Earlier this month, Singapore hosted it's very first Digital Signage World Asia. It was a small show, and, speaking from a long time industry veteran's perspective, I found it reminiscent of the early days of the digital out-of-home conferences, as the attendees were full of unbridled enthusiasm, curiosity and hope.  

There was a very good representation of countries from all over the region; I had the opportunity to talk with network operators and solution providers from Vietnam, Australia, Taiwan, India, the Philippines, Korea, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia. The overall outlook was that the industry is active in Asia, but it continues to struggle with monetization strategies, profitability and educating agencies about the value of place-based media (sound familiar?)  

I would estimate the crowd size at this show to be similar to the last Strategy Institute Conference I attended in Chicago – slightly more than 100 attendees. A cross-section of the visitors at this event included a very diverse group: media agencies, retailers, mall developers,  local government, digital network operators, transit media companies and outdoor billboard owners. 

The exhibitors at the show were the usual suspects – big screen manufacturers like Christie, Samsung, LG, NEC and even 3M's Vikuiti all had booths. The software category was dominated by Scala and Harris.  HP made a cameo appearance at the Scala booth, most likely to discuss strategies on how they plan to aggressively market to the region, in light of the companies’ recently publicized alliance. 

The overall state of the industry in the Asia region varied depending on who you talked to. The agencies and media owners stated that many of the big brands are interested in digital out-of-home, indicating that there is money still in the market. But solution and technology providers depicted a more challenging situation with overall sales.

The biggest news at the show was the announcement that the Digital Screenmedia Association is planning to expand its presence into the Asia region starting in January 2011. The initiative will be spearheaded by a longtime veteran (yours truly) as the regional representative for all of Asia.  The strategy will start at a grassroots level with the creation of local DSA country councils. The list of countries that have already expressed interest in forming groups are Australia, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. 

Since the conference in Singapore, I've already established charter membership commitments and engagements from government entities, media agencies, network operators, software providers and manufacturers, which leads me to believe the creation a regional version of North America’s DSA in Asia will be a much needed catalyst to move the emerging industry forward a great deal. 

Manolo Almagro is a weekly columnist for DailyDOOH.com and the DSA's regional representative to Asia.