About Kiosk Industry Group

A good place for kiosk information.

The Kiosk Industry Group began as the first LinkedIn group for people in kiosk industry. February 26, 2008 which means we are coming up on 5 year anniversary.

The group membership is by application only and in general the guidelines are that you must have been in the kiosk business either deploying or providing for two years as your primary function. That sounds innocent enough but it serves as a bar to contact addicts, get richers, and all of those who have that next big idea that they cannot talk to you about until you are willing to invest exorbitant money. 

I kid to a certain extent, but only to a certain extent.

In the Kiosk Industry Group the basic principle of "Safe Harbor", or Birds of a Feather is the rule. If someone gets into the group and then tries to market or sell, then they are removed from the group. It sounds ruthless and it is to an extent but then we have been in the business for a very long time and we have seen all the variations countless times.

Managers 2012 for Kiosk Industry Group

From LinkedIn -- Have you worked with kiosks? This is informal networking group for those with 2 or more years in kiosks. Designing, providing, selling or deploying kiosks. If you have some war-stories in business that you can tell then you qualify. Hardware, software, or project related but directly working kiosks needs to have been your primary business. And it helps if you like scotch, a nice cigar, and golf once a year at Pebble Beach.

That's what it says...

There are 625+ 700+ of us part of the group as of March 2012 and we've actually had to say "No" more times than not.  We've adopted the birds of a feather mode where you must have some legitimate experience in the industry (and not just the usual heat seeking missile looking for the next customer)

We have 9 managers for the group.  We also have Presidents Club/Hall of Fame.

Primary manager 2012 - Sandy Nix

• Ron Bowers with Frank Mayer
• Lawrence Dvorchik with CETW
• Jeremy Harlow  with Connected Technology
• Craig Keefner with KIOSK
• Francie Mendelsohn with Summit
• Marshall Millikan with AT&T
• Sandra Nix of Connected Tech
• Alex Richardson of Selling Machine Ralph Lauren Polo
• Janet L. Webster

Presidents Club Hall of Fame

The "hall of fame" began many years ago by Leif Larson in his publication KIOSK Magazine. 

From there it passed to Networld Alliance which up to 2009 gave out the award. 

The Kiosk Industry Group has a new class of candidates and these are key industry players for many years.  Our selection committee is headed up by Frank Olea of Olea, and assisting is Francie Mendelsohn of Summit Resources, Alex Richardson of Selling Machine, and Craig Keefner of RetailSystems & KIOSK.

Here are 2012 thru 2010 candidates:

• Mike Smith - Founder and President of NeoProducts (now retired)
• Nigel Seed - Founder of Netshift, currently with NS Limited/Retec Interface
• Christoph Niehus - Founder of Provisio, maker of Sitekiosk
• Ron Bowers - Frank Mayer VP sales. FMA longstanding player in kiosks.
• Peter B. Snyder -- VP of Sales for KIOSK, currently working Middle East independently
• Gib Smith -- founder of Gibco (currently in 20th year making kiosks)
• Dave Heyliger - founder of Rocky Mountain Multimedia. Original Kiosk-In-A-Box
• Neil Farr Working Solutions
• Brian Collier of Dicoll
• Frank Olea of Olea
• Tom Smith of MontegoNet & SelfService Networks
• Sydney and Jonathan Arfin of Seepoint
• Brothers Birg
• Billy Giamo of IBM
• Derek and Tracey Fretheim of CeroView
• Rick Rommel of Kodak and North Communications
• John Glitsos of First Wave
• Notable Deployments - Target Stores, Verizon, AT&T, UK Job Centres, Walmart, Walgreens, Florsheim

For reference here are past inductees from that era.

• Gregg Kaplan President & Chief Operating Officer Coinstar, Inc. 
• Rick Malone Founder & President KIOSK Information Systems 
• Bradley Walker Founder & CEO Nanonation  
• Janet L. Webste President Creative Solutions Consulting, LLC 
• Cortlandt Johnson IBM Corporation 
• Greg Swistak originally from Factura 
• Doug Peter President St. Clair Interactive 
• Alex Richardson originally founder of Lexitech and Netkey
• Lawrence Dvorchik General Manager, KioskCom Self Service Expo & Digital Signage Show JD Events 
• Lief Larson President Workface, Inc. 
• Francie Mendelsohn President Summit Research Associates, Inc. 
• Peter Berens Founder Apunix 
• Sylvia Berens Founder Apunix 
• Craig Keefner President & CEO Kiosks.Org