It’s September again and that means the approach of Fall, kids are back in school, and it’s time for CEDIA Expo. So like many of you, I packed my bags and headed to Denver, which almost feels like coming home again. But will the show this year be [musical reference] a Rocky Mountain High? Or will it be a Low Rider?
CEDIA
CEDIA Bars All News Media from CEDIA Symposium on AI
At the end of July, CEDIA announced that it would be holding a new kind of event called the CEDIA Symposium on the day before the CEDIA Expo 2023 opens. The association is all-in on AI apparently, and this symposium is all about AI in custom integration. The announcement promises it will offer “an engaging afternoon of thought-provoking discussions led by industry visionaries, AI experts, top integrators, and manufacturers.”
From the very beginning, there were, in my eyes, troubling elements to this initiative. Little did I know what was to come – that CEDIA would choose to bar the news media from its CEDIA Symposium
See more on CEDIA’s decision to bar the media from its CEDIA Symposium
[Read more…] about CEDIA Bars All News Media from CEDIA Symposium on AICEDIA Intros New Workforce Initiative – NextGen: Smart Home Career Toolkit
CEDIA has launched a new workforce acquisition initiative called CEDIA NextGen: Smart Home Career Toolkit. Designed to provide integrators the tools they need to improve and expand their outreach to attract new candidates to the smart home industry, the association has created an impressive series of multimedia tools to grease the skids in getting new recruits through integrators’ doors.
Learn more about this new CEDIA workforce initiative
[Read more…] about CEDIA Intros New Workforce Initiative – NextGen: Smart Home Career Toolkit2022 CEDIA Member Meeting was a Glossy Display of Overt Positivity
Selling a Vision Rather than Briefing Members w/Data
CEDIA held its annual member meeting just a couple of weeks ago in mid-December. The version offered this year was decidedly different than those in the past. This is likely due to the professional association management style of the organization’s new Global President and CEO Daryl Friedman.
CEDIA and staff offered members a slick marketing package of largely pre-recorded content and carefully controlled live content. But was it too slick? Did it really brief members with a balanced picture of both the successes and the challenges that CEDIA is facing? Or was it just a form of advertisement for the association?
Learn more about CEDIA’s 2022 annual Member Meeting…
[Read more…] about 2022 CEDIA Member Meeting was a Glossy Display of Overt PositivityEXCLUSIVE: AVIXA CEO Weighs In on Trade Assocs., Shows, Emerald & More
About five seconds into our phone call, before I even had a chance to explain myself, AVIXA CEO David Labuskes suddenly burst out: “Oh! I know why you called me!” This reaction caught me off-guard as we’d never spoken before. But when he went on to tell me why he thought I had called him, he was right on the money. It was a clue that he is a deeper thinker than many executives I reach out to, and as we spoke further, that impression only got stronger.
Another surprise was that Labuskes knew me (and Strata-gee) better than I realized…
Learn what the CEO of AVIXA shared with me in this EXCLUSIVE interview…
[Read more…] about EXCLUSIVE: AVIXA CEO Weighs In on Trade Assocs., Shows, Emerald & MoreISUS in America? Emerald Adds a Commercial Show to CEDIA Expo; Exhibitors React
Emerald Expositions (NYSE: EEX), the national B2B trade show company that owns CEDIA Expo, CE Pro, and Commercial Integrator surprised the industry at the recent CEDIA Expo 2022 by abruptly announcing that next year they will be “co-locating” a show for commercial integrators at the same time and in the same facility. Reaction to this announcement was…to put it mildly…mixed. Is Emerald trying to imitate the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) show – an event for both residential and commercial businesses – by launching an ISUS (Integrated Systems United States) event??
Do you wonder why there was a mixed reaction to Emerald’s move? Read on…
See why some big exhibitors were not happy with the Emerald announcement…
[Read more…] about ISUS in America? Emerald Adds a Commercial Show to CEDIA Expo; Exhibitors ReactIn Stinging Rebuke, a Double-Digit Percentage of CEDIA Members Vote No on Slate
After Obvious Failure of Transparency, CEO Says He’s Learned a ‘Lesson’
On Wednesday, CEDIA Global President and CEO Daryl Friedman sent a letter to all members advising them that the election process for new Board members has been completed – and that the slate of three Board-selected candidates for the three open Board seats has now been filled by Stephan Goodhue, Jennifer Mallett, and James Ratcliffe. The cheery tone of the letter belies the fact that the election process was viewed by many as tainted and has inflamed anger from what seems to be a fairly significant percentage of members who resent losing the opportunity to vote for a candidate of their choice.
However, in this letter, Friedman did allow that “…we need to do a better job of communication.”
See more on the CEDIA letter to members
[Read more…] about In Stinging Rebuke, a Double-Digit Percentage of CEDIA Members Vote No on SlateExpo Shocker! Hundreds of Members Show Up for CEDIA Advocacy Town Hall
Spotlight on CEDIA Expo
Perhaps one of the more surprising events at CEDIA Expo 2022 – at least in my mind – was an event that took place early in the morning on the first official day of the show floor opening. This event, the CEDIA Advocacy Town Hall in which the organization intended to discuss the extent of their political advocacy conducted on behalf of the membership, seemed to me like something unlikely to draw much attention…or attendance.
Boy…was I wrong!
Learn more about the CEDIA Advocacy Town Hall
[Read more…] about Expo Shocker! Hundreds of Members Show Up for CEDIA Advocacy Town HallAVNation Features Ted Green on Special Episode Discussing CEDIA Board Election Issue
This week, AVNation features Ted Green – me – on a special episode discussing the CEDIA Director Elections taking place right now. As you may know, there was some controversy surrounding this election as CEDIA’s board decided to change the normal election process where association members pick from a selection of nominees to vote on those they want on the Board of Directors. Instead, this year members vote with a simple yes/no on a predetermined slate of candidates selected by the Board’s Governance Committee.
See more on this special AVNation episode featuring me
[Read more…] about AVNation Features Ted Green on Special Episode Discussing CEDIA Board Election IssueCEDIA Expo 2022 Had Nearly 12,000 Attendees; A Good Post-COVID Restart
It took a couple of weeks, but Emerald Expositions finally released the attendance figures for CEDIA Expo 2022. According to the exposition company, the attendance of nearly 12,000 “exceeded expectations” – their expectations apparently. But there is no question that it certainly blew away the attendance of just 1,400 folks who visited CEDIA Expo 2021.