This past week I got the
chance to attend the
InfoComm AVEC which is a conference specifically
tailored to executives in the AV industry. I must say that there were several
professional reasons why I chose to attend the event for the first time this
year (networking, industry update etc.)
But truthfully there was also a personal reason for attending the
conference as well which was the venue- Amelia Island, Florida.
View from our room
Amelia Island
was not only the site for the 2015 InfoComm AVEC but was also where my wife, Maureen, and I spent our honeymoon back in 1983. A special place indeed!
The theme for this year’s
AVEC was RECHARGE (by Powering Up Your Business) and was highlighted by
several really great speakers including Notre Dame and NFL great Joe Theismann
who kicked off the conference with some keen insight about embracing change in
the AV industry, defining success by giving back and the value of mentoring.
Theismann closed out his presentation by stating that he believes that “mental
toughness” is the #1 most important attribute of a successful leader. I
couldn’t agree more!
The next speaker was Leo
Hopf (CEO of Teamhopf) who talked about Rethinking, Reinventing and
Repositioning businesses in the AV industry. Hopf made some compelling
remarks about companies such as Yahoo and Polaroid who were dominant players in
their industry for many years but chose not to continue to reinvent and
reposition their companies and thus became obsolete According to Hopf, “businesses get in trouble when they play it safe.” He also talked about how it
takes different things to win at different points along the business life
cycle. Another presenter was Joseph
Pine who talked a lot about innovating in the “customer experience”
and not just selling the high tech hardware and software to AV customers. I
appreciated his remarks about no business grows forever but there are
always growth businesses.
The closing speaker was David
Labuskes who talked about the growth in the AV industry(11% worldwide)
and the changing face of the AV customer(now an IT manager) as well as the
challenge of creating a better value proposition for customers with
increasingly high expectations. After hearing Labuskes' presentation, the
conclusion amongst my fellow AV execs was that selling successfully in
the AV marketplace (in 2015 and beyond) is certainly not an easy task!
In conclusion, I must say
that I feel that the AVEC was a good use for my time with some solid value for
ISI. Keen insight and food for thought. And the added value of being able to
return to “where it all began” wasn’t bad either!
Credit: InfoComm AVEC Flickr