Strategy in TECH...
On Tuesday, promoters of the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest – a well respected and popular event for the high-end specialty audio segment – announced that they were cancelling the show scheduled for October 2-4, 2020 in Aurora, CO. Like many other industry events this year, the reason was due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Saying they are putting “Health and Safety first,” IFA announces they have received the appropriate government approvals to hold a live, in-person trade show event in Berlin this coming September. The announcement was a dramatic departure from their previous announcement in April cancelling this very event. But will anyone choose to attend?
Emerald Holding Inc., formerly Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. (NYSE:EEX), has released their fiscal 2020 first quarter results and the organization makes no bones about it – it has been hit, and hit hard, by the COVID-19 pandemic. The company announced that in the first quarter of fiscal 2020 – the period ending March 31, 2020 – sales declined 27.4% to $99.7 million and the company had the biggest net loss in its history, losing $570.1 million.
Sonos Inc. announced Wednesday the results of their fiscal second quarter, a quarter that CEO Patrick Spence called “challenging.” The company saw a double-digit sales decline of 17% to $175.1 million from $210.2 million in the same quarter in 2019. Worse, net losses more than doubled to $52.3 million – 129% worse than the net loss of $22.8 million in Q2 last year.
Still, Spence sounded upbeat in a letter to investors and says he is “confident that the actions we are taking today will set us up for long-term success and the continued tremendous opportunity ahead.”
Crestron Electronics announced today that it is returning to the CEDIA Expo show for the first time since Strata-gee broke the news of their surprising exit from the event four years ago in 2016. This announcement marks a triumphant return for a company that has seen its residential business soar over the last few years, particularly with the launch of their Crestron Home software solution.
The DaVinci Group (TDG), a specialty supplier of custom integration gear including architectural speakers, amplifiers and more, has taken extraordinary steps to offer their dealers responsibly sourced personal protection equipment (PPE), such that their work crews can safely continue to access job sites and clients’ homes fully protected. An example of creative thinking, TDG used their sourcing prowess to find a reliable resource for a range of PPE gear that is desperately needed by integrators…many of whom report a lack of local supply.
You knew it was coming, but we just couldn’t see it until statistical data caught up with the rapidly changing U.S. economy. But now, we are getting a snapshot of these changes and they are breathtaking…and a little scary. Hold on tight…it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Emerald Expositions announced this week that Sally Shankland, it most recent CEO who had been hired in June 2019 to replace resigning CEO David Loechner, has died following her month’s long battle with cancer. The company says Shankland passed away at home peacefully.
IFA 2020, a huge consumer electronics show scheduled to take place in Berlin on September 4-9, 2020, is now canceled, the organization behind the event announced this week. It is yet another show joining a long line of mass, in-person marketing events to suffer this fate. The promoter is promising “an innovative new concept” to replace it – which some speculate will be a virtual online conference.
Hi-Fi Representation, a new manufacturer sales representative firm covering Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas, has signed representation agreements with Atlantic Technology and Seymour Screen Excellence. The company was launched in January 2020 and says Seymour-Screen Excellence is actually one of their first lines represented.
