3 minute read
CEDIA supports the industry
CEDIA supports the industry through advocacy, connection and education
By Daryl Friedman, Global President & CEO, CEDIA
The home technology industry is resilient.
Having made it through the global pandemic, we then found ourselves faced with new challenges — supply chain issues and workforce shortages to name a few. But talking to CEDIA members, businesses in our industry continue to thrive, with integrators designing and installing outstanding projects all around the world, and suppliers continuing to develop new technologies that are transforming the way in which we live and work.
Over the past 12 months, we have repositioned the value of CEDIA to our community and have established our three pillars — advocacy, connection and education.
Looking ahead to ISE 2023 in Barcelona, we are excited to bring the community together and showcase how we are serving the industry and providing value to our members. Some examples include:
Advocacy 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. We are launching a suite of services to bring more young people into this exciting field, and a new student affiliation with CEDIA that will give them access to information about the industry. We will connect members with their local college or technical school and provide them with a toolkit and video to help attract young people to the field.
At ISE, we will be focusing on this issue in our education course entitled, Recruitment Challenges: Thinking Outside the Box. This session will be run by Mina Machacek, who has 20+ years’ experience in the AV recruitment industry. Her in-depth knowledge, experience and capacity to problem solve sets her apart as both a recruitment leader and business entrepreneur.
Connection CEDIA aims to bring the industry together at every opportunity throughout the whole year and our Tech Summit programme is a fantastic way to do so. These events provide a practical business development and a valuable networking platform for all involved in the industry across the region. We will be hosting three events in the UK in spring and summer 2023 in London, Leeds and Edinburgh.
CEDIA has a global membership of over 30,000 home technology professionals. Events such as ISE provide the perfect platform for the wider community to come together to network and do business. We want to ensure our members have this opportunity while in Barcelona, so we are bringing back the Connection Hour, which will be hosted on the CEDIA stand every day from 17:00. We will also be hosting a member’s VIP reception. This event will allow members to relax at the end of a long day and enjoy networking with likeminded individuals.
Education Education remains at the forefront of what CEDIA does. As well as running regular face-toface courses at our HQ in the UK, we provide our global membership with access to hundreds of hours of self-paced education via the online CEDIA Academy. This ensures that no matter where our members are located, they have direct access to the same training courses. Thanks to our volunteers and subject matter experts, we are able to ensure our education covers the most relevant and up to date topics.
During the week of ISE, we will be hosting our in-person CEDIA Education Conference, which will be delivered by subject matter experts from across the globe. The programme will run between Tuesday 31 January and Thursday 2 February and will include over 30 education sessions that focus on Business Skills, Design Skills, Technical Skills and Emerging Tech.
More information can be found about our refocused value proposition at the refreshed cedia.net website.
Connection Hour will be hosted on the CEDIA stand every day from 17:00
