signage installs, as well as how to work with communities to come up with sensible code and regulatory solutions.

Sessions at this workshop include “‘The Secret Sauce’—How to Increase EMC Sales Volume” by Brandon Meyer, owner of Smart Signs; “The ‘States’ of Sign Code and Permitting—Local, Regional, and National” by Deacon Wardlow of Vantage LED; and “Trends: Codes and Regulations” by ISA’s David Hickey. I will also be hosting a conversation with Jeff Young of YESCO about how his company planned and implemented a recent outdoor sign project.

You can pre-register for this exciting event at signexpo.org/pre-conferenceworkshops. We look forward to seeing you there!

(Moody Center, Austin, TX): SNA Displays.

JEFF WOOTEN Editor, jwooten@sbpub.com