For 15 years, Exertis Almo has hosted a series of intimate events called E4 Experience, and in September, I had the pleasure of attending one in Boston.
With the last E4 scheduled for 2024 in Anaheim on October 8th, I'll get right to the highlights, so if you're a Pro AV installer, consultant, or end user in the southern California area and haven't already registered to attend, I strongly suggest you make room in your calendar.
Think of E4 as an event hosted just for you and a few hundred of your closest friends, where you receive specialized attention from more than 50 of the AV industry's leading manufacturers to gain in-depth, hands-on knowledge about new products and solutions that you might not have had the time to see at InfoComm among the 800 exhibitors and vying for face-time among the 30,271 attendees.
The E4 Experience event in Boston hosted 355 attendees who earned 240 CTS RUs.
Personalize Your E4 Experience in Anaheim
The E4 events are nicely paced so you will also have time to attend some of the eight educational sessions and earn CTS, CTS-D, and CTS-I RUs while you're at it.
Arrive for breakfast at 8:00 a.m. local time and network with your industry friends and peers. At 9:00 a.m., you'll want to listen to the keynote delivered by rAVe's Gary Kayye to learn about 9 Cool New Products and 4 Cool New Technologies That Will Change AV Forever.
At 11:30 a.m., choose from three sessions, Monetizing Digital Signage, Modern Meeting Room Design, or Navigating the Future: Harnessing AI in Enhanced Collaboration Spaces.
The exhibit hall is open from 10:00 a.m. through 3:00 p.m., so you can move between sessions, lunch, networking, and visiting with local reps without feeling like you're missing out.
At 12:45 p.m., choose from two sessions: Being Smart About Smart Buildings, or, Autism, and AV: Furthering the Discussion to Unlock Abilities.
At 2:00 p.m., choose between, Visualize & Draft: An Introduction to AutoCAD Basics for AV, and Navigating the Future: Harnessing AI in Enhanced Collaboration Spaces.
Then finally, at 3:15 p.m., choose between these two sessions: Basic Acoustics for Meeting Rooms, and Beyond the Basics: AutoCAD for Comprehensive AV Drawings.
Register for the Anaheim event now!
Cindy's Boston E4 Experience, Experience
Well, it did feel like the E4 event was hosted for me. I had time to see all 50 of the exhibitors, got to see some products that were introduced after InfoComm, and spent time exploring some that I didn't have a chance to see at the larger event.
Networking is always a favorite part of any event, and it was great to see so many end users. Of course, the Boston area is home to more than 100 colleges and universities, and it was enlightening to engage in conversations during lunch about challenges and solutions some were having.
While I was checking out ViewSonic's impressive 135-inch portable dvLED screen, Lance Lanford, ViewSonic's regional distribution sales manager, said, "The E4 Experience is special to us because of the recruitment efforts the Exertis Almo team puts into bringing in local partners. There's always a good crowd, and we have a lot of valuable conversations. In addition, including the end user allows us to show our products to a broad audience in one setting versus having to go out and do multiple demos. And they bring in a quality audience as well."
It's always great to see my friends from Red Thread. John Mitton, vice president and CTO of the workplace transformation company, said, "Practically my whole team is here. It's easy when the event is local; we're not spending all that time and money traveling to a show."
[Exertis Almo Brings DEI Panel Back to Fall E4 Experience]
I attended two sessions, both of which left a lasting impression. Full disclosure: I've been an Apple devotee since my first iMac G3 (Bondi Blue) in 1998. But after attending the session, Navigating the Future: Harnessing AI in Enhanced Collaboration Spaces, delivered by Amanda Stewart, channel specialist and Generator of Technology Enthusiasm at Microsoft, I need to find a way to enter the Microsoft ecosystem. Stewart is presenting this session in Anaheim. Her title, "generator of technology enthusiasm," couldn't be more appropriate. If you don't leave that session as a fully converted MS person, you're a stronger person than me.
I attended another session that will also be delivered in Anaheim that I highly recommend, autism and AV: Furthering the Discussion to Unlock Abilities, delivered by Rob Voorhees, director of business development for Exertis Almo. The topic is personal for Voorhees, his daughter Samantha is on the autism spectrum.
We're in an industry that can impact how Autistic individuals can thrive and, in turn, contribute to the workplace. Voorhees talked about the importance of room acoustics. "The whole point of room acoustics when it comes to people on the autism spectrum is we're trying to influence their comfort level. When you help somebody on the autism spectrum feel comfortable, it is absolutely remarkable. It's like a complete shift, like a light switch from being possibly unproductive and unsociable and then all of a sudden being a rockstar." He went on to discuss how hiring managers can benefit from being more aware and influencing the design of workspaces. "For those of you who make hiring decisions that could make or break your bottom line, because a lot of you might be one rock star away from having a killer year. There are specific standards and codes in the education space specifically tied to autism in terms of autism-friendly designs.
I look forward to attending the E4 Experience event next year when it returns to Boston in the fall.
