- InfoComm International, in partnership with IMCCA, will host a day of emerging trends education on Tuesday, June 13, the day before the InfoComm 2017 show floor opens at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.
The day of insight into the future of the AV industry will feature the inaugural class of Emerging Trends Fellows- experts chosen for their knowledge of a cross-section of critical technology areas.
"Through Emerging Trends Day and Center Stage, InfoComm 2017 attendees will see how audiovisual technology is creating remarkable solutions and customer outcomes," said Jason McGraw, CTS, CAE, Senior Vice President of Expositions, InfoComm International. "Along with our TIDE conference, plus a variety of new sessions added to our regular education offerings, attendees will gain fresh context for all the new products that will be on display from 1,000 exhibitors."
Also new this year is TIDE (Technology. Innovation. Design. Experience.), a one-day conference at InfoComm 2017 for examining the strategic impact of AV technology. It was created for AV professionals as well as design professionals and enterprise technology customers. TIDE will feature keynote speakers Matthew Luhn, one of the original story creators at Pixar, and virtual reality pioneer Nonny de la Peña.
InfoComm 2017 will also introduce the new Immersive Technology Pavilion, an area dedicated to augmented reality, virtual reality and 360-degree video solutions. The new pavilion will include hands-on experiences of application-specific VR environments, and attendees will learn how AR, VR and 360 video (sometimes called immersive video) can be used in commercial AV applications.
"For InfoComm 2017, we want to show attendees how they can employ technology to get results for their customers," said Rachel Bradshaw, Director of Expositions Content, InfoComm International. "We selected our Emerging Trend Fellows for their deep-rooted knowledge of technology that spans manufacturers. It's our goal that attendees will leave those sessions better informed and ready to get the most out of the show floor."
Emerging Trends Day will kick off with Pete Putman, CTS, of ROAM Consulting, who will provide his popular, annual forecast of future trends in the pro-AV industry. Next, Dr. S. Ann Earon, President of Telemanagement Resources International, will moderate a series of 30-minute briefings with the nine 2017 Emerging Trends Fellows. Attendees can join some or all of the sessions.
The fellows and their topics for discussion are (in scheduled order of appearance):
Mike Sinclair, Vice President/Owner, Audio Incorporated
Microphones and Audio Processing
Joel Silver, President, Imaging Science Foundation Inc.
Display Technology
Manolo Almagro, Managing Director, Innovations, TPN
Digital Signage
Hope Roth, CTS, Lead Programmer, Riordan Brothers Integration
Control Systems
David Danto, Director of Emerging Technology/Principal Consultant, IMCCA/Dimension Data
UC, Videoconferencing and Huddle Rooms
Irwin Lazar, Vice President and Service Director, Nemertes Research
Workstream and Team Chat Solutions (Slack, Spark, Microsoft Teams)
Tim Banting, Principal Analyst, Collaboration and Communications, GlobalData
Collaboration Using Apps and APIs
Brent Kelly, President and Principal Analyst, KelCor Inc.
The Cloud and XaaS
Ira Weinstein, Senior Analyst and Partner, Wainhouse Research
Monitoring and Managed Services
IMCCA will formally recognize the Emerging Trends Fellows at its State of Collaboration Lunch and Learn, to be held the following day, June 14.
