Associations Focus: Get Ready for CEDIA EXPO
Jul 1, 2004 12:00 PM
This year’s CEDIA EXPO will feature the Installer Olympics, keynote speakers, golf outings, and educational opportunities for residential installers.
The annual golf outing, keynote speakers, and Installer Olympics are just a few of the events during the 2004 CEDIA EXPO in Indianapolis. Throughout September 7-12, EXPO events will be offered at the Indiana Convention Center and Westin Hotel. The festivities begin Tuesday, September 7, with a golf outing at the Fort Golf Course, an opportunity to network with custom electronics industry professionals and win prizes. Generous CEDIA members donated prizes ranging from a Jeep Grand Cherokee to Klipsch RF-15 floor-standing speakers.
Nicholas Negroponte, founding chairman, MIT Media Lab, will be the 2004 CEDIA EXPO keynote breakfast speaker on Friday, September 10, at the Westin Hotel. One of the foremost futurists, Negroponte was the first to predict and describe how digitalization — the move from atoms to bits — would affect every industry worldwide.
Installer Olympics, an opportunity for the industry’s elite installers to test their skills, will take place Friday, September 10 from 2 to 6 p.m. and Saturday, September 11 from noon to 4 p.m. Installer Olympics features seven events: Olympic fishing, video calibration shoot-out, obstacle course, van load, attic crawl, amp toss, and integrity. Registration for the Installer Olympics is free, and EXPO attendees may register on-site.
Former president and CEO of Southwest Airlines Howard Putnam will speak at the EXPO annual membership meeting and luncheon on Saturday, September 11, at the Westin Hotel. Putnam is a widely praised speaker on topics regarding bottom-line improvement, leadership, customer service, as well as managing change and turbulence.
The 2004 Electronic Lifestyles Awards banquet will honor and recognize the best custom electronic residential systems contractors, sales reps, and manufacturers in the industry. This fast-paced, high-energy banquet takes place Saturday, September 11, at the Indiana Roof Ballroom. The night kicks off with a cocktail reception, with the awards banquet directly following. The after party will feature a performance from the Bill Tillman Band.
COURSE SELECTION MADE EASY
For the first time, CEDIA is offering bundled education courses for its EXPO. From September 8-12, CEDIA will offer courses in five tracks: electronic systems technician, designer, project manager, customer relations, and business. To better navigate which courses to take, the CEDIA deans have packaged courses together within most of the CEDIA education tracks that follow a curriculum pathway. This lets participants focus on the topic(s) that most interest them.
Packages cost less than the individual courses and are offered in most of the five tracks. For example, a designer track package might include home networking, introduction to networking concepts, and advanced networking concepts. For more information, visit
and download the registration brochure or call (800) 816-9594.
For more information on CEDIA, visit
or call (800) 669-5329.
The CTS Edge
Audiovisual specialists have found no surer path toward establishing a competitive advantage than by earning the right to be certified technology specialists (CTS). With demand for AV services growing, suppliers and professionals in all areas of our industry are under increasing pressure to prove themselves.
Customers especially want to see proof of excellence. They want to know they’ll get the best services available from a skilled specialist or staff and are less likely than ever to just take someone’s word for it. Even consultants increasingly prefer to recommend companies with certified staff. “Certification is included as a component of our bid specifications and is taken into consideration when we award a contract,” says Randy Tritz, CTS-D, partner and branch director of Shen Milsom and Wilke — Chicago.
What’s the solution? Just give the customers what they want.
ICIA has been doing so for more than 20 years, conducting certification training at general and specialized levels, issuing in recent years more than 1,000 certifications annually. Certification through ICIA is evidence of professional skill, experience, and ethical values.
It’s proof of advanced knowledge, so that certified professionals and companies are recognized throughout the industry. “I don’t let a contractor pick up a tool at my place without a CTS,” says Ernie Bailey, director of AV services at the University of Arkansas, who is himself a CTS.
Individuals and companies alike quickly learn that certification translates into business, in terms of new opportunities and a sharper competitive edge. “The ongoing training and certification of our design and technical teams are paramount to our continued success,” says Merry McCleary, president and CEO of the BCGroup.
