New CEDIA Tech + Business Summits

In this podcast, Walt Zerbe, Sr. Director of Technology and Standards at CEDIA and Host of the CEDIA Podcast talks with Giles Sutton Sr. VP of Product & Business Development at CEDIA, and Jonathan Toomey, Director of Conference Strategy at CEDIA about the CEDIA Tech + Business Summits and how they are changing.

Register for a CEDIA Tech + Business Summit near you.

Podcast Transcript

0:01  
Hi, I'm CEDIA, I'm CEDIA imcd. This is the CDM CDM. Podcast. There's a lot that we've changes here. So one thing I'm gonna put out there is we need to change our terminology because these are no longer just the CD, a tech summits, these are now the tech and business summits, which is the way that these used to be structured years ago. And we're bringing that back because a big piece of the survey feedback that we've heard from both attendees and our sponsors and partners at the show is that it is a lot of just technicians and installers and integrators that are coming. And we're not necessarily bringing that holistic company perspective to the shows we're not bringing in the owners. We're not bringing in the salespeople, so that everyone can come together and learn for the day. So we now have a dedicated track at these from a conference perspective on just technology topics. We have a dedicated track on just business topics. And that goes hand in hand with the content that we now have on the floor. We're building a small floor theater at these and all the the product training and manufacture of demos and that type of stuff is going to happen in that fourth year of the show.

1:02  
Hello and welcome to another CD a podcast. I'm Walt Zerby, Senior Director of Technology and Standards and your host for the CD podcast and today we are going to be talking about this CEDIA tech summits and you've you've heard us mentioned CEDIA tech summits on a couple other podcasts before but and I also do podcasts from CEDIA tech summits. And we're going to be doing that again this year. But this podcast is different. We're going to be talking about tech summits in general. And with me today are two fine folks from CEDIA, and this is an all inside baseball podcast here because we're going to be talking about the you know, the Tech Summit. So we don't have any volunteers on this particular cast. But I have Giles Sutton and he is the SVP or senior vice president of products and business development. Giles, how are you? I'm doing really well. Walt, thanks so much. Excited to be here today. Yeah, thank you for coming. And we also have a new be on on the team here, which is Jonathan to me. He's a director of conference strategy. Jonathan, welcome in. And how long have you How long have you been here? Hey, well, great to be here. I joined CEDIA just at the end of October. So this is all still new for me. But I'm excited to get involved more. Yeah, and thank you for joining. And just to let everyone know, I mean, Giles has been the industry for a long time. Jazzy, we're integrator and you've done you've done business stuff.

2:26  
And in your current role, as well, and Jonathan, you are no newbie to, to doing events. So maybe just give a little history for people so they can know who who's talking here? Yeah, that's correct. And I've been in the events, conferences, trade shows ecosystem for over a decade now. I've spent time producing conferences for organizations that use SAP. I've also worked for the National Association of Broadcasters for the better part of that 10 years producing conference content and education for their big trade show. NAB show in Vegas every year. Yeah, okay. Cool. I'm glad you said that. Because I think that's important. So tech summits, what are they? Who wants who wants to go? And just, you know, give me a a quick definition of what a CEDIA Tech Summit is.

3:15  
Gonna go Giles, I can jump in. Yeah, absolutely. So, tech summits are events that have been running for the last 15 years, they are typically, and there have been some that have, you know, changed over the years, and they are across the world. They're typically events that are regional, so they have one single day event. So they allow integrators to experience a range of different brands. So there's a whole whole that has brands there, a lot of the major brands that integrators are familiar with. And then they also have some education and training that runs alongside them. The beauty of these events is that they run across the country. So they're very easy to access, because they're only a day doesn't take a lot of time out of an integrators busy schedule, which we know, you know, post pandemic, that it's harder for integrators to take time away from their business. So really, they are a very sort of compact event, where where you can get a lot of value, you can meet with your manufacturer partners, you can meet you can see other innovations that are happening. But essentially, they happen all around the world. We have 13 in North America this year. But we also have events in India, Australia, UK as well. So Wow, very popular events.

