Jeff Day, CEO of North of 10 Advisors, kicked off the annual TIDE (Technology. Innovation. Design. Experience.) Conference by inviting everyone to gather round. “TIDE is the campfire of this industry—you have found your tribe, you have found your home.”
The AVIXA team worked hard to create that campfire camaraderie. The full-day event, held on Tuesday, was filled with engaging storytelling and community-building.
Srinivas Rao, chief creative investigator and founder of Unmistakable Media, gave the morning keynote and discussed the art of being unmistakable. Rao’s message focused on making your craft—whether it’s installing AV systems or producing events or creating content—unmistakable. He questioned why people look at something that works for someone else and then try to replicate that success instead of doing something that’s never been done. “Best practices are your worst enemy when it comes to creativity and innovation,” he said.
Fear, Rao says, is a learned behavior. “When you attempt to do something unmistakable, by the definition, you are doing something that has not yet been proven to work. Which means that you get all the credit when it works in your favor, and all the blame when it doesn’t. It’s a decision and a commitment to seek out the very thing that amplifies your fear and that possibility that just maybe, maybe you’ll be wrong.”
After the morning sessions, attendees proceeded to a lunch where they were encouraged to share their successes. Creating a bonding experience, attendees shared their wins—both big and small— and the collective wins at the table were shared with all conference attendees in a one-minute-per-table summary.
Miral Kotb, founder of entertainment technology company iLuminate, gave the TIDE 2019 keynote address. Kotb received a degree in Computer Science from Columbia University while honing her dance skills in New York City. In 2009, she combined those two passions to create iLuminate, which mixes wearable LED technologies with choreography performed in the dark to create interactive audience experiences.
Having realized during the course of her career that “there is a divide between the creative and the technology,” Kotb offered attendees three concluding thoughts: Build your mission statement and let your true self shine beyond the lights; cultivate the right team and cultivate an environment of co-inspiration and co-collaboration; trust your team and let them fly.
