Screenmedia Expo wasn't a huge success in 2012. It wasn't through lack of trying, but the absence of key players left big holes on the show floor and visitors were understandably a bit put off. The AV types I've seen since felt this visual communications market is better represented elsewhere, and while British digital signage folk were relatively numerous at the show it, sadly, didn't manage to reach out enough to new markets – such as printers.

Six months later and FESPA announces the launch of European Sign Expo (ESE), with digital signage slated to be one of its core areas, followed by its acquisition of Screenmedia Expo last week. It's a natural fit and a welcome move for those in the 'analogue' (by which I mean printed) advertising and display arena, and some of us have hung in there waiting for a major print organisation to take digital signage seriously.

But what, in the purchase, was FESPA actually buying? "What is king is always data," Neil Felton, managing director of FESPA's exhibitions and events, explains. "The fact that they have five or six years' worth of strong visitors who are all relevant will help FESPA very much."

I also wondered if any thought was given to slotting the digital signage area within the core show rather than ESE. "It fits within European Sign Expo very nicely and we have the ability to grow in that area specifically; we're running out of space in FESPA," Felton responds. "That doesn't mean it doesn't fit within FESPA. It's not the technical aspects necessarily: you're talking about visual communication in a much broader sense, and that's what [ESE] is about."

However, there's a lot of work to be done before the summer if FESPA is to capitalise fully on its investment – and it starts with a big learning curve. Digital signage is not an easy space to get one's head around: installations range in size from standalone tablets or kiosks to massive multi-panel videowalls or out-of-home installations. Understanding content delivery, embedded computing, networking, suitability of screen to task and data integration can take a long time and, to date, there's no single place to access all that knowledge. Not only must FESPA learn all this itself, but it will also have to guide PSPs, who are likely to be interested but speculative, to the right application for their rather broad range of customers.

FESPA has rethought its educational programme for 'the big one' in 2013 and it can be heartened that Screenmedia's two conference areas were well-respected and decently attended. It'll want to keep some of that content to make sure it attracts integrators and other members of the existing digital signage community, but expand with lower-level, introductory sessions for novice visitors. To do this adequately it will need to identify the differences (and similarities) between digital signage and digital out-of-home (DOOH) and not muddle the difficulties of scale for newcomers. Larger PSPs will be used to the world of media owners and agencies, but smaller sign and display houses less so; it's this latter group that stands to benefit most from the ESE/Screenmedia marriage provided the content is clearly spelled out and the business opportunities accurately demystified.

FEPSA's challenge, therefore, is also its greatest opportunity. It must create leadership in the fields of technology and application that are sorely needed in this area, and provide various routes to that education for PSPs of all sizes to be able to diversify. It should lay out a full SWOT analysis for these printers, whose greatest question is which applications are staying, going or holding on the for the time being; what should they sell to fill the gaps and which process adds most value for their clients? FESPA could put this convoluted technology space into context for their business expansion.

If it does all this correctly, demand is likely to be created for sign and display resellers to start providing kiosks, screens and related hardware – so far the province of lone wolf Fairfield Displays. To achieve this by June will be tough but not impossible; FESPA was at the fore of leading screen-printers into wide-format digital ink-jet, after all.

"The [visual communications] world out there has a wide variety of opportunities and we want to highlight that – be it digital signage, signage, promotional products or industrial print," concludes Felton. He's right; he and the FESPA team have a new audience to keep happy, but the potential cross-pollination could be invigorating for all concerned.