Strategy in TECH...
A few months ago, I unexpectedly became unemployed. There had been occasions in my career when it was clear that I needed to get the hell out of Dodge —but this wasn’t one of them.
A new job would not appear overnight; that was obvious. I was up to my ears in fearful self-absorption.
Then things changed…and the world was in upheaval.
I’ve been saying for a while now that really, really tough economic data was coming. Even though it was obvious to many of us that the economy was crashing – thanks to COVID-19 – it takes time for backward-looking statistics to catch up. Well, now they’re starting to catch up and with overall residential housing construction starts dropping an eye-popping 30.2% in April…they are ugly.
But read on to see why one piece of data seems to suggest that a housing turnaround make be lurking in the near future – or is even already here…
Emerald Holding Inc. (NYSE: EEX), formerly known as Emerald Expositions Events Inc. – a national exposition company that is home to both the CEDIA Expo and CE Pro magazine – has announced that they are postponing all events for the first two quarters of 2020 due to the rapid spread of the global pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19). Given their position as one of the largest producers of B-to-B trade shows in the U.S., this is a major development with huge impact on the various industries their shows serve.
Just days after canceling their Vancouver Tech Summit, CEDIA announced last week that they are canceling all remaining Tech Summits currently planned for the rest of March and for all of April. This move is being taken as a response to the growing coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the globe.
In yet another email, participants of CEDIA’s recent Florida Tech Summits were told of a second instance of their potential COVID-19 exposure. The organization said that there are two reports of individuals “who have tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19).”
On the same day that CEDIA sent an alarming communication to attendees of the previous Florida Tech Summit, the company announced it will cancel the next Tech Summit in Vancouver. This event was scheduled to take place this Thursday, March 12th – only days after the Association notified attendees of their Florida Tech Summits on February 25 & 27 that they had been exposed to COVID-19 from an affected employee of one of the event exhibitors.
The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) sent a letter via email on Tuesday to all attendees of the recent Fort Lauderdale & Tampa, Fl Tech Summits notifying them of their exposure to coronavirus or COVID-19, the rapidly expanding viral infection that has become a global pandemic. An employee for an exhibitor at the Tech Summit was said to have tested positive for the virus, and CEDIA asked all attendees to “take precautions.”
Who says the mainstream media has abandoned CES? No less than the venerable Forbes.com ran a feature story that noted an enthusiastic crowd gathered around a booth offering a dynamic presentation on an amazing new technology…a ‘smart’ potato. No, this is NOT a spoof by The Onion – it is real. Yes, the booth and young man promoting the smart potato was a stunt…but the article from Forbes about it is real.
CES 2020, the big show, is about over (ending the day this was posted) and as usual there are a slew of announcements. It can be a little overwhelming with so much happening in Las Vegas, but there are some stories that flat out are just more important or interesting than others.
For many, many years the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) – an exposition hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) – was a huge part of the technology industry. In many ways, it was virtually the embodiment of tech – you HAD to go there to discover the latest products that were being shown to buyers so they could get their orders placed in time for the prime selling season starting in the fall of that year.
