INPUT
Rebranded & Reinspired
In
A Conversation with AVIXA CEO
David Labuskes
value and keep the conversation going. That’s about
creating content that’s relevant to our potential
customers and reinforces our abilities about how AV
fits into their goals. If 2018 was the year of the brand
launch, 2019 is the year of the content. This is now
the most important aspect of this shift.
The fifth initiative is about reinventing our
brand, and if we deliver on these first four, then
we’ve succeeded.
September 2017, InfoComm Interna-
t ional officially became AVIXA – the
Audiovisual and Integrated Experience
Association. With the change in name
came a new outlook and new initiatives, some of
which will roll out during InfoComm 2018, hap-
pening June 2-8, 2018 in Las Vegas, NV.
CEO David Labuskes took a few moments to
speak with Professional Sound about AVIXA’s re-
branding, reinforced focuses, and more.
PS: How will some of these new initiatives
and focuses be taking shape and presented
to the membership and wider public at
InfoComm 2018?
PS: What informed the decision to rebrand
InfoComm International to AVIXA, and more
specifically, what made last fall the time to
do it?
DL: The most recent update to our strategic plan
tested a new process that involved hundreds of
people. We interviewed members from the entire
supply chain – manufacturers to end users – plus
our entire staff and board to really assess: “What
is the industry we’re playing within, and what is it
that defines success for AVIXA?”
We’re a hybrid industry organization that acts
both as a trade organization representing enter-
prises and a society that represents individuals, so
one marker of success is being a catalyst of success
and growth for the global AV market, and the other
is being a hub for the global industry.
Markets grow when buyers identify greater
value than they previously identified. That value
comes from the interplay of three levels – technol-
ogy, environment, and content – so we had to think
about how we play within that. Do we try to turn
AV professionals into architects and interior design-
ers? Do we make them content developers? Or do
we bring these other professionals to the campfire
to best deliver these outcomes to our customers?
The third was out best option, so then it was about
attracting these professionals to the table.
We faced a challenge with the InfoComm
brand. It sounded like a telecom company; it didn’t
communicate what we do. We’re about creating
experiences and connecting people. Of course in-
formation is communicated there, but it’s a far richer
experience than that. There was also confusion be-
tween InfoComm as an association and InfoComm
as an event, with most people recognizing the latter.
The board felt very deeply that the association
should be better celebrated, and we really had no
choice but look to how we’re going to choose to
be indentified going forward. We knew we wanted
to celebrate AV and be proud of that as a profes-
sion. And then we also wanted to celebrate the
experience that our members come together to
help to deliver.
AVIXA is an undeniably more genuine label for
who we are and who we need to be.
PS: It’s a broad question, but what are some
of the new focuses, initiatives, or ideas for
programming that are being introduced in
line with this?
DL: There are really five primary strategic initia-
tives and then hundreds of things we’re doing
under each of those.
First is a membership value proposition. If you’re
going to attract different types of people, you need
to offer them value. We need to identify them, at-
tract them, and form a relationship with them. That
led to the launch of our new membership model
that came into play in January 2018, where we now
have six options, from an individual membership all
the way to an enterprise membership.
Another was to be the authoritative source
for market analysis, intelligence, and insight. We’d
done some market intelligence as an association
for many years, but we’ve doubled down on that.
We’ve invested in hiring a senior director of market
intelligence and have dramatically increased the
quality, scope, and depth of the intelligence we’re
gathering.
Third, in being the catalyst for growth, we want
to reach out to where the end user decision makers
go and speak to them about the value of AV. We’ve
now targeted six verticals – financial services, retail,
higher education, hospitality, sports and entertain-
ment, and transportation – and will add another
two shortly. I’ve travelled to events to meet with
and present for decision makers in these industries
about the strategic value of AV.
Next is content. If we’ve attracted these new
people and engaged with enterprise decision-
makers in broader swaths of our industry, we need
to deliver on those promises with something of
DL: I’m very exited about that. I myself didn’t real-
ize how empowering a new brand would be for
our staff and volunteers. A statement I made that
wasn’t planned but came out when presenting
this to them was, “Everything we do tomorrow,
we’ll be doing for the first time. We’re doing it
with the advantage of 75 years of experience, but
we’ve never done it as AVIXA.”
InfoComm 2018 marks the first North American
show we’ll be hosting as AVIXA. Much of it will be
the same as it’s always been – a big trade show
floor, over 1,000 exhibitors – but there’s a continu-
ing growth in attendance. We’re anticipating a
growth in attendance from end users rather than
directly from the channel. There are over 140 new
educational panels and classes, many of which are
directly focused on experience and value and how
customers make decisions based on the outcomes
they want. So it’s got to be familiar and yet new, and
it’s about managing that to make sure everyone
knows they need to be there.
When we did the first TIDE [Technology; Innova-
tion; Design; Experience] conference last year, it was
kind of prepping the beach for the invasion of AVIXA.
Our opening reception went from being in a
ballroom with a couple of standup speakers to a
nightclub last year to really own the fact that experi-
ences matter. This year, it’s at the Omnia [at Caesar’s
Palace], and it’s just a candy store of audiovisual
technology and a great way to lay down the brand
of AVIXA as part of the InfoComm Show experience.
We’ve got an amazing cross-section of leaders
form the industry for Center Stage. If you go down
that content alone, you’ll be wowed. This isn’t just
more of the same from other trade shows.
Basically, this isn’t just about conference calls
and digital signage and LED lighting on buildings;
this is about how human beings connect with each
other, and AV is at the core of it. I can’t imagine a
time in history where authentic connections have
been more critical, and that’s what we do.
This is about pride in our profession, and if we
do this right, we’re going to have people flocking
to call themselves AV professionals.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 9