- Chris Gilray, president and CEO of Southeastern sales rep firm Aim High Audio and its sister company AHA Distributing, reports the companies’ third annual Big Show was a huge success again this year.
The event, which took place March 24-25 at the Marriott Atlanta Northwest at Galleria hotel, had 73 participating manufacturers, featured Origin Acoustics’ Jeremy Burkhardt as keynote speaker, and provided five training programs per day. Courses offered included "5 Things You Need to Know About HDMI Before Installing 4K," "Putting Pizzazz & Profit in Projection," "Wi-Fi Best Practices," and "ISF Video Calibration Crash Course."
“[During] two days we had ... 567 dealers [attend]!” said Gilray. “Further, our trainings were filled beyond capacity, indicating a real thirst among dealers to learn about today’s complex technologies."
Dealer Testimonials
“The Big Show has been an incredible tool for me in a few ways,” said Gil Foreman of Sight and Sound in Hattiesburg, MS. “First, I’m able to sit down with manufacturers and pick their brains. I have seen real results come from this. I’ve also taken two clients to the past two shows which proved hugely profitable. One client went from $16K budget on a theater room to spending just over $200K! He arrived at this on his own from the demos doing the selling. I sat and watched as his eyes opened and an ear-to-ear grin came across his face while listening. The Show is also truly a fun time to mingle with others that have the same passions and problems I face from owning a high-end custom AV shop. I would advise anyone to attend.”
"Each year the Big Show gets bigger and better,” said Steve Mowery of Neal Electric in McDonough, GA. “In addition to all the latest products from the best vendors, Jeremy Burkhardt was the finest keynote speaker I've ever heard—a pioneer in the audio industry and a great American dream story. To be one of the original customers of Aim High Audio, and to see them grow these past few years, is also an awesome testament to small businesses."
Participating Vendors
In March of this year, AHA Distributing was appointed as Catalyst AV Distribution Network’s southeastern states partner. In such, the company picked-up APC, Catalyst Wire & Cable, ClearView CCTV, Dropcam, EnGenius, IC Realtime, Nest, Rapid Mounts, TiVo, Vanco, and Vivitek, all of which it rolled-out to dealers at the Big Show.
Other participating exhibitors included Autonomics, Alarm Controls, Atlas Sound, B.E.S Tools, BDI, Denon, Boston Acoustics, D-Tools, Draper, Dynaudio, Datacom, Definitive Technology, DSC, E-Line, Ethereal, Golden State Instruments, HEOS, Hegel, iRoom, Intrasonic, Inakustik, Impact Lighting, Induction Dynamics, Just Add Power, Kimber Kable, Leon Speakers, Legand / OnQ / Nuvo,Marantz, MartinLogan, Middle Atlantic, Omni-Mount, Peerless-AV, Platinum Tools, Origin Acoustics, Octave, ON Controls, Parasound, PRO Audio Technology, Relidy Pro, Rockustics, Russound, Screen Innovations, Speco, Soundtube, Secret Sound, Solid Drive, Soundsphere, Seura, Springdeck, Supply Stream, Telguard, T+A, Tranformative Engineering, UPG, Wilson Electronics, Wolf Cinema, Zigen, and ZK Access.
