CEDIA PRIORITIES

CEDIA recently hosted its Annual Meeting at ISE 2023 in Barcelona. Here, Matt Nimmons, Managing Director of CEDIA EMEA, provides an update on four priority areas for the coming year.

Workforce Development

With many integrators admitting that the biggest issue facing their business is staff recruitment and retention, addressing the labour shortage is a key focus for CEDIA in 2023.

CEDIA has established a three-pronged approach for getting more people into the industry:

• Equip CEDIA members with tools to present the industry to classrooms of students

• Allow students to join CEDIA as student members

• Provide students with the opportunity to attend CEDIA Tech Summits

CEDIA has hit the ground running with this plan and launched CEDIA NextGen: Smart Home Career Toolkit, a collection of free resources designed to help integrators forge connections with local talent pipelines. The kit includes ready-to-use resources employers can present to colleges, trade schools, government agencies, community centres, and more.

These resources make it easy for the CEDIA channel to give polished career fair and in-class presentations; educate career counsellors about the industry; and offer leave-behind assets for guidance offices, career centres and employment offices.

In addition to general community outreach, CEDIA NextGen: Smart Home Career

Toolkit includes tools to expedite hiring and recruitment. The kit offers customisable messaging examples for job descriptions, email, and social correspondence with target recruits, and phone interview scripts. These resources can help employers post open positions faster to jobsites, including CEDIA’s Career Center, and communicate more effectively whenever they need to hire.

As part of the NextGen initiative, CEDIA is waiving the fee for job postings in its Career Center. For a limited time, CEDIA members and non-members may list full-time, internship, and apprenticeship opportunities for free with code: NextGen23.

Building on this initiative, CEDIA has also launched a UK Smart Home Recruitment and Salary Survey and is calling upon the industry to play a role in generating valuable information for both job seekers and employers in the smart home space. Open to all home technology integrators, electrical contractors, security installers, IT professionals, manufacturers, and distributors, the survey is now live and will remain open until March 24.

This short survey will gather insights into the current state of the smart home job market, including demand for specific job roles, most common salary ranges, and the top benefits and perks offered to employees in the industry.

We believe this survey will provide us with key information to support our commitment for finding new talent and defining career opportunities within the industry. We encourage everyone to get involved as your insights play a critical role in CEDIA being a valuable link between skilled labour and industry employers.

Connection

CEDIA aims to bring the industry together at every opportunity throughout the year, and the Tech Summits are a fantastic way to do so. These events provide practical business development opportunities and a valuable networking platform for all involved in the industry.

We are hosting three UK events in spring and summer 2023, beginning at the Business Design Centre in Islington in London (April 18), followed by Tech Summits in Leeds (May 24), and Edinburgh (June 7).

To find out more information on the London event and to register, please visit: https://cedia. net/connection/tech-summits/london.

Design Build Awareness

Design professionals play a vital role in residential projects and are a key partner for technology integrators. CEDIA is continuing its efforts in this area in the year ahead by:

• Equipping integrators with the tools they need to build engagement with design professionals

• Directly engaging with this community to help CEDIA with its strategy

• Building awareness of the industry to design build professionals through marketing

We currently offer four CPDs that integrators can deliver to design professionals:

• Designing the Connected Home

• Introduction to Integrated Lighting Design

• Cabling for the Integrated Home

• Designing Home Cinemas and Media Rooms

A fifth CPD is under development entitled Outdoor Technology: Extending The Living Space, which will give those integrators who complete the CEDIA Outreach Instructor (COI) programme great tools to present and engage with the design build audience. More information on the COI programme and the content available to deliver to designers and architects is available from Imogen Dent at the CEDIA office.

As part of our efforts to build stronger relationships with these influential audiences, we are aligning more closely with trade bodies representing design and build professionals,and are looking at creating an industry advisory council that will be made up of architects and designers. This will ensure that any activity CEDIA pushes forward will have come directly from this community.

CEDIA’s marketing team – headed up by Vice President of Communications, Christine DeJoy – is concentrating on the design build audience and is engaging in new marketing activities to ensure the CEDIA brand is front and centre. Increased SEO and paid advertising have already allowed CEDIA to take a step forward in this area, with additional efforts in the pipeline.

Global Strategy

CEDIA has created a new strategic plan that aims to develop a stronger global presence by investing in key countries and regions where there are significant opportunities.

The team has focussed on differentiating its two fundamental aspects: Global Engagement and Global Development.

In Global Engagement, CEDIA recognises the importance of interaction with new and existing members in various markets to help raise CEDIA’s profile, encourage engagement with CEDIA programmes, and build membership.

In parallel, CEDIA is also committed to Global Development where CEDIA will commit to investment into territories where there is an opportunity for significant growth and a more established and consistent presence.

There are exciting times ahead, and we look forward to working with the industry on these and other initiatives in 2023.

CEDIA