David Labuskes, CEO of AVIXA, expects he’ll be asked about hugging throughout InfoComm (he’s all for it, by the way). However, once questions about personal interactions are answered, he expects manufacturers, integrators, and solutions providers will be looking to answer their own questions about where they fit in the new and evolving Pro AV ecosystem.
“The world has changed in immeasurable ways,” Labuskes said. “AV is clearly business critical at this stage.”
The success of last month’s ISE (Integrated Systems Europe), a joint venture from AVIXA and CEDIA, in Barcelona reinforced AVIXA’s confidence in InfoComm 2022. “We have been able to sense a level of excitement…to get back together as an industry,” he said. “You don’t come out of a global pandemic at a sprint. I personally believe that momentum kicked off in Orlando last year.”
[InfoComm 2022 Impulses: Trends and Technologies to See in Las Vegas]
Exhibitors will be bringing new products, of course, but there will be other differences between this year’s event in Las Vegas and last year’s event in Orlando, FL. “Clearly the event will be dramatically larger,” Labuskes offered. “The educational offerings are much broader. The networking opportunities will be more numerous, as well as more highly attended.”
Labuskes is also excited about AVIXA Xchange, a new initiative that allows the sharing of information among industry professionals, as well as the organization’s diversity efforts. “That’s such an important part of the future of our world, let alone our industry,” he explains. “The deeper and richer and broader our relationships with people that don’t look like us or talk like us or think like us, the better our experience will be on this planet. And if we can facilitate that and be a catalyst for that, I think that’s at the core of AVIXA’s mission.”
[The Inside Track—Straight from InfoComm Exhibitors]
Above all, Labuskes is hoping attendees get a jaw-dropping experience at the show. “One of the things I do after the ribbon cutting is just watch the people walk through the door—and there’s a different look between the person that’s been here 20 times and the person that’s walking through those doors for the first time,” he said. “I sure hope that everybody that walks through those doors this year has that look of the first time.”
