kiosks.org association changes name

The kiosks.org association announced that it will be changing its name to the Self-Service & Kiosk Association, effective immediately. Their new industry portal will be hosted at www.selfservice.org, and now reflects additional technologies, such as ATMs, digital signage, e-commerce and other transactional technologies designed to empower users in retail, financial, transit, hospitality and other industries. From their blurb:

Beginning at the association’s 2002 annual meeting, held at Stone Mountain, Ga., and continuing at the advisory board and executive committee meetings held in Louisville, Ky., Chicago and Las Vegas, the name of the association has been a regular topic of discussion. At the April 2005 meeting in Las Vegas, the advisory board identified renaming the association as one of its key initiatives. The board determined that the association’s annual meeting, which concluded October 18, was the proper venue to reveal the new name and associated Web site changes.

In identifying the name change as a key initiative, the advisory board recognized the importance of the industry’s evolution and the broader view of self-service taken by many of its members. Currently, areas of member interest include digital signage, vending, banking transactions, telephony/voice recognition and Web-based shopping, to name a few. The board also recognized that the kiosk is primarily considered a hardware device and, while many of the members of the association are actively deploying these devices, they are usually part of a much larger self-service initiative.