Strategy in TECH...
The Consumer Electronics Show – CES 2021 – opened this week with great fanfare, but no long taxi lines, no crowded booths, and no glitzy hands-on displays. That’s because this year, CES is virtual – or as the CTA (Consumer Technology Association) likes to put it, it is “all digital.”
Can they pull it off?
CEDIA held their annual State of the Association report for members today and, as usual, it was a well produced, glitzy affair more bent on selling the organization to all who choose to watch and listen. The Master of Ceremonies was Giles Sutton – no surprise for anyone aware of some of the inside actions taking place at the highly political organization. Sutton is the interim co-CEO of the trade group. But is it a trade group? Or is it something else altogether?
CEDIA, the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association, announced earlier this week that it has named Giles Sutton, current Senior Vice President of Member Success and Sales, and Kory Dickerson, current Senior Vice President of Operations, as Interim Co-CEOs, replacing Tabatha O’Connor – the current CEO whose contract is ending in January. The Board of Directors had previously announced that it decided not to extend O’Connor’s contract, but didn’t say why. Ostensibly, the organization is still searching for a more permanent solution, but for now, we get two CEOs instead of one.
UPDATED – All Dates and Status Info Updated – For the most part, when it comes to audio shows, either trade or consumer, 2020 has been a bust. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, with one exception – the Florida Audio Expo in Tampa, FL in February – all other events were cancelled. So what does that mean for 2021? Guest poster Bill Leebens has compiled a list of top audio shows for 2021 showing their current status…
We may have been aware of every agonizing second of Plague Year 2020 as they slowly ticked by, but as far as audio shows go—2020 was literally a no-show. In the US, February’s Florida Audio Expo in Tampa was the first and last audio-only show of the year. Since then, show after show has been delayed or cancelled—in several instances, delayed, and THEN cancelled.
Last week, CEDIA announced their CEDIA Propel initiative, said to be a new “Affinity Program” designed to offer members a new kind of benefit. The announcement caught my eye almost immediately because this program is unlike other other affinity program with which I’m familiar. Typically such programs offer members benefits such as special pricing on health insurance or discounts on UPS shipping and the like. In this case, CEDIA is recommending technology brands who offer discount programs to CEDIA members on their products.
To me, this sounded at least a little bit like the kind of service provided by a buying group.
Help Lightning, a new support solution the company likes to call “virtual expertise,” not only offers a new potential benefit for integrators to increase the amount of safe in-home support for their clients in these COVID-19 times – they also offer CEDIA members a free 60-day try-before-you-buy experience to test it out in your market with your clients. And in the middle of the pandemic, there has never been a better time to look at offering clients a new support solution that adheres to strict safety standards by limiting person-to-person exposure.
The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) announced at the end of last week that Global President and CEO Tabatha O’Connor will “depart” the organization at the end of her contract period in January. The news caught many by surprise and the organization’s announcement gives no clue as to any of the reasons behind this leadership change.
Emerald Expositions announced today that CEDIA Expo Virtual drew 7,600 trade professional registrations for their three day run from September 15-17, 2020. Although this figure is less than half the attendance at the live, in-person version, Emerald considers it a great success as an all-virtual event.
CEDIA Expo Virtual was almost exclusively an online media event…rather than a real, in-person trade show. I know…duh! Yes, I knew this logically, but it hadn’t really hit me viscerally until I actually attended the event. But what that means for Emerald Exposition is that their expertise in fielding large scale, B2B, in-person events really doesn’t apply here. And that fact forced them to rely exclusively on CE Pro for almost the entire event, including content strategy, seminar production, and show performance.
