The Communication Studio LLC
Conference Public Kiosk
TCS entrepreneurial project (2 mo.)

By 1986 the Information Industry Association was moving quickly towards interactive electronic online services. We were able to offer them a practical model.

Graphical Site Map

Exhibitor Info and Ad

Exhibitor fFoormap

Exhibitor Directory

Quick Schedule

Working in cooperation with the organization, we created an interactive information kiosk for use on the Exhibit Floor at the IIA annual conference in New York. The 500+ screen database was the public debut for the TCS Environment site software:

Exhibitor Directory
Exhibitor Floormap
Bulletin Board
Information About the IIA
Conference Meeting Update
Quick Schedule
Joint Venture partnering list
Graphic Presentation Showcase
Help/Tutorial section
Automated Ad Billboard

The Communication Studio pioneered some features that were cutting edge for 1986:

  • graphic "window frames" for on-screen information sections
  • single-keystroke global access to the information sections
  • automated merging of advertising messages from an "Ad Pool"
  • cross-referencing between an alphabetic directory of exhibitors and a physical map of exhibit booths
  • animated graphics
  • default timeouts to a pre-configured scrolling ad show if the kiosk was not in use
  • automated presentational "mini-shows"
  • on-screen graphic confirmation ("highlighting") of user selections

Although we did not receive most of the informational content from the IIA until two weeks before the conference, we were able - by using our TCS Textup context management tool - to complete the screens on time and even add 45 new pages to the site on the first day of the conference.

Skills & Techniques :

IBM PC-AT, site maintained on TC Environment software, pages maintained through the TCS Textup content mangaement utility. Note: The pages displayed here were designed using the limited 16-color palette then standard for most PC's..

Point of Sale Advertising We sold additional advertising services to a almost half of the conference participants. As you might expect, the "Joint Venture" section was undeniably the most-accessed information in the Kiosk.