 Welcome to this week's edition of Business in Hawaii. And Dale and Yanagita, we are broadcasting live from the Think Tech studios in downtown Honolulu. If you want to tune in live, we are at www.thinktechhawaii.com. You may also subscribe to our programs and get on our mailing list at that site as well. The theme of Business in Hawaii is to share with you stories of local businesses by local people, and our guests share with us their journey to building a successful business right here at home. In the Think Tech studios today is none other than John Strandberg. John rarely appears as a guest host with Think Tech Hawaii and is frequently spotted at all of the hottest networking events around town. So John, thank you so much for joining me today. I know you've been up to some super exciting things and I want to hear about it. So tell us what's going on with you. Well recently I left the company I worked with for five years and moved on to something a little bit more exciting because of what I love to do which is sales and marketing. It falls right in line with what I would really like to do in my life. Nice. And so do you want to tell us what that is? Actually I took the job as the Hawaii region manager for Pacific Digital Signs. We produce signage, all digital signage for wayfinding, two menus, whatever you think of that's digital. We're here to talk about that today I believe. So what about all the networking and events that you do getting away from that or is that still within there? It's still part of my wheelhouse that's one of the reasons why I came over. Pacific Digital Signs really wants to become more of a known brand here in Hawaii as we have offices here as well as in Seattle and in San Francisco, Napa Valley. So again Hawaii is one of the points that really needs to grow and that's why I'm here. So before we get to Pacific Digital Signs I want to kind of take an opportunity to get some tidbits out of you, out of the latest networking events that are coming up. Anything exciting? I think a little bit of, I'm just going to say it, probably the best one to go to is next week Wednesday night. Pacific Edge has an event at Taxford Avenue. It's launching their fall magazine. It's about hospitality, I believe, or architects. I forget what it is but the main point is it's on Wednesday night, September 4th and I'm going to be there because it's also celebrating my birthday. What better way to celebrate my birthday than attend a networking event because that's what people around Honolulu know me as, as a premier networker. This is true. We see you at all of those events. So at least you'll have everyone around you that you know and you love celebrating your birthday with you. Yeah, it's great of them to throw a party for me. I kind of like that. At Taxford Avenue, no less. Exactly, right? All right, so Pacific Digital Signs, tell me about the organization and what attracted you to Pacific Digital. Well, I've actually known the owner of Vince Mitchell for many years. I met when I was actually an audience director at Pacific Business News. And we've met off and on through various chamber events and so on. And we've stayed in touch. Vince founded Pacific Digital Signs here in Honolulu. Been over 14 years now since he started the company. And he's done very well for himself. He's an Air Force veteran. He knows his product, was here in Hawaii for a while. But five years ago, he moved to Napa where his wife, Kelly, took a job as a wine blogger. And she writes about wineries and wine. And he's like, I have to go support the wife. But now he runs a company out of San Francisco and comes to Hawaii every so often to help this office maintain. But the flight's got a little crazy. So he decided to hire a local general manager. And we met up recently and made me an offer I couldn't refuse to take over in my business here in Hawaii. You know, the same people as I do. We should really work together. And here I am. This is the start of my third week actually with the company. Well, congratulations. Well, thank you. It sounds like a fantastic opportunity and they're lucky to have you. So you mentioned that they had offices in Honolulu in San Francisco and in Seattle. Yes. Okay. And so where did the business start? It was founded right here in Honolulu. So Vince's first office was actually in Waikiki. And our headquarters is still in Waikiki, albeit in a different building and location. But I do enjoy the location because I'm less than five minutes away from work. Well, that could be good and bad. Yes. So far it's been good. I'm not sure what the bad just yet. You have to make sure you go home. Work-life balance. Yes. Very important. So as the company's name says, specific digital signage. Well, what kind of signage are we talking about? And you having come from the technology world, has it changed? Is it looking different? It really has in the past when people say digital signs, they always think of an LED sign or not even LED, go even further back, neon sign. So it was recently at the Western Food Expo in LA just past week. And people still ask, do you still help with the digital LED neon sign? We had a sign that looked very much like a neon sign within our booth. It was actually LED driven. And the answer is, no, we don't use that. That's kind of old technology. We concentrate on new digital items where we put everything on a screen for you. Wow. Okay. So it's a new way of putting up your shingle, if you will. Right? So businesses will come to you, brand new, looking for new marketing, logo. I mean, what is it? What is a service? Okay. So specific digital signs, we produce the screen. So you come to us and let's just say I'm a coffee shop owner. You come to me, you're opening up a coffee shop. Or you actually have an existing coffee shop. And your sign is handwritten. Everything on that board, you handwrite out every day, every week, whatever it is. And when things run out, you get a little pen, you put a line through it. We're out of stock on this item. Then the next day, oh, we're back in stock. You got to rewrite it again. So now we're going, what if it was all digitized? Every day, you start off fresh. You run out of an item. You just go to your computer, get to a website. You delete that item and things just kind of move up automatically without a line through it. It looks a little more