Strategy in TECH...
Strata-gee readers reached out to me on late Friday as word circulated that the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) was taking the unusual step of cutting the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) short by one day “…as an additional safety measure.” That is essentially all that an announcement from the association says about this decision, which on the face of it seems to call into question the safety of attending the event at all.
UPDATED 12/30/2021 – Scroll down for update – I reported last week that several major exhibitors, including one major event sponsor whose CEO was scheduled as a keynote presenter, had announced they would be pulling out of CES due to the meteoric rise in COVID infections resulting from the Omicron variant. Now we learn even more major exhibitors have decided to join the increasing line of brands heading for the exits from the industry’s largest tech event of the year.
**SEE BELOW FOR STORY UPDATE** – On Tuesday, several large exhibitors independently announced that they would be pulling out of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), scheduled to start the week-after-next in Las Vegas, NV. The reason given for these pull-outs was the rapidly spreading COVID-19 infections due to the emerging hyper-infectious Omicron variant. Major brands, such as Amazon, Meta Platforms (Facebook), T-Mobile and more said the rapidly changing COVID situation caused them to consider the safety of their teams and other attendees of CES 2022 – a major indoor event.
Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) announced today that it has appointed Amanda Beckner as its new Vice President of Education and Training. Beckner replaces the recently departed Samantha Ventura and is said to bring two decades of experience to the role. Most notably, Beckner was VP of Learning for AVIXA, the commercial integrator trade group.
CEDIA recently filed their Form 990 with the IRS – a required filing by non-profits disclosing key financial data – and for the first time in a while, I found some interesting and somewhat confusing things in there. Yes, I obtain the organization’s 990 filings every year just to get a sense of how things are going. Like all of us, the organization is filing for, at best, the previous year and often they request and receive an extension. Hence, we are just now getting a glimpse of their 2019 results…and it was an eye-opener.
The Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) announced today that it has named Daryl Friedman as its new Global President & CEO. Friedman’s appointment is effective as of November 27, 2021. Don’t know that name? I’m not surprised as Friedman, an experienced Association executive, comes from the Recording Academy…the folks who bring you the Grammy awards. In an interview this week, Friedman told me that he’s close to the engineers and producers – the highly technical folks in his current association – so he brings a clear technology appreciation to his new role.
As I am sure that most readers of this post will know, during CEDIA Expo at the beginning of September, I published a continuously updated post tracking which previously announced exhibitors subsequently made the decision to pull out of the event as the COVID Delta variant raged on. A remarkable realization occurred as I worked on that post, literally speaking with dozens, if not hundreds, of exhibitors and attendees for that event – many of them were confused about who owned the CEDIA Expo!
In a press release distributed Wednesday morning, Integrated Systems Events (part of Integrated Systems Europe) announced the conclusion of their annual ISE event, this year in Barcelona, Spain for the first time on June 1-2. It was a hybrid-style event, offering an online or virtual conference as well as an in-person event with exhibitors in the Fira de Barcelona exhibition center. The organizers heralded the event as helping “the industry getting back to business.”
CEDIA and the Powerhouse Alliance announced a partnership today that is designed to bring CEDIA’s professional skills training program out of their headquarters building and into a location near you. Combining the quality education of CEDIA with the 55 geographically dispersed Powerhouse Alliance member locations across the U.S., this deal dramatically expands integration techs ability to easily gain access to professional education.
Here’s some good news! In a report by the National Association of Home Builders’ writer Fan-Yu Kuo, we learn that consumer confidence in March jumped to its highest level in a year. This is the second month of increase for consumer confidence, after a more modest increase in February. This mini-trend suggests that confidence is building in consumers about their future…after a rough year.