4:36  
Okay, and just just to reiterate, key here is they're in major metropolitan markets so that, you know, we've done analysis of where to put these events so that it's convenient for those not have to travel too far to get to them. And again, the focus is one day. And you know, I know that as I've been attending these things. One of the beauties of them is it's not an overwhelm

5:00  
I'll make gigantic trade show. It's it's quite focused, which is really nice. The pace is nice. There's always a bit of a vibe there. But it's it's purposely not distracting, I guess I want to say because you're not overwhelmed by like, you know, a giant trade show. So it's very different from the trade show. Jonathan, do you wanna pop in on any of that before I move on to the next topic? Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, like you said, these are a much more approachable way to get involved with the seedy community learn about our standards, or advocacy, and a lot of the education that we bring to the table, you know, touching on one thing you said a minute ago, again, we are across the US, you know, we're spanning from California, all the way to Florida, we've got a few shows up in the northeast, in the New York Region, we're in Chicago, they're in Vancouver, and Toronto, like Giles said that we're gonna have a couple shows up in Canada. So if you want to see the exact dates and the current list, you should definitely check out cedia.org/tech summits, all the information is there. But from an education perspective, you know, back to your initial question. There's a lot that we've changed here. So one thing I'm going to put out there is we need to change our terminology, because these are no longer just the CD, a tech summits, these are now the tech and business summits, which, okay that these used to be structured years ago. And we're bringing that back, because a big piece of the survey feedback that we've heard from both attendees and our sponsors and partners at the show is that it is a lot of just technicians and installers and integrators that are coming. And we're not necessarily bringing that holistic company perspective to the shows, we're not bringing in the owners, we're not bringing in the salespeople, so that everyone can come together and learn for the day. So we now have a dedicated track at these from a conference perspective on just technology topics, we have a dedicated track on just business topics. And that goes hand in hand with the content that we now have on the floor. We're building a small floor theater of these, and all the product training and manufacture of demos and that type of stuff is going to happen in that fourth year at the show. Okay, Charles, did you have anything you want to add on? That? Looks like you were gonna say some? No, I was gonna say the thing. Jonathan's absolutely right. A lot of the focus has been on the tech side of things a lot of the education offering has been delivered from from manufacturers, but also the CDR offering has been very, very tech focused,

7:15  
we really feel like there is a gap in the market for a regional event that is really focused on business improvement as well. And it's looking at, you know, like what happens at larger trade shows and other group meetings that happen in the industry, the peer to peer collaboration that happens at those events, you know, is, is really valuable. So we want to bring some of that to the Tech Summit events. And that's a note, I'm sure Jonathan, we'll talk a little bit about some of the things that we've got planned there. But that's really what we what we really want to do is is is focused on business improvement, betterment, that learning from other integrators that have been there done that some of the experience that those integrators have been through problems that they've solved,

8:03  
and bringing it to a single day event. And the other thing I should mention is the event is also free, you know, to to to attend larger scale events to you know, group meetings, that is costly. Of course, there is absolutely this is complimentary to those events, we don't see this as an alternative to those events at all. But it's a free, it's free. So and we want it to be greater than the sum of its parts. We want it to be that actually that the integrators have real actionable things they can take away from the events. It's not just a hypothetical, or seeing, you know, so it's not so sort of far into the future. It's not something that can be applied now, that it is something that can immediately apply to their business that will help them improve what they're doing, when more business and take on new, you know, new categories as well. So that's that's really what we're focusing on. Yeah, Jonathan, you want to dive into some of that? Yeah, no, that was really well, said Giles. One of the things that I think is most interesting that we're starting to, you know, include more in the program is when I started back in October, I did a deep dive on on all the past tech summits that we had put together over the past few years. And one of the things that really jumped out to me that I thought was pretty jarring is that as a as a community as a membership association, CDO wasn't doing a great job of featuring our members, our integrator members talking about as you said, case studies and work they've done we have all these great CDs, smart home award winners, as an example, people that have done amazing home cinema installations and stuff like that. We're just not featuring their good work. And when you think of these events, you think about that peer to peer aspect, people coming together talking about The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly, what they learned what they took away from that job and, and how that helped inform future projects. So we're really working hard to include more peer to peer content, and networking goes hand in hand. With that we're going to make a bigger deal out of networking at these tech summits by featuring actual dedicated networking, kind of think of them like birds of a feather lunchtime roundtables on specific top

10:00  
Quick so that you know when it's time to go sit down and have a bite, you can actually find a table with peers talking about something that you're actually interested in. And there'll be a guided conversation that happens there for you. So we're really trying to lean into that peer to peer x aspect. And that just that hasn't been heavily featured in the tech summits in the past. And we're excited to bring that into it this year. Yeah, so I guess, to summarize that the vibe that we're doing here is this is all about connection. It's about education, but it's, it's really about connection, it's about learning from others that are in the trade, like, like, well wish I should ask who attends like who, from who, from a company will go to this event?