professional and clean. But now it's not just about the menu. We could show pictures of what it is you're selling. We could show video if you have anything created that's showing your product. So it just gives you a different experience. What about those businesses? So you're saying coffee shops, handwritten, maybe chalkboard, whiteboard, what have you. What about those businesses that want to keep it rustic? What do you have in the digital space that can help you? So with a lot of the frames now, the bezels are so thin, it's much like your phones. If you have a new modern smartphone, the bezels are so thin that you actually have to get a case to hold it in. Digital signs can do the same thing. You could actually put a frame around your sign to make it look like it's a picture on the wall. Which I've seen and it's really cool looking. So if I was a business concentrating on Hawai'iana, I might put a bamboo frame around it. Or I could put a cola veneer around my bezel itself so it looks a little bit more built in. But what's great is because it's a digital sign, I can still have that chalkboard effect on my screen as if it was handwritten on a chalkboard. So when we were talking before the show, you were talking about how people consume information. What does that mean and how does that connect to Pacific Vision? Well, let's look at it this way. You have people who love to read. Then you have people that learn by visualizing things. They see a moving picture. Then you have others that learn through experiences. So digital sign addresses all three without having one static sign that a lot of people will miss. I will share a story about this. Over lunch, today, even, I was talking to a friend that works for a title company. And he says, we have the exact same information on a static sign. And the exact same information shows up on a digital board. When their board is off because they don't turn it on until nine o'clock, people come in early. They stand there and freak out to go, where do I need to be? Where the exact same information is on this plastic stand behind them that's just written out. And it's funny how in today's day and age, I'd rather look at a digital signboard over a piece of paper in a sign holder. Very interesting. So people are thinking about the different ways that they can present what they already present. So it's not as though they're building something brand new. No, a lot of companies already have their branding materials or marketing materials built. Whether it's a restaurant all the way through to escrow company. Your brand's already there. It's just how do you present it to that end user or that customer that's going to draw them into your brand. An example would be, I love using cosmetics because ladies buy cosmetics. Some men do, I'm not saying it's all, we'll see men and women, but some guys do too. But you walk in and most cosmetic counters today, it's not just that makeup artists sitting behind the counter are waiting for you to come up. They're doing the experience. You're saying, let me show you how to apply something. In the meantime, you're waiting for somebody, they'll have a screen showing how to buy the makeup, how it's being used. It'll show some glam shots of what it looks like after. And then there's some music behind it. So it creates that experience versus just read this brochure and wait for it. Which a lot of people look at it and it ends up in the crowd. Right. And so we hear that phrase all the time now, customer experience. We see it in the banks. We see it wherever we go. They're talking about a customer experience. Is that what Pacific Digital Sign does for businesses? We help the businesses define that experience and to present it to their consumers. But we don't actually build content for you, although we can lead you to the proper way of doing it. But we take the content that you as a business owner already has and let's elevate that to the next level. I love using this for instance. We had a company we worked with out of California, a small supermarket chain, about 55 locations. They sent us digital stills of the food in our hot bar. But just a picture of food in a hot bar looks great as we're going to see a couple shortly. But we added something to it. We added a steam effect off the food. So that way, when you're looking at it from the screen, it's like the food came alive. There's some steam coming off of it and a written description of what it is. I can see where that would change the way I would receive the information. I'd assume that it's nice and hot. The steam says, hey, I'm hot. I'm fresh. I'm delicious. All in just one picture. And you're not really saying anything yet. And what I tell business owners too is another part, I run businesses. I know what ROI is. I know what makes money. If I have a slow selling item, I show that pictured item with some steam coming off it. I'm going to make more money selling this versus this item. I'm going to show that. Since we're on the topic of food, my favorite topic. I wanted to pop up a couple of photos that you sent over dealing with some of the work that you guys do. Tell us about this. Okay, you can see the screen. This is actually from one of our customers, Eleanor Barbecue. And this is a typical food menu that everyone's accustomed to seeing today. You have some menu items across the top showing off the food, what the food will look like when you order. And right below, it actually has description. If you were to hand write something like that every day, as things sell out or things happen, it would be a lot of work for one person. So for instance, on this, I can tell you that a combo barbecue plate is going to cost me $9.95. Next to it, I have the calorie count, which is really popularly. Everyone wants to know, well, how many calories is this going to have? And it's quite a lot. And then it shows what the items are, what you get in your mixed plate. So you get a lot of information on a screen that if you had to hand write, would take you a lot of space. Okay. I know we have one more. Let's take a look at that one. Okay. So this is from another customer of ours, Wolfgang Buck. This is off of his Wolfgang Buck address. So we're showing an example of this breakfast menu. And again, everyone recognizes Wolfgang Buck. So if I'm in his restaurant, and I didn't realize when I walked