AVIXA POV
When Industry Pros Assemble
AVIXA’s annual AV Executive Conference returns this fall to inspire.
By Annette Robertson AVIXA
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ightning in a bottle. Hitting the mark. Making the grade. Success. Ever yone wants it, but how do you achieve it? And how do you hold onto it? Success can be fleeting. Consumers’ needs, the political ups and downs, the welfare of the economy and many other elements affect a company’s performance. Although an official guide for success doesn’t exist, your experiences—and those of others—do. So, listen and share. That’s why industr y associations like AVIXA create forums. Enter the AV Executive Conference (AVEC). Ever y year since 2013, industr y leaders gather to learn and discuss how to improve their businesses. Through thought leadership, workshops and networking, attendees have gotten the chance to consider new ways of excelling in commercial AV. At the conference each autumn, our goal is to arm AV firms with the insight and strategies they need to be prosperous in the coming year. To do this, we look at the economic and employment trends that affect companies building their businesses, new areas of growth into which they can diversify and ways for them to capitalize on their teams’ strengths. According to AVIXA’s market research, industries and economies are generally flourishing; however, trade policies and protectionist views are acting somewhat as headwinds. Uncertainties related to Brexit, low oil revenues 38 Sound & Communications June 2019
and fiscal deficits contribute to declines for the commercial AV industr y. Factors that lead to growth include healthy global trade, new manufacturing hubs emerging in Southeast Asia and South Asia, and improvement in the US economy from fiscal stimulus and strengthening business investment. Although the corporate market represents the lifeblood of commercial AV, smaller markets, many of which focus on the consumer experience, have the greatest growth potential. According to AVIXA’s 2018 AV Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis (IOTA), the healthcare market will experience a 10-percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR)—from $2.4 billion to $3.9 billion—from 2018 to 2023. Meanwhile, hospitality will approach a seven-percent CAGR, growing from $7 billion to $9.4 billion. The five technology trends rising to the top of the list as growth drivers are audio advancements, future displays, the Internet of Things (IoT) for smart buildings, IT and the cloud, and artificial intelligence (AI). AVIXA works year-round to drive the commercial AV market through industryawareness outreach and market intelligence. The association will share with AVEC attendees the insights it has gathered from market data and conversations with AV end users. In doing so, we will help inform those attendees’ business strategies for 2020. This November 5 to 7, in New Orleans LA, AVEC will focus on diversifying into new market segments to weather potential economic downturns. Increasingly, the same commercial AV equipment and ser vices can cross into different vertical markets. AVEC attendees will learn how to enter those markets to provide ser vices their firms already offer. Of course, it would be a disservice only to look inside our industry to learn best practices. That’s why AVIXA seeks business pioneers from different walks of life—so we can learn about success from their vantage point. Joining AVEC this year will be Robyn Benincasa, a world champion adventure racer, CNN Hero, former corporate sales expert and full-time firefighter. She’s also the Founder of World Class Teams, where she advises organizations on building world-class teams of their own. With 20 years’ experience as a competitive adventure racer, Benincasa will share how she mastered the skills required to inspire a group of semi-exhausted people through a seemingly endless series of checkpoints, working against crazy deadlines, in constantly changing conditions, all in pursuit of an audacious goal. Her expertise in teamwork in extreme conditions is incredibly relevant for business leaders today. After all, leading in business is an extreme sport! Also bringing a unique business perspective to the conference will be Mark Levy, the creator of the Employee Experience at Airbnb, which has led to significant changes in how organizations globally look at the entire employee journey. Levy has (continued on page 134)