It has been a crazy few weeks. With a trip to the NSCA BLC where attendees were treated to incredible information about refocusing and establishing new ways leadership can be used as a part of their organizations, followed by InfoComm Connections in San Jose, CA where the debate on where the AV industry was headed in terms of gear and IT reached a civil point of discourse about all the options available, I’ve been feeling exceptionally fortunate to be included.
Having lunch with a friend the other day, we got to talking about the industry, the sessions from these conferences and the general state of affairs in AV. As much of my life lately has involved working with industry leadership and development, hearing the statement in the conversation “there is no unified industry, just a collection of companies that happen to offer the same products and services,” struck me as an interesting way of looking at things.
If you put CEOs and business owners in the same room for any period of time and get them talking about the direction of the industry, you are bound to hear a wild array of things about what’s working, what isn’t, and the beliefs of where we are headed as a group. Some of those ideas might sound crazy (regardless of the side of the spectrum you might fall under), while others might alter your own personal perceptions and ideas.
In the conversations from these conferences, there were a few moments where I saw brilliance in what was happening around North America being shown in how certain people had turned the industry on its head and completely rethought how business could be done. And then, while still processing all that information about the available opportunities, I heard that statement from my friend and couldn’t help but think, “That might not be entirely wrong.”
Each company can operate under a wide variety of models and see success in the AV industry, it’s part of what makes the industry great because, like all the systems we work with, it is open to a certain amount of improvisation and interpretation. But it also means that many times all the companies are pulling in several different directions and preaching a different message about the best way to do things to a customer base that already struggles understanding the “voodoo” that lingers behind the technology that we offer.
That was where I return to the statement. I have experienced the unification and passion that comes from many of the leaders of this industry that want to see it grow, develop, and continue on with the next generation. People that want to share their knowledge and experience on a regular basis with one another and not only explore the problems that we are all facing, but also help solve the new problems that are finding their way into our industry. These leaders might work with the governing bodies of the AV industry, they might manage this through activity on the forums, or they may just do this on a local level, but the statement at hand, while not said with malice, does beg the question as to why do so many people in conversation still think that our industry is a completely reactive one as a whole?
We work in a technology based industry and live on the bleeding edge exploring what is coming next. We try and push manufacturers to give us the technology that matches what is in our customer’s dreams because of the latest special effects that they saw on last night’s hit cop drama. They want the best technology available (even if the sticker shock sometimes ends that conversation before it begins). So why is it that we push manufacturers so hard but when it comes to industry development and unification it’s still such a divisive place to exist?
For the record, I am genuinely asking this question. I want to know what you think the reasoning behind this lack of a united front in the industry is caused by. We’ve all got theories and complaints to raise with how things are done and what might make them better. We can all complain for days on end about it being the consultant’s fault, the integrator’s fault, the lack of broad industry leadership – we’ve heard them all – but that’s just blaming. When it gets down to it, why does the AV industry have such a hard time coming together to develop where we are going as a collective whole and getting widespread agreement and adoption?