10:37  
It's really it's meant for everyone now is the idea. You know, if I'm a local regional integrator with, you know, a tech team of, you know, maybe 10 people underneath me, the owner should go there sales leaders should go there marketing leaders should go a few of their techs and installers and integrators should go, there's no reason why four or five people from your organization spanning that kind of gamut, like I just listed it, go to this and get a quality day out of it. Because there's content for everyone. There's brand and partner integration, or I'm sorry, interaction for everyone. There's, there's, you know, product unveils and demonstrations, those types of things are gonna make up this whole program. So there really is something for your whole team to come for the day. Yeah, the last one I attended, I was quite surprised that you would think it would, it's typically kind of technical oriented program, but I ran into a bunch of sales people and their, their, their full time job at the company was making relationships and making sales. And I ran into a lot of people that were involved in sales. And I wasn't expecting that. But they said, Hey, this is a goldmine, because it's, it's a, it's one day out of my schedule, because you know, sales guys are busy, right? So it was one day out of their schedule. And they had everything concentrated in one spot. And, and they also enjoyed making relationships with other integrators that might be within their area or not in their area. So it wasn't just some of them sat in some education to, to, to get better informed. So they can do a better job selling, selling, of course, they checked out the products, but I found that they were more about the networking, and the education side of it than they were about the product side. A lot of it, though, will has had to be sort of anecdotal, there hasn't been a lot of I would say space in the schedule to really allow that networking. That is what that is what the audience wants from the event. Absolutely. But a lot of that interaction in the past has been at lunchtime, or it's been, you know, if there's been having a beer at the bar, you know, at the end of the day, or having dinner with some some when manufacturers have dinner with key integrators and dealers that they have, sort of the night before or the night after the event. Now we've as Jonathan explained, we've really kind of built that into the schedule, so that actually networking is like an intrinsic part of the event. And in terms of the audience, I would say that this is really representative of the diversity of companies in the US that exist within the industry. You know, we know, through our recent integrated home market analysis study that about 57% of integrators are below the million dollar revenue category. So they're smaller, owner managed businesses, so they don't really benefit from some of the other groups that exist within the industry. So we really want to you know, that's where we see there is a huge amount of value. That's the sweet spot. That's the heart of the industry that we really want to

13:28  
really tap into with these events. I love that. Jonathan, you're gonna pile on to that, because I had a question. If not, ya know, just to kind of piggyback on what Charles was saying, you know, yes, networking is a big piece of this. And obviously, what we're describing here is a very robust one day program. But there is still ample time worked into the schedule, so that you do have time to go have those one on one meeting. So you do have time to go check out the brands and partners on the floor. So you do have time to go to the checkout or theater session. It's not just something where you're going to be in a room all day, there's there's plenty of education options to do that. But there's plenty of breaks and opportunity to really make a full and interactive day out of it. Okay, so I heard you guys mentioned like one of my favorite words, which is lunch. So you guys, you talked about this as a free event. So I'm kind of gathering here. Is lunch free? I mean, can you can you kind of walk through the day and tell me like how long it is? And what the kind of how that day is split up? And what's included? What is included? Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, so again, the days vary slightly city by city. So you want to make sure you check out cd.org/tech summits to look at your exact city schedule. But for all intents and purposes, these things kick off at about nine in the morning with some content. And again, we have two dedicated tracks. So again, it's that tech track and it's that business track. And then there's a third track if you want to think of it that way. A fourth year content will all our brands and partners will be doing presentations throughout the day. Lunch is included Walt so make sure you become with your appetite. Yes and

14:58  
they have lunch is included and then

15:00  
There's more content in the afternoon. Those networking tables that we did mention a few minutes ago, those happen concurrently with lunch. So again, you can grab a bite and go sit down with your peers and have a nice conversation while you're while you're having a bite. Charles, you mentioned facilitation. Maybe during this this this mingling time, can you give me some idea what that looks like? Absolutely. Well, the idea really, of this came from when we're kind of observing this past year and 2023. You know, how how the attendees were sort of interacting with each other. And really, as I said, just just now, you know, aside from those anecdotal conversations, we really saw that it was lunchtime, where everyone's sat down, but there's just a huge that the energy that sort of in the in the room at lunchtime is, is it's, it's fantastic. I mean, you can see that the discussions that are happening, what we're really trying to do is build a little bit of structure around it like not so that it stifles sort of organic conversation, but it's like, we what we're going to have is on the around the tables, we will have different topics that so so when people collect them, when people collect their lunch, they can then go and join a table that's on a specific topic that and, you know, Jonathan mentioned some of those, but it could be like lighting, for example, which is obviously a hot topic right now.

