Strategy in TECH...
Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) held a formal press conference today at 7:00AM Eastern to present more details on their plans to move ISE – the show, that is – to a new facility in Barcelona, Spain starting in 2021. Speaking at the press conference were local government officials, representatives of the owners of the ISE show (CEDIA and AVIXA), and most importantly Mike Blackman, the father of the show.
Control4 surprised everyone about a month ago when they suddenly announced the launch of no less than 140 Control4 Certified Showrooms in partnership with certain dealers around the world, including the U.S., Canada, UK, China, and Australia. These showrooms were said to meet “elevated standards” and were positioned with dealers who were “experts in WOW-ing’ homeowners through interactive storytelling, visually-stunning displays, and hands-on demonstrations.”
At the recent launch of these showrooms on May 31, 2018, in an event called C4Yourself, I had the opportunity to visit one of two Certified Showrooms in New Jersey and to meet with Larry Bennett, Control4’s Managing Director of Global Programs. Bennett is the Control4 executive in charge of their global Certified Showroom program.
AudioControl, a scrappy and innovative maker of electronics solutions for residential, commercial, and automotive applications, said today that it will show its commercial products at InfoComm 2018 taking place next week in Las Vegas, NV. Although the company has been involved in the commercial market for years, this is the first time they’ve displayed at InfoComm in a bid to further build their share of the commercial channel.
Last week, I reached out to Emerald Expositions executive Brianna Morris who is one of the folks assigned to produce the new CEDIA Expo show, looking to discuss a couple of topics. The first, was to explore a couple of potential story ideas. The second was an easy and simple housekeeping question, or so I thought. But it was Morris’ response to that second simple question, that has caused me to recognize a red flag – and potentially an example of the possible downside to having an industry tradeshow owned and operated by an outside-the-industry, for-profit business.
Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), the joint venture between CEDIA and AVIXA (formerly InfoComm) announced this week that the show held earlier this month set several records, including the number of exhibitors, number of new exhibitors, the number of attendees and the number of first time attendees. While CEDIA struggles to pull in 20,000 attendees, ISE tops 80,000 visitors.
Monster, Inc. (formerly Monster Cable) announced this week that it is launching its first ever television ad during the NBC broadcast of Super Bowl LII this Sunday, February 4. Usually the biggest TV event of the year, Super Bowl commands a king’s ransom in fees for advertisers, reportedly $5 million for a 30-second spot according to Sports Illustrated. Monsters ad? A full 60-second spot.
CTA’s marketing message for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year was “Whoa!” While this is a reference to surprising innovations, it now appears that the biggest Whoa! to emerge from CES was a power blackout that hit the Central and South Halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday afternoon. Social media was buzzing and many show attendees posted images of the darkened halls with some of the biggest booths – Samsung, Panasonic – quite literally in the dark.
There really is nothing sadder-looking than a technology tradeshow…without power. Considering the coverage we’ve seen about CES in the general media this year, that blackout could be a metaphor about the declining power the show holds over the market these days.
A couple of months ago, I visited the first New York Metro area Technology & Business Summit at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and reported to Strata-gee readers about my experience. These events, smaller local shows, are fun to attend and offer some definite advantages to attendees as compared to the large national shows, such as more face time with brand executives, more hands-on displays with local representatives who truly know your business, and perhaps most importantly, much easier and more convenient to attend. Literally, these shows are a short drive from your home base, making it easier to fit show attendance into your schedule no matter how busy you may be.
Now celebrating its 10th Anniversary, the organizer plans on offering more events this year and is launching a new show concept called the CASTLE (Converging Audio/Video Security Technology Lighting & Entertainment) Summit.
For the first time ever since the creation of the Technology & Business Summit in California some seven years ago, it comes to the Big Apple…and the big show made a big impression. Held over two days – Tuesday in Long Island; Thursday in Northern New Jersey – organizer Mark Cichowski tells us it was a huge success.
At CEDIA 2017, Savant displayed and demonstrated a whole roster of innovative new products – the very fact of which was an in-your-face proclamation that this new company era under founder Bob Madonna intends to use innovation to drive growth. And while we had only a limited time available at Savant, we were fortunate enough to grab a few moments of Mr. Madonna’s time to get a real cook’s tour of a couple of his latest offerings.