in through whatever door that I'm in a Wolfgang Buck, I will now, I'll see his face, he's smiling, he's got his apron on, and he's like, oh, I'm at Wolfgang's place. So now I'm going to order something really nice. And no matter what I get, he's his own brand. So you see that, and then you see the food items, no matter what you can get, you're going to expect really good food. Nice. I love it. We do need to go to a break. When we come back, I would love to pick your brain about how businesses use these things as a sales tool. Sure. And how it speaks to the consumer. We are going to take that short break. This is Business in Hawaii. We'll see you back here shortly. Hey, hello, everyone, and welcome to the Think Tech Hawaii studio. My name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of The Pretty Matters Hawaii. We air here every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Hawaii time, trying to bring you issues about security that you may not know, issues that can protect your family, protect yourself, protect our community, protect our companies, the folks we work with. Please join us and I hope you can maybe get a little different perspective on how to live a little safer. Aloha. Hi, guys. I'm your host, Lillian Cumick from Lillian's Vegan World. I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. And this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health, regarding your health, and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier, and have fun at the same time. So do join me. I look forward to seeing you and Aloha. Welcome back. This is Business in Hawaii. With us today is John Strandberg, Hawaii Regional Manager of Pacific Digital Science. Sorry. So when we left, we saw some really great work that Pacific Digital Science does with LNL locally, Wolfgang Puck, where it brings their menu to life. So I'm envisioning some of these places that we've seen around town, right? And so gone are the days that you have a vinyl sign with a lighted backdrop. Is that right? So Pacific Digital Science is taking it to the next level. So these signs would actually be displayed on a television screen? Yeah. So basically we take a commercial screen. And yes, there is a difference between the ones you buy for your house versus the ones we use for signage. There is this thing called a NIT, and it's spelled N-I-T. The typical home screen has around 200 or 300 NITs, and commercial screens have 500 or more. And you'll find some of the larger outdoor signs has a NIT count as high as 2,000 or more. Just so you can see it during a daytime and being super bright. So a commercial screen, while you typically have brighter screen, they have what's called an anti-burn effect, because if you play the same image long enough, it's going to burn itself onto your screen. So there's ways of moving the pixels around so you don't have that. And finally, they offer a player what's actually playing the software behind the scenes. They're all built into it. Right now, if you were to plug it into your home screen at home, it would require a USB stick with a program or an attached computer to show the same screen. We do a lot of the technology behind the scenes. We also talked about building a customer experience and how specific digital signs is really the driver for helping you create that customer experience that you want. So we looked at some menus, which is obvious, right? Folks that are going to put up whatever they're offering. It's the most obvious way of seeing a digital sign today is everyone's gone to McDonald's or any fast food place, and you'll see digital signage all across. We've done Jack in the Box here in Hawaii and Jamba Juice as well with new signage. But now people are going, what else can we do with it? And event signage is something else that a lot of restaurants are going to. If we could pull up that picture real quick. This is from another client that's actually on the mainland. So they're offering a percentage off in the month of January, but it's not just the offer. They're showing some of the food where they're located and the experience you're going to have by going and having a meal there. What screams better than four people, five people in this case, offering a toast with wine and the food looks fantastic and you get a little offer. This will draw you as a patron to saying, hey, this sounds really fun. I'm going to enjoy myself there. I'm going to get a little discount because I saw the sign. I'm definitely going to go in. So if I'm understanding correctly, something like this could be used in a mall, for example, where the different restaurants or retail shops all have an opportunity to showcase perhaps what their, what their specials are. Yes. So we do a lot of work with malls with directional signage. Direction menus are awesome today. You can walk up to a kiosk and go, I want to go to, let's say I want to go to Lady Foot Locker and I'm standing in front of this kiosk. I can actually do a touch screen, touch Lady Foot Locker and it'll tell me you are here and follow the red dots to Lady Foot Locker. I think we've seen something like this at McDonald's. It's similar technology. It's all very clearly laid out. I think we do have an example of, I think it was ProRidge. Well, this is the ProRidge Heritage Center. This is another touch screen project where if you want to, you walked up to it, you can see the different artists. Just by touching what do you want to look at, it'll play that video. I think the next screenshot is of Waterfront Plaza, which has one of our signage. So you go to it, you touch where you want to go and it'll take you there. If you touch on information about property or anything else or even a restaurant, you could touch on a restaurant picture and it'll pull up a display of the restaurant or to find it in the center what specials that restaurant might even have that month or that week or even that day. What other interactive features are people using in Sign Sound? Because now I'm blown away. The whole concept for me is now completely changed. I always joke around about this. I've done this even before coming to work for Pacific Digital Science, is you take a young child and they'll walk up to your LCD TV at home and they'll start trying to touch it to make it do things. Because even from the age of three, sometimes two, they're used to