It’s been a busy fall season for integrators as the Azione buying group has just wrapped up its Szygy event in San Diego, California. Defined as a pair of connecting or corresponding things, rather than being just a funny little demake of synergy, syzygy, while still being a ten-dollar word, is an appropriate topic to cover for Azione in particular.
The custom integration industry is made of plenty of pairs of connected systems. Dealers and vendors. Dealers and buying groups. Even dealers and other dealers. It’s these connections that ultimately make up the industry and help it continue to grow and thrive even in more dour times.
Syzygy also winds up playing into something else entirely, being a longstanding tradition of the former President of Azione Richard Glikes to name these events with unique, underutilized words. This fall conference officially marks the first one without Glikes as a part of the Azione team, but as I’ve been told by Patrick McCarthy, the new Executive Director of Azione, his departure has hardly been a hit for the buying group.
“When you have such an iconic person as Richard Glikes take a step back from the group and you don’t lose vendors, don’t lose dealers, I think that’s a sign that they all believe in this thing, and they should because they built it,” McCarthy said during a sit-down conversation I had the pleasure of having with him.
“The DNA that Richard left in Azione is community, and leaning into that, there’s a lot you can build off a strong community.”
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To kick off the event, in front of a packed house of dealer and vendor members, McCarthy announced that the group would be introducing two brand new initiatives: an educational LMS that will come to hold plenty of manufacturer and technical training materials for members and their team, as well as a new business-focused initiative called the Core Four Framework.
“It’s a 12-page document we’ve developed that features eight core business foci at the top,” McCarthy explained.
“We ask our members to pick four targets at a time to self-identify and self-assess, that way they’re able to check their progress in these areas as time passes. It’s by no means new, but it’s something that I believe will be of incredible use to our members.”
The framework is part of a broader, more intentful approach to business development at Azione.
“I want to sit down with members and help explain to them what problems can arise when running their business and then leave it in their hands as to how they want to address those gaps in preparedness,” he continued.
“It’s super subtle but I think it has the power to greatly benefit how we develop initiatives moving forward.”
It’s also something that members of the Azione group have been clamoring about for quite some time now, both to have an opportunity to learn and teach. As McCarthy describes it, the Framework itself is meant to be a “living blueprint” that will grow and evolve from the collective insights and experiences of Azione mentors.
“We have a lot of people in the group that have survived plenty of unique job experiences, and if we can take those lessons learned and put them into the framework, we now have the laws of gravity for running a good business,” McCarthy concluded.
Azione Members Come Together for Fellow Cohort at Syzygy Charity Event
Sticking with the with the Core Four Framework expressed, many of the discussions focused heavily on the business management aspects of integration. However, there were plenty of team building and community-driven activities members were able to participate in as well, such as an incredibly dynamic and energetic talk with motivational speaker Marvelless Mark.
Members of the group also came together for fellow cohort Avi Benaim on the second night to support the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, an organization fighting against colon cancer, of which Benaim’s wife, tragically passed away from. The organization largely supports low and no-cost screening for people who either cannot afford or would otherwise not have access to screening.
On the second night, members gathered in teams to create themed art presentations while also fielding donations for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. Through a display of members’ artistic acumen–as well as heartfelt generosity– Azione was able to raise close to $20,000 to support the Alliance’s programs, an impressive feat considering it was just members that were in attendance.
To date Benaim’s dedicated fund for his wife Michelle has been able to raise over $1 million for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance.
We’re including a snippet of the artwork on display here, but to see everything the teams came up with, be sure to check out our socials.
Community a Core Takeaway Following San Diego Outing
Just like that, however, my time at Syzygy and my time with Azione had ended, the next event for the buying group set to take place in Indianapolis May 5 – 7 in 2025. Although a unique aspect of the May event will be its co-location with sister group Oasys, a move McCarthy noted would greatly ease up on the travel commitment of vendors split between the two groups, further leveraging Nationwide’s umbrella.
Maybe one day we’ll see a co-location of these events with Nationwide’s commercial group, Ellipsys, akin to how we now have Commercial Integrator Expo being co-located with CEDIA Expo, though who knows when that might take place.
It would make sense, however. While I was on my way back on a six hour plane ride and members of Azione (with my colleague Bob Archer in tow) toured the Nice facility up in Calrsbad, I was listening over my conversation with McCarthy (which I’ll be posting following this article) and a comment he made struck me.
A boring question, but one I ask constantly is always “What do you hope members get out of this event?” With Syzygy, I was expecting it to be all about business acumen, after all, that was a big part of Azione’s messaging. Instead, McCarthy told me community, calling back to what he had been telling me when Richard Glikes departed.
“Azione needs to identify what makes it unique, and when you look at everything that’s happened to us, I think what makes us unique is our community.”
Update: The initial copy stated that Azione had raised $1 million during its Synergy event, in addition to including improper titles for Richard Glikes and Patrick McCarthy. The text has been updated to reflect the accurate amount raised by members during Synergy, while better clarifying the exact titles of both Glikes and McCarthy.
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