This is my last regular post on Sixteen:Nine, more than 11,000 posts and 400+ podcasts after I started doing this thing, on a lark, back in early 2006.
It’s time to slow down, so I’m now riding off into the sunset … albeit on a lawn mower.
The pic is AI’d. I couldn’t prompt it to make the old fart a little thinner and riding a Ryobi electric with rear baggers.
I turned 67 in January, and it is time to enjoy the little things that have been sidelined by work demands for many years.
This is NOT the end of Sixteen:Nine. The publication will continue with daily news and analysis, as generated by my smart and busy friends at invidis, which among many things produces a daily German language publication that also looks deep into what’s happening with digital signage and DOOH. We’ve been content partners for a few years now, and I have grown to know the team in Munich. They’re all English speakers, and they know the US-Canada market and people.
They might not offer the same level of snark, but they know the business … which is what really matters.
Pumping Brakes
This has been in the works for months – and my initial plan was announcing my retirement on April Fool’s Day, because that seemed on-brand. But as it played out, I stuck around a few extra weeks as the hand-off came together. I was in Munich this week at my last event as the original Sixteen:Nine guy – the always excellent Digital Signage Summit Europe. This is the sort of event I will still attend – to stay current, build new connections and have a few adult beverages with industry friends. I will be at ISE in early 2026, and already have my AirBnB in Barcelona sorted.
I live in Nova Scotia, which is beautiful but has a relatively fleeting summer season. The next four months will mostly be me outside doing anything but tapping away at a keyboard. It will be a bit of a journey to go from super-busy to super not-busy. That part is both exciting and terrifying. I don’t have a real hobby or particularly deep passion that I’ll finally have time to really explore, and to keep me occupied. But I also don’t think I’ll be spending my days watching game shows and spying on neighbors.
Come fall, getting chased back inside by cold and inevitably some snow, I’ll get back into something. Not sure what. But something. Just not five days a week something.
I’ll do a little consulting, but not a pile. I’ll do some writing for hire. Podcast hosting, if a vendor needs a moderator or referee. I definitely don’t want big commitments or, even worse, an actual job. I have already had a couple of companies float the idea of joining their company boards, which is intriguing. The insights from 26 years in the industry, and 1,000s of contacts, would no doubt be useful to some companies. Hit me up!
I will also, very likely, do some writing here and there on Sixteen:Nine – to scratch a writing itch or jump in when I read something and my Bullshit Filter starts flashing red.
LinkedIn is also a busy outlet for me.
Thank You
It has been a great pleasure to meet terrific people from all over the world, and to take a small part in educating and growing the industry to a point where screens are common and the overall technology approach is now mainstreamed. It’s been a very long road from April 1999, when I told my daily newspaper friends that I was abandoning a “gold-plated” pension to join a company that was putting flat panel screens in elevators. My colleagues thought I was nuts, but I had left the newsroom to take my newspaper online in 1995, and within a few years I could clearly see what was going to happen with local dailies. And it did.
It has also been a great pleasure to develop what has become a global circle of friends. The dispersed nature of this industry, coupled with living in the woods in Atlantic Canada, means I only see most of these folks once or twice a year. I have enjoyed their friendship and company, and now being kinda sorta mostly retired means maybe Joy and I can go and visit them, and their cities and regions. I know people who live in great wine regions, and they’re getting visits. … somehow or other.
Or people can come see Nova Scotia! And me. It’s lovely summer and fall. Winter … not so much. Spring is slow to arrive and often on the wet side. Plus these little bastards called black flies. Tiny but they bite.
Thank you to the endless people who have fed me information, pointed me at projects and new tech, and acted as my own informal advisory panel. When I couldn’t figure out what the flying hell a company was going on about, I’ve had people I could tap to help crack the code and explain the relevance. They made dumb old me sound smart-ish.
Thank you to the friendship of Invidis, and the nice little tribute they did last night and posted today.
Thank you to companies like Screenfeed, Capital Networks, Mvix, Broadsign, Telematics, Digichief, Datacall, Freshwater Digital, SignageOS and Optisigns (and others I am forgetting … sorry!) – that have or did support my efforts for years and years. They had marketing goals, sure, but some of them said their support had as much to do with ensuring what I was up to could continue, because it was needed.
One of the great things I heard numerous times through the years was how subscribing to Sixteen:Nine came to be part of the onboarding process for new hires at companies: “There’s your desk. Here’s your WiFi credentials. And this is the publication we need you to start reading daily.”
That was fun to hear.
Thank you, as well, to Spectrio – which acquired this title a few years ago now, and made my retirement much more feasible financially. They have been fabulous business partners and I am grateful that the executive team pretty much let me just do my thing. I have seen what often happens with acquisitions and how the “acquired” can’t wait to escape. None of that was at play here, and I stuck around well past the time when I could have said Buh-Bye. Good people.
Finally, a thank you to my wife Joy – 42+ years married and counting – for putting up with the times when my efforts were not generating a lot of dollars, when I was traveling a lot, and when actual vacations were just a novel concept. Because of the mixers and my need for help on the night, she’s come along to place like Barcelona and got to know lots of industry people. I totally understand why people have been happier to see her than me.
I’ll see you around. Best email now will be 169dave@gmail.com and I’ll be on Linkedin, as well.
Dave Haynes
Flight home is not until tomorrow, so heading for a Munich beer garden! A beer and giant pretzel is in order.