This year's show will be Chun Yip Man's first Viscom since joining Reed Exhibitions

Chun Yip Man shares his overview of the forthcoming Viscom Germany event, to be held on October 25th – 27th in Frankfurt, with Kimberley Swift in the third of her interviews focused on this year's exhibitions.

You joined the Viscom Germany team in December 2011. How are preparations going for this year's show?

The German Viscom event is the biggest European one, it's in the centre of Europe and we expect we will get approximately 12,000 visitors and over 330 exhibitors. At the last one we had over 25 international exhibitors, which is a lot for a German show. Now, we have over 35 international exhibitors. Our show is booked up over 85 percent right now – we don't have a lot of space left – so it’s going well, so far, for us.

How does it compare to the other three European Viscom events? Is there greater demand for digital signage exhibition space and in-show events this year?

Last year we had 11,000 visitors in Germany. In Spain there were only 4,000, and in France there were 7,000 to 8,000 visitors. In Italy it was 10,000. Our statistic is confirmed by the German government. In the other countries they are not controlled, but in Germany we have an association that controls the assessment of visitor figures.

Is there greater demand? It’s very difficult to answer, because the digital signage market is very big, and in the last six years we have established that we have a certain number of exhibitors who always come back, but we’re trying to get new ones. So we are going to other shows to talk with them and to show them that the Viscom digital signage event is a fair where people have more possibilities to show their new products.

The Digital Signage Best Practice Awards will return for 2012; how does the awards scheme reflect the current market?

Again, it’s difficult to explain it because it is a very big project. Everybody that wants to participate in these awards has to give us an application with the newer stuff that they have. The problem is that people have just one year to show us the new products. Some products came from 2010 but we can’t put them in for the awards, for example. It’s only from the 2011 to 2012 period. They have the chance to show us what their product can do and why it is better. In the Best Practice Awards there are five categories: retail signage, information signage, guiding signage, interactive signage and multi-channel signage. And then there is one special award, awarded by a jury which is not only from the digital signage side. They will give their own opinion of the award.

Are there any changes or updates from last year?

The main thing that we have changed is that we've made more space, meaning greater opportunities for more exhibitors and more companies to come and show their products.