- Education before and during InfoComm 09 will offer countless new opportunities for improving your business. Among the more than 300 education sessions at the Show, 50 percent of courses are new. As if that weren’t enough incentive, this year attendees will get more education for free, as InfoComm has doubled the value of EduBucks.
- “There won’t be as valuable and comprehensive an opportunity for education throughout the rest of the year,” says Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D., Executive Director, InfoComm International. “This is a time to educate, invest in personnel, and get people ready for when the recession lifts a bit.”
- Two of the most popular education offerings will take place before the trade show begins. Courses offered through the Institute for Professional Development (IPD) and Super Tuesday programs continue to draw attendees with new and updated offerings.
- “The IPDs serve a special place in the industry,” says Lemke. “They are a collection of courses that are designed and continually updated with the intention of really propelling companies forward.”
- IPD courses begin Sunday, June 14 and continue through June 15 and 16. This year, the IPD’s AV Design Principles courses on Infrastructure and Environment are new renditions of the most popular on-site classes taught at the show. “Additionally, Elements of Design is a new course at the intermediate level,” Lemke says. Another new addition to the IPD program is the Staging and Events Management course taught by André LeJeune, CTS.
- “An ever-popular IPD favorite is the Videoconference: Applications, Trends, and Technology course,” Lemke notes. “Videoconferencing is a very hot commodity right now. It’s a part of the market that isn’t in recession, so we’re pleased to have that course back again.”
- Other perennial favorites include the AV/IT Integration, CTS Exam Study Group, and Project Management for AV courses. “Project Management has become a staple of the industry,” Lemke notes. “When we partnered up with the Project Management Institute we really brought a lot to the industry, and the course is very much in demand.”
- Super Tuesday on June 16 also returns with its most in-demand offering, the Technology Trends seminar. Serving another area of growing interest, a USGBC representative will teach a Green Building Basics and LEED session.
- “Special and different for Super Tuesday this year is the Business Executive Symposium,” Lemke says. “This year with everybody looking at their bottom line, how they’re going to grow their business, and what direction it’s going to go. We put together this day-long program focused on business information for owners and principals within companies to come and get a very strong dose of business intelligence.”
