TRUMBULL, Conn. — KioskCom Self Service Expo and The Digital Signage Show have annouonced the keynote and session rosters for this year's co-located events taking place at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. New to the conferences, which take place from May 6-7, 2009, will be the SPEED Program, a strategic workshop addressing digital signage project planning, deployment, success and supplier capabilities, according to a news release.

See slideshow of KioskCom last year in New York.

"In addition to significantly cutting costs and improving business efficiencies, ensuring customer satisfaction is now more crucial than ever to a company's success," said Lawrence Dvorchik, general manager of the event. "Customer facing and engaging technologies like self-service kiosks and digital signage are increasingly being implemented all over the world and our shows are helping to bring buyers and suppliers together to make that happen."

Opening the 2009 shows on Wednesday, May 6, will be Robert Fort, chief information officer and vice president of information technology for Virgin Entertainment Group. Fort's presentation, Efficiencies Through Customer-Facing and Customer Engaging Technologies, will shed light on how Virgin uses CFTs to improve both employee productivity and customer satisfaction, which has translated into controlled costs and rising sales of core merchandise.

Joshua Weiss, managing director of Web and Self Services for Delta Air Lines, will present Thursday morning's keynote with a presentation entitled, Full-Service Self-Service. The presentation will showcase how self-service at Delta Air Lines has evolved into a far-reaching, multi-channel, multi-lingual strategy that aims to put the customer in control of their travel experience. Weiss also will discuss how Delta has advanced the adoption of self-service technology through new product development, application redesigns and facility changes.

Thursday’s closing keynote will be Why Ricoh Went Eco: Going Green with Environmentally Friendly Digital Billboards, presented by Ron Potesky, senior vice president of corporate communications, products / solutions & channel marketing for Ricoh Americas Corporation. Potesky's presentation discusses Ricoh's strategy, technology and implementation challenges, impact on the brand, cost and environmental savings, along with future challenges in "Going Green" with digital billboards.

New to the 2009 line-up will be SPEED – Structures for Planning, Explanation, Excitement and Deployment. Presented by Lyle Bunn of BUNN Co., SPEED offers practical, accelerated training for potential and new end users, suppliers, advertisers and investors to improve business and project planning, launch and deployment, as well as the application and use of Digital Signage and Digital Out-of-Home media. Taking place on Tuesday, May 5, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., program participants will receive complete SPEED training through a 4-hour session for only $99. Registration is available at www.thedigitalsignageshow.com.

The program consists of six modules, each addressing subjects that enable a digital signage opportunity or deployment to be initialized and continually advanced. The modules offer an industry overview and network description, an in-depth look at initiatives past and present, how to sell and advance your opportunity, various business models that supplement your chosen initiatives and a look at different resources that can assist you along the way.