SpeakerCraft at CEDIA 2008: Awesome or Annoying?

There’s another issue that no one has mentioned in all the previous comments so far - in the interview with Jeremy Burkhardt, he was very proud of the fact that he screwed the workers out of a job who would have done the booth setup work. He said that using the technicality that his booth was “art”, he avoided using workers who were members of a union. Guess what Jeremy?  All of the people who install CI product for a living are workers, some of whom might belong to a union, so when you repeat how smart you are to cheat a worker out of a job, maybe you should remember who you sell product to.

And Julie, it’s really disappointing to hear you say Jeremy’s idea was “clever”.

Regarding the actual show at CEDIA, I thought it was just an entertainment show, just like Vegas.

But after reading Burkhardt’s comments, my company will never sell another SC product for as long as I live. In Vegas they don’t screw people who work for a living by calling it “art”.

Richard, I have mixed feelings about the SC booth, but I have to stand up for the company’s desire to economize on labor. I would certainly try to keep my own installations as inexpensive as possible.

SC still used labor, of course, just not the workers who were foisted on them by the city.

Union rules and wages are too onerous for many exhibitors. It’s frustrating to have to pay someone just to climb up on a ladder or plug in an extension cord. Often, if you hang up your own light, they will come around to your booth and charge you for union labor even if you did it yourself.

Choosing your labor wisely is a smart way to do business.

The guys at Speakercraft have always been self-indulgent and over the top.  What is sad is that it does not show any true marketing skills or imagination to use sex to get a bunch of guys attention.  This is the approach of the simple-minded who lack any real creative ideas on how to promote their products.  Unfortunately, it is all too common place of an approach these days by many reputable and less than reputable companies.

I remember going to a CEDIA show a few years ago where a Stewart Filmscreen rep showed a movie scene where a guy, Jim Carrey, for comedic value, was shown sucking a woman’s breast like a baby.  Personally, I found this not only offensive but entirely unprofessional.  There were a number of women in the room and, if you ask me, that was down-right degrading and disrespectful to them.

What amazes me these days is the belief by those that wallow in immoral behavoir to think that we all are just like they are.  Honestly, I don’t understand why you would attempt to offend anyone in your approach to try to market and advertise your company’s products and/or services to such a diverse public.  Isn’t the goal of promoting your products to get more people to buy them?  If so, why do stunts like this or use sex to sell something or offensive language in trying to reach a new dealer or new client.  What an odd approach to promotion it is to say, hey, we want to sell more product and make more money but let’s cut off a portion of our customer base by offending 20% or 40% or 60% of the dealers or general population.  How stupid is that?

I thought CEDIA’s goal was to promote high standards and professionalism in our industry. CEDIA, get out of the gutter!

how is speakercraft helping anyone in a down economy? actually they hurt the CI by letting anyone basically sell their product.I carried SP in the past when it was a more exclusive speaker but now anyone sells it ...worthles to sell a speaker you can find almost anywhere…takes the custom out of CI,but like most companies now its all about their bottom line and the CI keeps making less margins ...

I didnt know SC creativity ousted the overprice labor at the show. Now THAT I respect! Good for him! People dont realize that some dont have a booth at the show because it cost them five grand to have some overpriced scamming union labor cart the materials from the dock to the booth. Its a RIPOFF! GOOD for Jeremy for finding a way to stick it to them. Screw the union labor at these trade shows. It should be illegal as its nothing more than criminal IMO. Hats off to SC for skirting those scam artist!

That said, I couldnt care less about the booth or SC. It swayed me not one way or the other. I didnt sell SC before (well, except for Proficient Audio) and I dont know but it has nothing to do with their booth.

I’m a believer that during tough times is the time to focus on your business and stealing market share from your competitors.  I glanced at Speakercraft as I ran from booth to booth to see what products would help us earn business that we currently do not have.

Entertaining, yes (from what I saw).  However if I wanted to be entertained I wouldn’t spend $500/day at a tradeshow, I’d fly to somewhere I really wanted to be.  Trade show time is so limited the last thing I want to do is spend time watching some foo-fooey show.  We save those hours for the evenings…:)

You guys are forgetting the main point here - Smokey the Bear wasn’t let into the building! I can never attend a CEDIA event ever again because an unplanned appearance by a children’s fire-safety mascot was kept from promoting his agenda at my dorky trade show!

Speakercraft is behind this, I just know it, they must be. Sarah Palin for president!

What I found to be the most disappointing aspect of this whole mess is that SpeakerCraft is celebrating and promoting the low-life.  Which is the opposite of what most of our clients strive for.  Sure, if you have Jessie James or Paulie & Paulie as your clients, a certain amount of low-life demeanor is OK.  But that’s the exception and NOT where most of the business is.  And Business is what everyone seems to be shrieking about here.  Yet, as a SpeakerCraft and yes, Crestron and previously AMX, may they die a horrible death, dealer, I am horrified every time I go into AVAD and have to deal with the apparent celebration of the low-life represented in their warehouse that is populated by what look like refugees from a prison yard or the Mexican Mafia.  Look, this is America, if you aspire to be a creepy, skeevy low-life white trash, fine, that’s your business.  Most white trash simply can’t help it; you can see that in all the mis-spellings and bad grammar in their posts here - but to ASPIRE to be white trash, now that’s troubling.  And that’s what SpeakerCraft seems to be promoting - which is in-arguably at odds with our Business.  Jeremy is clearly an exception; he’s in the top 1% as an entrepreneur - so he’s earned the right to wear some ink. But the skeevy, drooling, drunken, overly-inked cretins who have found a refuge in hi-end custom are who are hurting the Industry.  Not the old “blue-haired” Crestron dealers who actually know something about something.  So I’m actually anxious for my 25+ year established “ship” to sink pretty soon so I won’t have to deal with these fools no mo.

Wow, Jeremy really pulled it off.  You all stop focusing on Sarah Palin long enough to embrace or hate something.  God bless him and thank goodness someone is creating a brand in an otherwise homogenic product sphere

Hello Brothers,

Mr burkhardt just visited 100’s of dealers here in SA and recomended we investigate this community site.  He did much talking an deducation to train our market and supprise us to view a video of this live dance.  Well done for the musical feelings and expressions to speakercraft.  We very hard work to deliver customers this type of expereince.