Strategy in TECH...
In a disturbing sign of a further retreat from transparency, CEDIA has notified Strata-gee that it will no longer accept any interviews. This policy appears to apply only to Strata-gee, and no reason was given…at least initially.
There has been a strong and vocal reaction to our story posted last week in which CEDIA’s Chairman of the Board, Dennis Erskine, countered our assertion that the members owned CEDIA. Noting that the law says that non-profit organizations have no owners, the chairman corrected our assumption. He was correct, we were wrong.
However, the story caught the attention of many of our readers, including some very prominent and influential executives in the custom integration community.
We asked for and participated in a telephone interview with CEDIA Chairman of the Board Dennis Erskine and Senior Director of Marketing Cris Pyle in late May to discuss several topics swirling around the organization. First and foremost, we were seeking greater insight into the departure of CEDIA’s CEO Vin Bruno, as well as Ron Fleming and others, but we also discussed a few other topics – notably what rights members have, and what rights they don’t have.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) announced this week that at its upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2018 in Las Vegas, there will be a new area of focus on Smart City technologies. The group plans both a dedicated display space featuring the technologies of Smart Cities, as well as a full schedule of related conference programming.
Shortly after our story about layoffs at CEDIA was posted, we spoke with CEDIA Board Chairman Dennis Erskine, who sought to correct what he said were some “misconceptions” presented in that article. Specifically, Erskine felt our call for more transparency from the organization was off the mark due to our misunderstanding about non-profit organizations.
Only a matter of days after the announcement of Vin Bruno’s resignation as CEDIA CEO, and a few weeks after a 15% headquarters staff reduction, we now learn that Ron Fleming, CEDIA VP of Business Development is out in what appears to be a major reorganization at the industry trade group. The news went out earlier today in the form of an email from COO and interim CEO Tabatha O’Connor to exhibitors.
One of the greatest challenges for those of us in the residential technology business is the surprising lack of real hard data on the market. Now, you can do something about that. By participating in the 2017 CEDIA Size and Scope of the Residential Electronic Systems Market survey, you help the organization collect the data that will give you a better understanding of your market…a true win-win.
My assistant spotted it immediately. “There’s a strange letter in today’s mail,” she said with a slight hesitation in her voice one day last week as she handed me a small stack of mail that she had just picked up from our company post office box. That hesitation in her voice wasn’t so much concern as it was uncertainty as to whether she should bother to bring it to my attention. After all, it could simply be just another example of cleverly disguised junk mail.
A new marketing group in the tech space called Johnnie & Co. has partnered with CEDIA to launch a new website development program for the organization’s members. For those dealers who do not have a website, or those who have an older site in need of a serious refresh, this new program offers CEDIA members an affordable path to a hand-built-for-them website.
THX announced this week that it has joined the Streaming Video Alliance, an organzation that addresses ongoing video streaming issues through the development of best practices. THX says it is “uniquely qualified to make significant contributions to the Alliance.”
