At Tuesday’s Market Insight Lunch, Sean Wargo, senior director, market intelligence, AVIXA, and Peter Hansen, economic analyst, AVIXA, assured attendees that, while the AV Industry certainly has its share of challenges in the current market, current trends are very encouraging for future market performance. New headwinds have softened the GDP outlook for 2022, but the long-term remains unaffected.
Hansen explained that while the threat of a recession over the next 12 months is higher than they have been in years, the likelihood is still under 50% and any possible recession is unlikely to be severe. Furthermore, the return to in-person events has been a boon to the AV industry and would likely carry growth through a recession. In the same vein, recovery for the industry has been better than expected. Growth in 2021 was better than expected, reaching 11%, and this year has continued the same trend to create a record year.
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Growth in the AV industry is present across all facets of the field, but the biggest successes are in the areas of performance/entertainment and live events, coming in at a whopping 8.1% and 11.2% rate of growth, respectively. This can be attributed to a sharp increase in live entertainment and industry events after the effects of the pandemic of the last two years, and how integral the AV industry is for those events.
When it comes to business, the future is hybrid. AVIXA’s Market Opportunity Analysis Reports (MOAR) has found that in Q2 of 2022, boardroom/group collaboration spaces lead office investments with a rate of 36%. Additionally, contrary to what one might think, office rent is holding strong through this year, avoiding any sort of drop-off like the one we saw in the Great Recession of 2007. AV is, and will continue to be, an integral and growing facet of corporate space.
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Though there are certainly headwinds to be navigated in our industry, the future looks strong. While inflation has been an issue for AV, currently AV price increases are slower than the wider economy, with U.S. inflation at 11.1% and price increases only at 8.2%. A major factor that is being addressed is the supply chain issue. While this is a real problem, companies are finding new and effective ways to respond to this roadblock. Early purchasing, using workarounds to avoid scarce/expensive products and increasing the involvement of technical staff in planning are proving to be the most effective ways to combat supply chain issues.
These insights have helped cement AVIXA’s current outlook on industry trends: tailwinds prevail, and planners win.
