Daryl Friedman, CEDIA’s recently appointed global president and CEO, is used to exciting audio events, having come from working at the Grammys, but was just as enthusiastic about his very first ISE – perhaps even more so – when he spoke to Installation editor Rob Lane for the ISE Daily, ahead of the opening of the first full Barcelona event.
“ISE seems a little more entertaining,” he enthused. “In-person events are something that’s very important to us. So to see this happening, and with much better attendance than some of us expected, I think a while ago, so it’s exciting.
“But for me, it’s eyes wide open, I want to look at everything, understand the industry better and primarily meet people. I’ve been on a listening tour around the world trying to meet CEDIA members as much as possible, but this is one opportunity where everyone’s in one place at one time. And I just intend to meet as many folks as I can.”
Friedman said he “absolutely intends” to be a champion for the residential AV industry coming to ISE, and is “very impressed” with CEDIA’s presence at this year’s event – although he can see room for improvement too.
“The CEDIA booth is very visible, very prominent when you first come in,” he explained. “But as I was looking around, I could see that residential AV has incredible opportunities for growth. And we want to get back to that first year [of ISE], when residential was really a very big presence [the show was mainly residential AV-focused for the first couple of years].
“And I think we can – there’s plenty of room to grow now with this new venue. Yep. And so we’ll see new brands coming in and certainly be championing that.
