Who's With Me?

​Is it just me or does anyone else feel like they attended DSE six months ago? It’s hard to believe the show was just about a week ago! As usual, the show was a myriad of eye-catching displays, very cool interactive products, and, of course, lively discussions. It seemed like your typical tradeshow on the surface, but something was distinctly different this year.

This year was the birth of the Women of Digital Signage's annual networking breakfast. How exciting! The room was filled with women who work in technology and were specifically interested in digital signage. How cool is that? We all know people tend to gravitate towards others with like interests, so it was a perfect networking forum and, frankly, a great way to start the day.

As with any inaugural event, there was a lot of excitement and promises to become involved in the group (and gratitude to Megan Dutta and Andrea Varrone for putting the event together). It appeared the breakfast was a success. But, how many of you women have thought about it since? How many of you made contacts that day that you have already followed up with? In my mind, the true success of this event should be the initiative it inspired in all of us to be willing to invest our time in growing this organization as well as our own careers.

I have been a sales manager for years (ahem, how many I refuse to reveal at this point). In all due respect to training folks, I have always maintained that sales teams typically have everything they need in order to be successful if individuals are willing to share their talents. I feel the same way about the Women of Digital Signage group. I guarantee there was a woman in the room who was an expert at content design for interactive kiosks. She was possibly sitting near a female manager of a retail store who is currently evaluating that type of software. Across the way was sitting a woman from a kiosk hardware manufacturer.  Was there a knowledge transfer? I hope so, but, I am not so sure.
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We are all in this business together. Let’s figure out a way to use this group to help each other grow in our knowledge of the industry, in forming partnerships, and celebrating our successes. I believe our breakfast meeting was a terrific start. Now it is up to us as individuals to keep the momentum going. Who’s with me?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Loretta Rederscheid is an accomplished business leader with over 25 years of experience in direct and indirect sales and LOB management, primarily supporting enterprise software sales. Currently an account manager at ComQi, she can be reached at [email protected].

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