The Summit, held at the Hilton Columbus at Easton, gave attendees a chance to see hands-on demonstrations on customer experience technology developed by the Summit sponsors.
Attendees at the Interactive Customer Experience Summit in Columbus, Ohio last week gained a wealth of technology insights as they made their way to educational sessions addressing a range of technology and business development topics, from harnessing artificial intelligence to removing friction from the customer journey.
The Summit, held at the Hilton Columbus at Easton, also gave attendees a chance to see hands-on demonstrations on customer experience technology developed by the Summit sponsors. Sponsors exhibits were positioned at the entrance to the education sessions.
Attendees and sponsors alike appreciated the chance to visit one another one-on-one in the unique, personal setting that the Summit provides.
A ‘think tank’ opportunity
“I come here to learn from peers,” said Jeremy Cauble, director of customer experience at Canteen Vending Services Inc., a division of Compass Group North America, who served as a panelist on a session on artificial intelligence and machine learning. “The format of the panel discussions is really valuable. This is more of a ‘think tank’ opportunity than other conventions.”
As for the Discovery Zone displays, Cauble was particularly interested in a self-storage kiosk presented at the Ginko Systems LLC exhibit.
The sponsors, for their part, recognized the attendees as some of the most forward-thinking companies in the world, encompassing a wide range of user verticals such as restaurants, financial services, retailers, government agencies, museums and more.
“It’s an incredibly engaged audience,” said Ben Brown, vice president of marketing at ConverseNow, a provider of artificial intelligence enabled omnichannel voice ordering technology with machine learning capabilities and winner of the 2022 Best Emerging Tech in Interactive Customer Experience Elevate Award.
“There was a healthy group of decision makers,” said Brown, who also moderated a panel on artificial intelligence and machine learning. “They (attendees) have been glued to the special sessions (in a way) that I have not seen at a show before.”
Michelle Chu, business development associate at Philadelphia based Charge It Spot, a provider of cell phone charging kiosks, found the Summit helpful both as an attendee and a sponsor. She especially liked the intimate quality of the education sessions and the chance to speak to attendees as an exhibitor.
Chu also liked the keynote presentation by Andrew Laudato, EVP and COO of The Vitamin Shoppe, on creating an environment where innovation thrives given that her company is trying hard to find quality employees.
“We’re undergoing a lot of structural reorganization,” Chu said, speaking for her own company.
Discovery Zone highlights
Following are exhibitor highlights in alphabetical order.
Base22
Base22 presented its portfolio of digital services for companies and organizations undergoing digital transformation.
With offices in Columbus, Ohio, Richardson, Texas and Mexico, services include enterprise portals, digital service design, systems integration, content and applications migration projects and more.
Business advisory and transformation services include workshops, user experience evaluations and assistance with infrastructure, integration and change management.
Customer verticals include retail, manufacturing, financial services, foodservice, insurance, higher education and government.
ConverseNow
ConverseNow presented its voice ordering technology that provides order-taking with accuracy that enhances the guest experience while allowing staff to double order volume during peak hours.
Virtual assistants remove the friction caused by busy signals, hold times and/or long drive-thru lines. The virtual assistants also remember customer names and favorite orders and upsell automatically.
The artificial intelligence can integrate with POS systems, base stations and additional software and hardware.
The voice AI can complete orders independently for restaurants, but a person stays behind the scenes to give the guest the option to speak to a person.
ConverseNow, based in Austin Texas, won the 2022 Best Emerging Tech in Interactive Customer Experience Elevate Award.
ChargeItSpot
ChargeItSpot, a Philadelphia based provider of cell phone charging stations for retailers, hospitals, stadiums and other public venues, offers kiosks that feature secure steel lockers, an easy-to-use interface and a full suite of customization options.
In addition to providing phone charging, the kiosks allow companies and organizations that provide employees with phones to manage the phones at worksites. The kiosk prompts the user to indicate if the phone being returned is damaged.
The ChargeItSpot kiosks also collect opt-in consumer data, including marketing assets such as email addresses, cell phone numbers and survey responses.
Ginko Systems LLC
Ginko Systems LLC, a West Carrollton, Ohio based kiosk manufacturer, presented a public storage kiosk for self-storage applications that integrates with property management software.
The software enables kiosk-based renting, virtual meetings with managers and face-to-face customer support.
The U.L. listed kiosk has an enclosed card reader, speakers and a handicap button that allows the user to contact a call center. A camera records the transaction for up to 20 seconds after the final transaction for customer support.
Peripherals include a color touchscreen, a driver’s license scanner, lock dispenser capacity, a printer, a digital camera, an ACH acceptor, a bill acceptor, a VOIP phone, digital signature capture, a digital camera and an onscreen keyboard.
Lineup.ai
Lineup.ai provides forecasting and labor scheduling software that leverages real-time internal and external data such as weather and local events. The software gathers information over time to provide more optimized staffing levels that align with the client’s goals.
The software compares management’s forecasts with its own forecasts to provide a location specific comparison. It reports the average management’s and Lineup.ai’s forecast variance and the total number of days where the two forecasts were more than 20% above or below actual sales.
Loop Media Inc.
Loop Media Inc., a media streaming company, demonstrated its Android Loop Player, a plug-and-play device that attaches to a TV screen, enabling it to run music videos, movie trailers, food tips, extreme sports videos, viral videos and more.
The Loop Player can be found in several national restaurant chains and offers a library of more than 500,000 videos for restaurants, bars, casinos, retailers, bowling alleys, nail salons, tattoo shops and other locations.
The Glendale, California based company can provide screens in addition to its Loop Player.
Sharp NEC Display Solutions of America Inc.
Sharp NEC Display Solutions of America Inc., a provider of professional and commercial visual technology and digital signage solutions, presented its Navisensor software which has been in testing and development for two years.
The analytics software integrates with a camera attached to a computer device that gathers information on customer demographics, tracks customer movements and customer characteristics.
About Networld Media Group
Founded in 2000, Networld Media Group is a leading business-to-business (B2B) media communications company specializing in digital media, associations and events in the tech, banking, retail and food service industries. Online properties include ATMmarketplace.com, DigitalSignageToday.com, FastCasual.com, KioskMarketplace.com, FoodTruckOperator.com, QSRweb.com, PizzaMarketplace.com, RetailCustomerExperience.com, VendingTimes.com and BiblicalLeadership.com. Annual events include the Fast Casual Executive Summit, the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit, the Bank Customer Experience Summit (BCX), the Interactive Customer Experience Summit (ICX) and the Self-Service Innovation Summit.
###