16:23  
It could be immersive audio, but the idea is, is that basically people can collect their lunch, and then go and sit down with other other other folks that have also picked that table. And then there will also be manufacturers that have maybe maybe products that are in that kind of area. And we will see some questions. So basically, we will leave on the tables, some ideas for for discussions, and actually it was so there'll be conversation starters, but also, hopefully some integrators that may be able to share experiences they've had as well. But the idea is that there'll be facilitated by some of the manufacturers that are on the floor, that have the half the products that are in those kinds of areas as well. So it's not, as I said, not a rigid structure, but it's hopefully encouraging organic conversation.

17:10  
I love that. Jonathan, do you want to know well said he described it perfectly, well said, Joe. Well, I know that when I'm going to be attending a few of these, I know I'm going to be sitting at tables as well. So I'm going to also say this is an opportunity for volunteers to get the meat staff and to get to talk about staff and to get to learn more about CEDIA because it at the end of the day, it is all about those relationships. I mean, CEDIA can't do anything without volunteers. One more thing to mention too, about these networking tables is that you know, a big piece of feedback that we've gotten to is that annually, our programming doesn't always connect as well as it should. And we really want to find a way to give people a reason to feel a connection to Expo in September, which is gonna be back in Denver again this year. So networking tables are all going to focus on topics and issues that we plan to feature heavily at EXPO come September. So again, we're trying to create that narrative so that for individuals that are able to attend a Tech Summit, and come see us in Denver, there's going to be an opportunity to tie those things together. And then another point that you brought up well, that's really good. You know, this is an opportunity to meet CEDIA staff that's working on our members behalf. And the way we've got this set up right now, John is correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe we're going to have more speediest staff going to these texts on it than we have in years past. So it's going to be even more opportunity for you to actually meet with the folks that are working on your behalf. Yeah, totally. Charles. Absolutely, yes, that these these, uh, it's gonna be a mixture of senior volunteers, senior staff that are going to be attending this as well. And we also have some guest speakers that I'm sure Jonathan will jump into as well.

18:47  
Very high, highly regarded guest speakers. So they're going to be running some of the workshops. And the other thing I should mention as well is that we have in Chicago, we're going to be running a two day workshop on top of the tech summit as well. So we have a single day Tech Summit, we're actually running a two day workshop on top of it, which is an RP 22, immersive audio workshop as well, we've had huge success with those workshops that have been running in India and in the UK. And this is the first time we're going to be bringing those workshops to the US as well. So immense, yeah, excited about that. But I'll let Jonathan talk a little bit about some of the guest speakers that are gonna be gonna be coming in and focusing on business. Before we go, Jonathan, I just want to mention those all those RP 22

19:33  
workshops have been sold out, and it was Australia as well and they sell out fast. So I recommend that you get you'd look at the Tech Summit area that you're that's near you. And if you have interest in the RP 22 You get signed up as fast as possible because it is limited seating. Correct. So we have Peter eyelet, coming over from the UK to teach that Peter is the foremost expert on this and he's going to be an excellent instructor with real

20:00  
We're excited to bring it over to the US. So that is attached that RP 22 workshop is attached to the to the Chicago Tech Summit. Like Giles said, we need to start over with it was that was no.

20:13  
I actually liked the buzzer

20:15  
today that's that's from Dora. I have no idea what that what that is. Time's up. So we have Peter ala coming over from the UK to teach that RP 22 workshop which is attached to the Tech Summit in Chicago. And that is in April. And yeah, like what like you guys have said that there's limited seats. Registration for that particular item is going to be opening soon. So yeah, once that opens up, if you're interested in coming to Chicago to Chicago, so just hopping on it. And then we're going to assess dates for the second half of the year when we have more tech summits. And if we're able to attach this workshop to future ones. That is the intent as far as the other speakers go. And like I said earlier, I mentioned earlier that we do have a dedicated business content track, we have two excellent speakers locked in who will be kind of rotating throughout all the tech summits. And that's Matt Burnett from vital. And Leslie shiner from the shiner group. They're both a teaching a variety of different business courses on how to improve your business topics, from sales to marketing to ways to improve profit, profitability and margin forecasting, all sorts of stuff that just the integrator business owner can really think about things through a different lens. So we're excited to have them be a part of all these programs. And I think it's gonna be a nice feature, something we haven't had at the tech summits in a while. And like we said earlier, too, it's going to be a reason for the whole team to come.

