New Design Connection Program

At CEDIA 2018 this year, residential AV dealers will have the opportunity to experience a new platform that will “unite technology integrators with designing construction professionals.” This program aims to foster partnerships between those building the homes and those who’s acumen is creating the audiovisual experience inside the home.
There will be a design connection pavilion that will give dealers the chance to connect with these builders. There will also be a design connected tour. This tour will introduce, or reinforce, some specific products and manufacturers as well as give the home AV pro the opportunity to network.

Listen to the full conversation on ResiWeek 125

Joe Whitaker of the Thoughtful Home said on ResiWeek 125 of the program that it has been in the works for quite a while “this has kind of been a buildup with a very good strategic partition between CEDIA and Emerald Expositions that has been kind of big in that a build up for the first time ever to bring architects, designers, and some mass media. Don’t think that you might not see better homes and gardens as one of the media representation inside those tour groups and then also the kitchen and bath. We are starting to see the importance of that crossover and the understanding happening you know these things actually working together and talking together.” 
The pavilion as well as the tour will be hosted by CEDIA volunteers and employees. According to Whitaker, there “may or may not be” a tour guide on this episode of ResiWeek.
As we reported during our coverage of InfoComm 2018, the show floor in Las Vegas also contained a design element. In addition, InfoComm 2018 hosted an Integrated Life all-day training, a 3-day design class, and housed an Integrated Life area of the InfoComm show floor.
The other side of this new design area is what it may or may not do to the attendee makeup at CEDIA 2018. We have already had discussions about whether InfoComm, at 40% of end-users or tech managers, has too many non-integrators. Tim Albright brought that discussion to the CEDIA Expo Design discussion “I’ve talked with manufacturers who happened to exhibit at both InfoComm and CEDIA and asked them what do you expect this year (at CEDIA) and all of them don’t know really know what to expect (as far as attendees). A lot of them are positive and very, very optimistic about Emerald, the new owner of the CEDIA Expo. The question that each of them has is the qualification of the leads now.”
The quality and type of leads appear to be a theme throughout both major audiovisual trade show in the U.S. this year. The percentage for InfoComm was a bit over 40%. However, the makeup of InfoComm attendees and CEDIA attendees has traditionally been vastly different. There really isn’t the equivalent to a tech manager in the world of residential audiovisual. It will be up to CEDIA, Emerald, and the manufacturers who exhibit at the CEDIA Expo to gauge whether this first year, and the new design pavilion connection, generates the traffic manufacturers are looking to get.