The National Systems Contractors Association (NSCA), together with Ignite, brought the inaugural Excellence in Business Operations (XBO) Experience to Atlanta on Nov. 12-13. The event was designed for rising Pro AV stars of today to gain the tools, insight, and knowledge to be integration firm leaders of tomorrow.
Held on the Georgia Tech campus and sponsored by ADI Global Distribution, Bose, Exertis Almo, Extron, Insperity, Liberty, Q-SYS, Quam, Shure, TD SYNNEX, XTEN-AV, We Install IT, and Windy City Wire, XBO featured sessions and breakouts derived from NSCA's Next Generation Academy to hone potential integration leaders and professionals (both young and old) who are new to their leadership roles.
NSCA has its large Business and Leadership Conference every year, and has offered a smaller conference, Pivot to Profit, for the better part of a decade. However, as Tom LeBlanc, executive director for NSCA, explained, smaller conferences have a shelf life. Pivot to Profit set up good conversations, but after 10 years, there was not much else to say.
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LeBlanc knows one of the biggest challenges in the industry today is finding and, more importantly, retaining talent and helping to mature rising leaders into Pro AV veterans. "When we started working on the NSCA Next Gen Academy, we were really excited about the topics that sprung from those conversations with veteran leaders, things that they wish they focused on more as they were emerging into a leadership role," LeBlanc explained. "But what we didn't have was a platform for having those conversations. This seems like the perfect event for that. It taps into the need that we recognize in the industry. And we have seedlings of great content in NextGen Academy. That's why we launched it, because we feel like we are poised and capable of making an impact for something that many integration companies need right now."
With the tagline "Sparking Interest in Technology," Ignite serves as a catalyst for Pro AV curiosity through its ambassador program, according to Laura Janssen, director of workforce development at NSCA. Plus, it provides an opportunity for hiring through an internship program, LeBlanc added.
"And by adding this element of the XBO and the NextGen Academy, it helps with retention, and it helps with that other element of bringing leaders along," he said. "It feels like XBO is helping us to fill in some of the blanks."
The initial goal of XBO was to attract 100 attendees. Janssen said the hope is to grow to 120 people next year and eventually max out at around 200. But the ultimate goal is to keep it an intimate affair, allowing for true connections. In fact, NSCA called XBO the "un-conference." There weren't presenters and presentations; instead, there were mediators to larger conversations. Sponsor booths were less about pitching products and more about sharing company core values.
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And that's exactly what attendees got. Janssen, alongside Maura Fitzgerald, senior account manager, ADI Global Distribution, opened the event with "What Emotional Intelligence Is and Why All Leaders Need It," which quickly turned into a 100-person conversation. People were comfortable to discuss failures and emotions, an attitude that rolled on into sessions and breakouts throughout the event.
"It's not just all the information that we're going to present to you," Janssen explained. "It's the experience that you have. It's the conversations that you have here. It's the connections that you make. Presentations are great, but it's not a conference in that way."
Shure's specialist senior market development Aaron Niemann, who co-hosted "Having Tough Conversations: How to Navigate Workplace Conflicts" on Day 1, was excited to connect with the younger generation and get a new perspective. "We are a very forward-thinking company who place a lot of emphasis on diversity in our workplace globally," he explained. "We realize that if we don't have a bullpen, per se, of young talent, where are we going to be in the next 100 years? So, [XBO Experience] itself helps us to connect and deliver that message and helps elevate that message to these leaders."
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Between sessions and breakouts, sponsors set up shop in a conference room and the hallway. Attendees moved from table to table, spending time with each sponsor to ensure a wide array of connections were made.
“I think there's a magic to being in a bit of a smaller group that doesn't exist sometimes when you're sitting in a massive audience of people,” said Karen Castaño, director of national business at Exertis Almo. "I think doing something like this where you really are specifically focused on those people that want to be in this conversation—this is very real. This is very tangible. This is the next step for people that come to something like this, and I think that's great."
