Creating greater awareness of the AV industry is one of the ways InfoComm International is acting as a catalyst for market growth in 2017, according to its executive director and CEO David Labuskes.
As part of this drive, InfoComm International is working with communications firms in the US and Europe, aiming to find the right platforms from which to present the strategic value of AV to verticals such as higher education, hospitality, banking
and retail.
“Next month we will be speaking to provosts about the impact of AV on higher education from three perspectives: how immersive technology can be used to enhance education; how technology can be used to create greater flexibility within their spaces, and how the availability of collaborative technology and its capabilities gives them an edge with which to attract students. It’s about illustrating why they should be investing more.”
Historically, InfoComm International had been focused on growing the industry from the inside out, according to Labuskes. “We will continue to do that work of course, it’s the work of trade shows and standards development, for example.
But we are now layering a market growth piece on top of that, at the request of our membership.”
But now, InfoComm International is looking outwards for ways to increase the spend within the industry: “We can’t, as an association, directly increase that spend, but we want to be a catalyst for that increase. I think it will attract new participants to our industry.”
Labuskes hopes that people, who currently don’t, may start to self-identify as AV professionals: the creatives who call themselves digital media artists and work for advertising or communications firms, for example.
“The objective is to engage them in our industry to help broaden its definition, using content as a common reference around which to build a relationship,” concluded Labuskes, highlighting the launch of a new thought-leadership conference called TIDE at InfoComm International 2017 focused on the art of storytelling supporting enterprise outcomes.
“We are trying to attract people who have never come to our trade show before. We hope to bring TIDE to ISE next year.”