21:29  
All right, I'm gonna go to my soapbox to say, if you think you know everything, and you've been in business for you know, I've been doing this for 30 years. So I don't need to go to one of these things. You should change your mentality. The minute you stop learning or wanting to learn is the minute you become stagnant you that you can learn if I don't care how many years in business you've been, I've been in this industry well over 30 years, and I'm still learning daily. And I'm learning technical stuff. I'm learning business stuff. I'm learning sales stuff. So and then of course, there's a whole networking side of this, which we talked about which which you won't get unless you're actually there. So I would, I would encourage everyone you know that but the tagline at the end of the podcast is please keep an open mind that that's for real. And because just keep an open mind go to one of these texts, comments and I guarantee you you will be surprised with what you walk away with. And Jonathan, I'm also glad you mentioned CDs because these these are not replacements for a that stuff on the CD at the CEDIA Expo is a must, you know, you gotta go to the CD Expo. And we also do the integrated systems Europe show which a surprisingly enough has a tremendous amount of Americans going to now. So it is a wonderful internet international show. They are both great shows, and you should be attending those. But also attending these local events. Again, networking, it's not far it's easy. It's one day it's free. So why not? Is there anything else that I'm missing that we haven't covered on? I mean, we just said these things are one day and they are free. So there's no reason not to check it out. We'd love we'd love to host you at any one of them. And yeah, like you said, like these aren't meant to be a replacement for expo or ISC, they are meant to be supplementary and give you that opportunity to, to connect with your peers in the interim, because for as great as Expo is it's still only once a year. And this gives you that opportunity to kind of keep your education going keep yourself up to date, in kind of like that downtime, so to speak. Yeah, the last thing I'll say is, again, I'll reiterate that this isn't a chaotic environment. So we thrive on hearing from members and your ideas are great ideas. In fact, hearing from members is why we're changing the tech summits around. So this is also your opportunity to give us your feedback, you'd like to see this, you'd like to learn this, you have a problem with this. See, the staff is there. And it's a great environment to talk because as you know, trade shows, you know, you come to the CEDIA booth, we'll give you time at the trade show, but it's still a trade show, you know, you got to run off to see this person and you got to run off to get into this class. It's a much slower pace. And it's a great place to come to interact and give us feedback. And as a hopefully you're all senior members so you can join and become a senior member at this event as well. We should probably talk about that. But if you're not a CD, a member you can join but if you are a CD member, you can give us your feedback and you know because that's really important We're all ears right now as we're trying to grow this CD organization and and turn things so, Giles, if you want to pop in on that one at all I know you're passionate about no I think you're you're absolutely right there well I think this is the the new the new chapter procedure is the reengagement with the community. You know, Derek, we have Darryl Friedman, our CEO who's all about this and I think this is an example where we're taking on board the survey feedback that we've had from the from from

25:00  
Um, tech summits where but also with joining our events together in lots of more holistically with all the all the other programs that we have running at CEDIA, you know, it's it our standards, you know, the RP 22 standard, the standard, the important standards work that we do, tying it to additional value from a membership perspective, and the fact that we have the awards program, which for members, you know, so So bringing those award winners, the the things that made those projects so incredible that they want to see your award, bringing them to the events so people can learn about the decisions that integrators made and how they interact with design professionals, which is also a key thing for CEDIA, so it's right, you're absolutely right, it's, it's linking all the things that CEDIA does together, but also just responding to, you know, the industry and the fact that the, you know, things have have changed quite a lot in the last five years. You know, from from an events perspective, we really feel like these are, these are really well positioned for how people do business now how people, you know, make choices in terms of allocating time for travel, and how how people learn. And you know, there's only so much you can learn online, there's only so much you can take from webinars and this this, we know that the value of in person engagement from from events can't be replaced. But we really feel these have they fill fill the gap in the industry? Because of the and they're really quite unique with their just being a single base. So yeah, we hope everyone turns out and sees the value in it. And we look forward to seeing seeing the everyone come through. Yeah, I'm excited about it. I love going to them. I can't go to all of them, obviously, because there's other things do but yeah, they're super great. So any last comments from you, Jonathan or Giles? cd.org/summits. Go check out the schedule the dates and make sure you come to one that's in your neighborhood. Yeah, I'll put the link in the in the in the notes as well as city.org/tech summits. And they're free. What's not to love about free free content. Free networking, free lunch well. Yeah, free lunch, although eat less lunch. But hey, it's still free for us great. Tiles, any last words?

27:22  
Just to say thanks so much for allowing us some time to speak about these as you can tell, we're super excited about them. And we hope that

27:31  
all of our all of our listeners, all of the CDA members and industry non members as well see the value in these. So and we look forward to seeing everyone that. All right, well, thank you both very much for filling us in on what tech summits are and how they're changing. So we hope to see you at a tech summit. And I would like you to please consider it. It's a great time and you should do it. Not only for yourself but to support the industry. You know we are a collective and we all work together and that's what makes us stronger and smarter and better. So thank you very much for listening to this podcast. I hope you have a great rest of your day and I will ask you as always to please keep an open mind.