seeing an iPad or mom and dad's phone and they know we touch our phones and make it do things. So they're already touching these giant screens, thinking they'll do the same thing. So in that same concept, we started putting them into hotels. If you want to see what's going on in hotels, you can touch it, make reservations for the restaurant or we could turn on a feature where it connects to the airline. If I'm going to be checking out and there's a touch kiosk nearby at the checkout point, I can check into my flight before I get to the airport. Because at the late, I can check the weather of wherever I'm headed to. Do I need to dress warm? Do I need to take off some clothes? Because I'm coming to Hawaii from New York City in the middle of winter. You can find all that with the touch screen. But the idea of checking in, finding your seat at the airport before you get there from a touch panel, I think you're going to see more and more of that. Okay, well, you know, I am in the business of HR and it seems as though with all of the interactive ability, the automation, are you getting rid of people? You are and you're not. I mean, there's a proliferation of kiosks. Again, I was just at the Western Food Expo and the number one question we got asked is, can we do this with a kiosk where I can order all of my food, pay for it, and then go find the seat or wait for it? Automation is going to get to that point. Case in point McDonald's already has that built in. And they're trying to slowly get rid of that. Why am I paying a minimum wage worker to take someone's order when a customer can walk up to a kiosk, it's faster. They get exactly what they ordered because you ordered it yourself. And it just cuts back on labor costs. As in HR, you do know the highest cost to any business is its labor. So is that where Pacific Digital Signs are also a partner in building and developing your business so that you can gain efficiencies? Efficiencies is one thing that we help you grow, but it's more in the information of your company out there. I love that what we do is we give information out. For instance, a lot of our signage, you can control from your phone or a tablet. Let's say there's a fire in the building and there are alarms going off, people see it or hear it, but now they're a visual person. We can actually say there's a fire in floor 32. Please use the stairwells and exit the building now. Across every digital sign in the building. Wow. Wow. I think that's going to change the way that we do a lot of things, but also how we behave and how we receive information and how we start moving through our lives. I like going back to one store. I was reading an article even last week about how this store didn't have digital signs as old mom and pop. Their prices were reasonable. Everything was good about them. Service was average, but they didn't have any gains in sales. Where two blocks down, another store with the exact same pricing, same product with digital signs in the background are drawing people in because they're seeing this image as they're walking by of what this product that they're going to use may be used for, how it's being used, and they're seeing people like themselves using it. You mentioned that the founder of Pacific Digital Sign founded the company in Hawaii, but then expanded into San Francisco and into Seattle, and perhaps maybe even later on seeing something international. I know that you folks have done signage where you had to translate it into a different language. I think we have a photo of one of those. Yes, we do actually. This is a map signage for Pro-Wage Center. I think the next shot after that, this one's for DFS. So because the Japanese tourism market we're able to actually translate into multiple languages quickly. So you as a business might have sign in English, but then now it needs to be in Japanese because you have Japanese-speaking guests who are Korean or Chinese. It can quickly be done without you having to rush out and change the poster. Very nice. And if you're on a touch screen, you can change the languages by touching a certain spot on the screen. That makes sense. Yeah. Right. High tourist traffic areas where the traffic is split between multiple languages. That would be amazing for business. That's something that you'll see more and more of in Waikiki. It's actually one of the reasons why our offices are centralized there. It's just easier to visit hotels and tourist attractions because quite frankly, when you travel the world, most other countries are already on this deck with the digital signage. Hawaii and parts of America are just slowly getting it and once we start adopting, you'll see digital signage be normal instead of the, wow, that's cool. So if I'm a business, tell me how signage can be used as a sales tool. Well, I love signage for being that silent salesperson. There's always that one person in your store that's so busy being a salesperson they forget that there's more than one customer. As they're waiting, your sign can actually tell a story as to why my project, my widget, my food, whatever it is is the best and they're going to have the greatest experience having it. You know, this always happens to me with you. I learn so much from you and then the time goes by and that's kind of where we're at right now but I want to give you an opportunity to tell everyone where they can find you, how they can get in touch with Pacific Digital Signs. So give us your information. Well, the easiest way to find me is to find me on social media. I'm kidding. PacificDigitalSigns.com is our website. You just go there, Google Digital Signs. We're probably in the top two in searches anyway but what I love is just to give you my direct email. It's simply John at PacificDigitalSigns.com. Email me any specific questions you might have and I'd be more than happy to answer them for you because it's not that difficult. Put up a sign. People can find you. We know where to find you. But we are out of time today and I wanted to thank John for joining us and a big thank you to the production staff here behind the solo staff here in the studio today. Did an amazing job. If you would like to be a guest on our show, please email your information to shows at thinktechhawaii.com. Business in Hawaii airs every Thursday at 2 p.m. and we look forward to seeing you here next week.