CEDIA is evolving. CustomRetailer sat down with Chairman Randy Stearns to discuss the future of CEDIA, how it is changing and what the membership has to look forward to in 2012 and beyond.
In addition to his CEDIA duties, Randy Stearns is president of Engineered Environments.
CustomRetailer: In the time you’ve served as CEDIA chairman, what are some of the most dramatic changes you’ve observed in the custom integration industry?
Randy Stearns: The mass adoption of the iPhone, iPad, Android and other mobile devices is not only the most dramatic change I’ve observed during my time as chairman, it is the most dramatic change I’ve seen in my 20 years in this industry. Mobile devices are not only replacing touch panels, they are rapidly becoming the de facto control device for all control systems.
CR: Would you articulate the main 2012 goals and the future vision of CEDIA? What will be some of the main differences in the approach to the membership’s needs for 2012 versus years past?
Stearns: While the mission of CEDIA is unchanged, CEDIA leadership acknowledges, in this post-recession, information age, that members have become more conscious about where they spend their hard-earned dollars and that they have ready access to all kinds of industry information through a variety of sources. As such, we believe that the way CEDIA can best support its members is to create unquestionable value and to be THE hub for all industry information, education and connection to and between industry stakeholders. And that is precisely what CEDIA will offer going forward.
Specifically, members have told us that the best way CEDIA can create value and thereby fulfill its mission of being a core component of its members’ prosperity is to bring new business to their door. Two exciting new initiatives focus on creating business opportunities for ESCs. CEDIA is building a consumer website targeted at homeowners as well as industry partners such as architects, designers and custom homebuilders. This website, in addition to providing highly relevant information on the industry, its products, and its services will, through the use of paid and organic search, direct visitors to the CEDIA Finder Service—and in turn our members.
The second initiative is to expand CEDIA’s industry outreach program to the local chapter level. CEDIA staff will work with local chapters of the AIA, ASID, NAHB and other professional design and construction industry associations to schedule outreach education for CEDIA’s Registered Outreach Instructors, placing them in an ideal environment to gather leads for active projects in their local community. CEDIA members, and particularly ROIs, will reap benefits of membership like never before.
