Home Entertainment Source sets new standard for Spring Summit

Anaheim, California – March, 2009 - Home Entertainment Source (HES), with support from PARA has set a new standard for their annual spring summit. During this year’s 3 day event HES members were joined by some of PRO Group’s members in Dallas, Texas to explore all of the opportunities available to both organizations via their newly formed alliance. Attendees also took advantage of the occasion to network with one another and attend a series of educational courses sponsored by PARA.

When asked to comment on the results of this year’s event Executive Vice President Jim Ristow was overcome by emotion and simply stated “I’m inspired by our members”. Ristow was not alone.

From the opening reception through the closing of the show the overall mood at this year’s show was extremely upbeat and positive. HES president Bob Cole stated that a group of attendees walked up to him during one of the social events and said “Wow! I do believe” a reference to this year’s event theme “Don’t Stop Believing."

Kerry Moyer senior director at CEA agrees. Moyer stated “The energy and enthusiasm of dealers attending made it clear to me that they meant business! For our PARA Education Series, the rooms were packed with dealers hungry for new ideas. I expect many already are putting those ideas to the test back at their businesses.”

The summit also serves as a time to recognize the individuals within the group that help contribute to its overall success and during the HES opening session Milestone AV Technologies (Chief and Sanus brands) received the “Vendor of the Year” award. Primetime Audio Video in Rockford, IL received the “Member of the Year” award and Dean Sottile and Dave Meekings both Executive Vice Presidents at Expert Warehouse received this year’s “Excellence Award” in recognition of the high level of service they offer to the group and their overall contributions to the success of its members.

Other announcements include the launch of new transactional web sites that will allow members to take advantage of e-commerce capabilities, and the addition of Definitive Technology and Energy speaker brands to the group’s Expert Warehouse. Both brands will be available to members immediately with exclusive distribution rights to the HES PRO Group Alliance on the Energy brand. Draper was announced as an additional factory direct program and both Niveus and iPort were announced as additions to the Expert Custom Warehouse.