Spring is in the air for 2024 and as everyone in the custom integration industry knows, that means that the HTSA Spring Conference is afoot—or was afoot given the writing of this article. This season, the message of the conference was very appropriately “Energize!” though there is a little nuance to it outside of the spring theming.

In fact, according to HTSA Executive Director Jon Robbins, the theme was somewhat member selected this time around.

“We always heard about how these conferences are a great place for members and vendors to come together and meet with one another twice a year, but some of the feedback we got more recently, is that both members and vendors come away from these couple days feeling energized, and people need that,” explains Robbins.

There’s an Energy Deficit Throughout the Industry

It makes a lot of sense. Energy is a vital resource for businesses, and ever since the pandemic, it feels like energy has been in short supply. Either that or our day-to-day tasks seem to be using up more energy than they used to.

“You hear ‘energy shortage’ and you probably start thinking gas prices or the grid,” noted Keith Esterly, Chief Learning Architect of HTSA, during his Keithnote address. “We’re not talking about that energy. The one thing that every business is facing right now is a human energy shortage. Coming out of the pandemic, we had the Great Resignation where eleven million people just said ‘I’m out.’ And then on top of that, there was Quiet Quitting so even if people weren’t actively looking for the exit, they were mentally checked out.”

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Another way this energy deficit has manifested has been through the growing prevalence of burnout, which also happened to be the topic of the keynote for the 2024 HTSA Spring Conference wherein motivational speaker Jessica Rector spoke on how important it is to be able to recognize when people and employees are at their limits.

“It’s easy to focus on all the things that didn’t go as planned,” Rector said. “Whether it’s a conversation, or something happened with a client, if you focus on that, instead of appreciating all the things you got done in a day, you’re going to get burned out. So I encourage you to think about all the amazing things you do, and I also encourage you to give it away, because when other people feel that, they get energized too.”

She goes on to say that in the most recent polling, 79% of the workforce is currently experiencing burnout. According to both Esterly and Rector, however, the key to overcoming burnout and overcoming the energy deficit is through stellar leadership.

As Rector says, “Burned out leaders lead burned out teams.” Similarly, Esterly pulled a quote from Jack Velch during his speech that says, “If you can’t energize others, you can’t be a leader.”

“You now need to become the battery charger for your teams,” Esterly exclaimed. “Ask yourself. Am I willing to be energized by the people around me? Am I willing to admit that my people need it from me? That’s my question for you.”

Keeping the Industry Charged with Education

To that end, HTSA is spinning up a few new opportunities in 2024 for members to “stay green” while also bringing back some older initiatives following the Spring Conference.

“We got a little off of [tech trainings] during COVID but we recently received approval on a location for those, so you’ll be hearing an announcement very soon.”

According to Robbins, HTSA is also introducing newer initiatives such CEU Summits and AI training—the latter of which was addressed in a hackathon following the conclusion of the 2024 Spring Conference.

“CEU Summits are an interesting thing,” Robbins continued. “We are actually working with our members to put together these events where trade partners can come and attend CEU approved courses from our vendor partners.”

“We’re asking everyone to really look at [the education] and stay energized, because this is really going to help us achieve better than flat and help us go in with really green brains,” he concludes.

Tom Doherty, Director of Technology Initiatives, also said that he has been working to spin up a zoom-based curriculum with an on-site follow-up to allow for both power theory and practice. In fact, despite still being deep in the weeds with AI for the organization, Doherty has state he’s already starting to focus more on power and energy, as evidenced by Lightapalooza.

“This feels like the earliest days of lighting for the channel, and for our group as well” he told me. “A small number of our members already see opportunities in this right now, but when I asked everyone at one of our members-only educational sessions ‘How many of you plan on really focusing on this category?’ almost all the hands went up.”

“The thing that one of the integrators we’ve been working with has observed is that our channel is best positioned to do this. Architects don’t know this. Builders don’t know this. Electricians don’t know this. They know how to connect it on a diagram with documentation, but on most projects, the electrical is just winged.”

Doherty also cited that more utilities are moving to time of use when it comes to charging customers, which in turn is really driving interest at a client level, even in the luxury segment, an observation I heard repeated when speaking to integrators at the conference.

2024 HTSA State of the Union Addresses Members Outlook at Spring Conference

The comment Robbins had about keeping energized during a flat period seemed particularly poignant following the State of the Industry.

As per a poll conducted by HTSA that saw responses from just about every present member, the general consensus saw potential for slight growth from this year, with many integrators expressing neutral sentiment at the absolute worst.

A majority 64.2% of members expected anywhere from 5 – 20% revenue growth heading into 2024, though a respectable 29.6% expected the year to be mostly flat. The remaining 5.1% expected revenues to drop.

“Election years are always terrible for business, and I fear this one will be one of the worst,” noted one member who expressed neutral sentiments for the year. “Business is still out there, but election propaganda will create unease in clients, which will cause a flat year at best.”

Meanwhile, many integrators expecting a 10 – 20% growth in revenue point to lighting and other new and emerging categories to help fuel the growth.

In fact, the top three categories HTSA members are expecting to see growth in are lighting fixtures (82.3%), lighting control (74.7%), and motorized indoor window treatments (65.8%).

AVRs (52.9%), whole-house automation systems (47.1%)—which Robbins noted are still experiencing aftershocks from the supply chain shake-up—and 2-channel AV and front projection (both 40%), are among the top listed categories expected to remain flat in 2024.

Interestingly, front projection (47.2%) and AVRs (25.6%) are among the top categories that are also expected to take a dip in 2024. Furniture (25.9%) is also among the top categories expected to decline this year, according to HTSA members.

HTSA members also asked many of the architects, designers and homebuilders they worked with to see how they felt about the market, and across the disciplines, sentiments largely remained consistent. Even among homebuilders, who seem to have experienced the largest downturn in work, are largely optimistic heading into 2024.

What these disciplines are noticing, however, is a trend among their clientele where the number of projects may be decreasing, but the scope of the projects they have are increasing.

Of course, many of these firms work at the high-end of the budget spectrum, and as noted by one integrator, “High end [designers] are doing well. The mid to lower end of the market will be down, but not pessimistic.”

Whichever way the market swings, however, there’s definitely a lot to be excited about within the industry, as evidenced by the event, and if the goal was to get everyone hyped up, than I think the conference more than accomplished that.

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