Individuals earn certification by passing ICIA’s general CTS test, which is offered online to technicians, engineers, designers, salespeople, customer service personnel, managers, and executives in all disciplines at all levels. The test’s 100 questions assess applicants’ knowledge of the technology and applications involved in audio, video, and display systems.
Individuals can prepare for the test by taking ICIA’s comprehensive education and training programs, which use both online and physical classrooms, or one or more of the specialized courses ICIA’s InfoComm Academy offers. Academically exacting, the courses are convenient and, for ICIA members, cost-effective.
On passing the general test, individuals earn the right to append their names with the letters CTS and can move on to specialized tests for certification in design (CTS-D), installation (CTS-I), rental (CTS-R), and sales (CTS-S).
The elite CTS-D design certification is for designers who are involved in consulting, dealer systems, and engineering and for sales professionals or managers involved in AV systems design. The equally elite CTS-I installation certification is intended for installers, installation managers, systems designers, engineers, and service professionals. Both tests consist of rigorous written and oral exams designed for professionals who can demonstrate that they possess advanced levels of knowledge and ability.
ICIA, which is a member-driven association, and its foundation ICIF determined the need to tie professional excellence and marketing as interdependent components in an industry awareness campaign launched a year ago. Companies that join the AVolution Awareness Campaign (see
) agree to ten standards of excellence, after which they are eligible to earn the company certification status.
Companies earn recognition as Certified AudioVisual Solutions Providers (CAVSP) when their employees do. The process is open to any company whose primary business is the manufacture, sales, integration, design, or rental of AV equipment, systems, and services.
Companies can achieve general, silver, or gold CAVSP levels based on the proportion of their technical, sales, and customer service employees, from 25 to 75 percent, earning general or specialized individual certification.
As “AVolved” service providers with CAVSP status, companies can further leverage their expertise and increase their business opportunities. Certified companies are entitled to use the CAVSP logo, available from ICIA, on all corporate literature, from business cards to press releases, posters, presentations, and portfolios. The CAVSP logo distinguishes companies at a glance as trustworthy, skilled, and knowledgeable while ICIA also promotes these companies in a variety of ways to customer audiences.
Fees for general certification testing are $200 and for each of the specialized tests, $590. ICIA training counselors are available to advise and assist applicants, who can also take courses through ICIA’s InfoComm Academy to refine their knowledge and skills.
For further information about certification or to apply for a test, contact ICIA at (800) 659-7469 or (703) 273-7200 or check the Web site at
under Certification. For further information about AVolved service providers, see
.
For more information about ICIA and InfoComm, visit
.
NSCA Goes to D.C.
To more effectively represent the needs of National Systems Contractors Association (NSCA) members nationwide, NSCA has established a Washington, D.C., presence and hired a director of industry/government relations. David Johnson, formerly director of government affairs for the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association (NBFAA), began working in the capital on July 1.
“A Washington, D.C., presence will be a tremendous help to NSCA and our members,” says Chuck Wilson, NSCA executive director. “So many of our industry partners, like the Department of Labor and other government agencies, are obviously based in and around D.C. No longer will it take us two days of time to attend what is often a two-hour meeting. We will be more effective at serving as the collective voice of our members.”
Johnson will be responsible for managing NSCA’s federal and state lobbying activities and coordinating such efforts with NSCA members, allied associations, and other industry groups. “Dave comes to NSCA highly regarded, and we are very excited to add such a dynamic personality to our staff,” Wilson says. “This new position will also prove highly valuable to the members of NSCA.” His starting tasks, according to Wilson, include building a government relations liaison network state by state and refining the NSCA position statements. Further, he will work at the state level on creating model legislation that creates a more equitable business environment for NSCA members. In the states where licenses are or will be required, Johnson’s efforts will focus on establishing a board of peers rather than individuals unfamiliar with systems work.
While at NBFAA, Johnson advocated on behalf of the organization’s member positions on a variety of issues within the low-voltage industry. Prior to NBFAA, he served positions in the government affairs and communications departments of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, the world’s largest association of food, beverage, and consumer product companies, employing more than 2.5 million workers in all 50 states.
Johnson received his B.A. degree in political science and economics from the University of Pittsburgh. He may be reached at
.
For more information about NSCA, visit
or call (800) 446-6722.
