The European E-Kiosk Group

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Amazingly, in a European kiosk marketplace that is so clearly flourishing, there does not exist any real overall cooperation strategy, association or any kind of networking group. Only in Germany has a real acting and living E-Kiosk working group been established, founded at the start of 1999 - first as a loose discussion and networking group, and since 2001 as part of the German Multimedia Associaiton (dmmv), later formed as Federal Association Digital Economy (BVDW), which has more than 1,000 members. The main interest of the E-Kiosk working group was to establish a community of interests for its members, in order to promote deployments and use of all applications and solutions within the range of interactive self-service media. On the basis of absolute objectivity, the E-Kiosk working group tried to supply specialised information and competence for decision makers, by supporting members and marketing partners such as consultancies, system houses, suppliers of CRM and CMS solutions, internet agencies, multimedia agencies, out-of-home advertisers and event agencies.
 
Since 2002, the group has even succeeded in establishing its own award for kiosk systems within the well-known German Multimedia Awards.
 
In the beginning of 2006, the BVDW was forced to re-organise, so Mr. Eckhard Reimann, the driving force behind the E-Kiosk working group, decided to organise and moderate a somewhat looser networking of the whole kiosk industry in Germany and the German speaking countries.
 
In 2006, the first meeting took place in Duesseldorf in order to create the new 'E-Kiosk & Self-Services Networking' organisation. Since then, more than 400 people involved in the kiosk, digital signage, media installations and self-service markets in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have been added to the list of members.
 
The group's next main session will take place in May 2007, during KIOSK EUROPE EXPO 2007 in Essen.