Rebrand from InfoComm to AVIXA (Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association) wasn’t just a refresh. It’s part of a major new internal restructure, helping end users better understand the benefits of AV without being bogged down by the tech
If you’ve been keeping your eyes on the AV newswires recently, you may have seen that InfoComm International has been rebranded as AVIXA.
But what does the rebrand mean? Why should you even care? Some of you may not have even heard of InfoComm, let alone AVIXA.
Wherever you stand, it’s important to recognise the role AVIXA is playing in the industry and the benefits it can provide businesses like yours and people like you.
We spoke to AVIXA’s senior VP of marketing and communications Dan Goldstein (pictured) to explain why the rebrand is more than just a fancy logo and end users should take notice.
We’re taking responsibility for growing the market and really raising awareness of what AV can do amongst the end user community
Hi Dan. Before we discuss the rebrand, tell us about InfoComm and its purpose in the AV market?
InfoComm is the trade association representing the professional audiovisual and information communications industries worldwide. Our members included manufacturers, systems integrators, dealers and distributors, independent consultants, programmers, rental and staging companies and end users and multimedia professionals.
From offices around the world, we serve our members and the industry through education, including technical and business courses, in the classroom and online. Resources, such as AV standards, thought pieces and market research. And lastly through events, including local events and international trade shows
Our tradeshows in a lot of ways are our main communication platform – they’re also our main source of revenue. We’re a non-profit association, so all the revenue we make from shows is reinvested into the industry.
We had record attendance at our last show (June, Orlando) with over 44,000 registered attendees
Tell us about the trade shows.
We have the InfoComm tradeshow here in the US, which alternates between Orlando and Vegas each year. We also have tradeshows in other parts of the world, in China, India, Middle East and Latin America.
We had record attendance at our last show (June, Orlando) with over 44,000 registered attendees, up from the mid-upper thirties.
Why should end users attend?
We saw an 18 per cent rise in end users attending. We introduced a pre show conference this year called TIDE (Technology, Innovation, Design, Experience). That event is more focused on the business outcomes that technology can generate, rather than focus specifically on the technology. What end users want is something that speaks their language.
What prompted the change to AVIXA?
The name itself reflects three important characteristics of the association, its members, and the industry we represent. First, AV is who we are. Not IT, not even a subset of IT. Second, IX is what we create. Experiences require a combination of technologies, factoring in the right content and space, integrated together to achieve a desired outcome, whether it’s rich communication, entertainment, deep understanding, or some other outcome enabled by integrated AV. The final A in AVIXA underscores our status as the hub of an industry. InfoComm International sounded very much like a for profit company.
Has anything changed internally?
Yes, this is not just a name change with a cool looking new logo. Our brand identify is one of several new initiatives we’re pursuing as an organisation. Internally we’re more focussed on that non-technical content and delivering more value for our members.
How will these impact end users?
We’re taking responsibility for growing the market and really raising awareness of what AV can do amongst the end user community.
We want to increase the amount of marketing intelligence we offer to members and enhance our ability to provide data that’s of use to them within their business. In the past we were all about measuring the industry, such as measuring the supply side and the number of units and shipments. Now we’re starting to look at the value for the end user, which is something we’ve never really done in the past.
Our brand identity is all about articulating the value of AV to the end user – whether that value is in driving profit growth by delivering a unique customer experience, or solving business problems by enabling employees to communicate more easily with one another, or creating new opportunities for users by giving them new sources of data. And those are just three examples! We need to hear more from end users about what is driving their decision-making, and we believe that becoming AVIXA will make it easier for us to start and sustain those conversations.”
Finally, in time do you expect InfoComm trade shows to also be rebranded to AVIXA?
We have had record-breaking InfoComm shows in the US, Mexico, China and India this year, and the brand equity we have with InfoComm is something we want to develop further, not abandon. I think having a separate brand for the association helps us do that and we’re excited to be looking at that opportunity.
