SmileMore is live. Vertex Vending Group has installed its first permanent photo booth in the Nova Southeastern University Center lobby, and the machine is open and taking sessions now.
This is the flagship launch of a model we have been building since March. NSU is, in fact, the partner we wanted for it.
Why a campus is the right fit
A permanent photo booth needs three things from a room, and a university student center supplies all of them better than almost anywhere else.
- Traffic that repeats. The same people pass through the same lobby several times a week for years. That turns a machine from a one-time novelty into something with a real chance at repeat use.
- A crowd that already documents everything. Students photograph their lives by default. The booth is not asking them to do something new, it is giving them a better version of a thing they already do.
- Groups, not individuals. People move through a student center in twos and threes, which is exactly the shape of a booth session.
- Reasons to gather all year. Orientation, game days, club events, finals, graduation. The calendar keeps refilling the room.
The University Center adds a fourth thing, too. It is not only a student building. Parents, alumni, conference guests and visitors move through it constantly, which widens the audience well past the student body.
Where the machine sits, and why
Placement decides most of a booth’s outcome, so it got the most attention of anything. The machine stands against the elevator column, out of the walking path but visible down the length of the corridor.
Anyone waiting on an elevator is already standing still and already facing that direction. So the booth reads as something to walk over to rather than something in the way, and people see it well before they reach it.
How the partnership came together
This partnership did not come from a cold email. Vertex Vending Group is a member of the Greater Davie–Cooper City Chamber of Commerce, where Dr. Aimee Sanchez-Zadak helped make the introduction to the dedicated NSU staff who ultimately helped bring the partnership to life.
Dr. Sanchez-Zadak has been a professor at Nova Southeastern University since 1997 and also serves as COO of Member and Community Success for the Chamber.
Our founder, Thomas Steckman, is also an NSU graduate, making the partnership an even more natural fit. From there, the proposal went through a genuine university review process, with Auxiliary Services, Facilities Management, and NSU’s safety team each evaluating the concept before anything moved forward.
Getting the details right
Work with NSU ran for months before the machine went into production, though. Placement, footprint, sightlines, branding and servicing were settled in advance, along with what happens if the building needs the floor back for an event.
The Environment, Health and Safety review set the final condition. The machine has to be movable if a fire marshal or a large event in the lobby calls for it, and Vertex relocates it rather than leaving facilities staff to handle equipment they did not install.
The details and behind the scenes work for this install were not quick or easy, but definitely the necessary steps to take to ensure there are no surprises down the line.
What the venue gets
This is a partnership, not a rental, and the difference matters. If you run a venue, our permanent photo booth installation page lays out the whole arrangement, including what we need from your floor. A rental bills the host. By contrast, this model bills nobody at the location.
- An attraction guests pay for themselves. People walk over on purpose, then come back with the friends they want in the picture.
- No cost and no work. We build, install, service, restock and handle payments. The venue supplies floor space.
- Co-branded to the venue. NSU blue and the shark run down the panels, so the machine reads as part of the building.
- Tagged social posts every month. More on that below.
- It moves if the room needs it to.
Every printed strip also carries the venue’s branding out of the building. In other words, a guest leaves with a physical object advertising the location, and they keep it because their friends are on it.
A rental does all of this for one night. Because this machine is permanent, it does it every day the doors are open, including the quiet weeks when nothing is booked.
The monthly giveaway that puts the venue in the feed
Every month we run a prize giveaway on our machines. To enter, a guest uses the booth, posts their strip, and tags the location along with us.
The prize is the hook. However, the entry requirement is what actually matters to the venue. Each entry is an authentic post from an actual customer, naming the location, reaching that person’s own friends.
No venue can buy that convincingly, after all. Paid posts read as paid. By contrast, a student posting a strip from the University Center with NSU tagged in it is somebody having a real time in that building, and everyone who sees it reads it that way.
Because the giveaway resets monthly, it also gives people a reason to return rather than a reason to try it once.
Want a permanent photo booth in your space? We handle the machine, the install, the servicing and the payments. You supply the floor space. Send us the details of your space and you will get an honest answer either way.
A brand people should recognize anywhere
The co-branding runs deeper than a courtesy. We are building SmileMore into a photo booth brand people know on sight, across every location we place in.
Someone who uses this machine at NSU should recognize exactly what it is when they meet one in a bar, a hotel or a bowling alley. So every install makes the next one easier, and that compounding is not available to a rental that shows up and leaves the same night.
Built by us, installed in a day
Vertex builds its own machines, which is still unusual in this business. This one was assembled and tested in our office, then carefully taken apart for transport.
Every panel travelled individually wrapped, because a scuff on a graphic panel is not something you touch up on site. As a result the machine arrived exactly as it left, and install day was assembly rather than repair.
Open now
A session at NSU is $7.99 and returns two printed strips, one for each person. Pricing elsewhere is set with the venue during review, because the right number depends on the location and the crowd it serves.
The format is deliberate. In practice, printed strips have consistently outperformed screen-only booths for us, and the reason is not complicated. People want something they can hold, stick on a fridge or leave in a wallet.
The booth opened over a pre-semester weekend and ran eight sessions on a campus that is close to empty in August. We have since published the full numbers from our first proper week, including what guests told us in interviews. Classes start shortly, and once the semester is fully underway we will publish what this machine actually does.
If you run a venue rather than a campus, the questions worth asking any placement company apply to whoever you talk to, and our machines page covers the hardware.
Common questions
What does a permanent photo booth cost the venue?
Nothing. We build, install, service and stock the machine and handle payments. The location provides floor space and nothing else.
What does a session cost the guest?
It depends on the location. Pricing is set with the venue during review, and every session returns two printed strips. The booth at NSU is $7.99.
How does the monthly giveaway work?
A guest uses the booth, posts their photo strip, and tags the location along with us. That entry goes into a prize draw we run every month.
Does the venue’s branding go on the machine?
Yes. We co-brand the wrap so the machine reads as part of the building rather than an outside box parked in a lobby.
What if the location needs the machine moved later?
We move it. That was a written condition of the NSU approval, and we would agree to it anywhere else too.
If you want the same setup in your venue, here is how the placement partnership works.
