• CEPro_logo_blue-new
  • TOPICS
      • News
        • People & Places
        • Product Briefs
      • Projects
      • Events
      • Control
        • Central Vac
        • Energy/Power
        • HVAC/IAQ
        • Interfaces/Devices
        • Lighting
        • Motorized Shades
        • Whole House Systems
      • Audio/Video
        • Audio/Video
        • AV Accessories
        • AV Racks
        • Cabling
        • Displays
        • Furniture
        • Headphones
        • Home Theater
        • Media
        • Mounts/Lifts
        • Multiroom AV
        • Projectors/Screens
        • Speakers/Subwoofers
        • Wireless AV
      • Security
        • Access Control
        • Alarms/Sensors
        • Services/Platforms
        • Surveillance/Cameras
      • Business Support
        • Associations/Buying Groups
        • Cell Phone Boosters
        • Distributors/Reps
        • Operations
        • Recurring Revenue
        • Research
        • Sales/Marketing
        • Software Services
        • Tools/Testers
      • Networking
        • Cellular
        • Devices/Equipment
        • Wireless
        • Wired/Installation
      • Markets
        • Builders
        • Commercial
        • Design
        • Europe
        • Outdoors
        • Resimercial
        • Wellness
      • CE Pro Hub Pages
        • Bose
        • Savant
        • Inside Sound United
  • PRODUCTS
  • RESOURCES
    • Reports/Downloads
    • Buyer’s Guide
    • Webcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Integrator Jobs
    • Digital Edition
    • CE Pro-iQ
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • CEDIA SHOW UPDATES
    • CEPRO PRINT EDITION
    • CEPRO DIGITAL EDITION
    • CEPRO NEWSLETTERS
  • DISCOVER
    • CEDIA Expo
      • September 29 – October 1
        Dallas, TX
      • VISIT SITE
    • KBIS
      • February 8 – 10
        Orlando, FL
      • VISIT SITE
    • Total Tech Summit
      • October 26 – 28
        Orlando, FL
      • VISIT SITE
    • Commercial Integrator
      • VISIT SITE
    • Security Sales
      • VISIT SITE
    • Tech Decisions
      • VISIT SITE
    • Campus Safety
      • VISIT SITE
    • Design Well
      • VISIT SITE
    • KBB Online
      • VISIT SITE
    • AV-iQ
      • VISIT SITE
    • CE Pro-iQ
      • VISIT SITE
  • Search
  • TOPICS
    • News
      • People & Places
      • Product Briefs
    • Projects
    • Events
    • Control
      • Central Vac
      • Energy/Power
      • HVAC/IAQ
      • Interfaces/Devices
      • Lighting
      • Motorized Shades
      • Whole House Systems
    • Audio/Video
      • Audio/Video
      • AV Accessories
      • AV Racks
      • Cabling
      • Displays
      • Furniture
      • Headphones
      • Home Theater
      • Media
      • Mounts/Lifts
      • Multiroom AV
      • Projectors/Screens
      • Speakers/Subwoofers
      • Wireless AV
    • Security
      • Access Control
      • Alarms/Sensors
      • Services/Platforms
      • Surveillance/Cameras
    • Business Support
      • Associations/Buying Groups
      • Cell Phone Boosters
      • Distributors/Reps
      • Operations
      • Recurring Revenue
      • Research
      • Sales/Marketing
      • Software Services
      • Tools/Testers
    • Networking
      • Cellular
      • Devices/Equipment
      • Wireless
      • Wired/Installation
    • Markets
      • Builders
      • Commercial
      • Design
      • Europe
      • Outdoors
      • Resimercial
      • Wellness
    • CE Pro Hub Pages
      • Savant
      • Bose
      • Inside Sound United
  • PRODUCTS
  • RESOURCES
    • Reports/Downloads
    • Buyer’s Guide
    • Webcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Integrator Jobs
    • Digital Edition
    • CE Pro-IQ
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • CEPRO PRINT EDITION
    • CEPRO DIGITAL EDITION
    • CEPRO NEWSLETTERS
    • CEDIA SHOW UPDATES
  • DISCOVER
    • Cedia Expo
      VISIT SITE
    • Commercial Integrator
      VISIT SITE
    • Security Sales
      VISIT SITE
    • Tech Decisions
      VISIT SITE
    • Campus Safety
      VISIT SITE
    • Design Well
      VISIT SITE
    • Total Tech Summit
      VISIT SITE
    • KBB Online
      VISIT SITE
    • AV-iQ
    • CE Pro-iQ
M
POPULAR SEARCHES
News
Projects
Control
Audio Video
Security
Business Support
Markets
SUBSCRIBE CEDIA EXPO CEPro-iQ
Associations/Buying Groups | Business Support | CE Pro Summit | CEPro 100 | Events | News | Operations | Resimercial | Videos
December 21, 2020

Total Tech Summit Virtual Keynote Tackles Industry’s Labor, Diversity Issues

Associations CEDIA, NSCA and AVIXA challenge integrators to recruit, hire and train a more diverse pool of employee talent during Total Tech Summit/CE Pro Summit Virtual event.
CE Pro Editors  

In this keynote panel discussion, the Total Tech Summit Virtual brings together leaders from industry associations to discuss two key problems facing integrators – a lack of job candidate talent and a lack of diversity.

Article:
Associations/Buying Groups | Business Support | CE Pro Summit | CEPro 100 | Events | News | Operations | Resimercial | Videos
December 21, 2020

Total Tech Summit Virtual Keynote Tackles Industry’s Labor, Diversity Issues

Members of the CE Pro community could not gather in person for this year’s CE Pro Summit – annually part of the Total Tech Summit – but we staged a Total Tech Summit Virtual edition earlier in December, which kicked off with a keynote, “The Workforce of the Future,” that addressed two timely topics.

The first is relatively straightforward. There isn’t enough new talent entering the industry. Every year CE Pro conducts its State of the Industry survey (as does sister publication Commercial Integrator, which staged its CI Summit as part of the Total Tech Summit Virtual event), and every year the top issue integrators face in hiring new employees is a lack of qualified candidates.

The second is much more nuanced. There isn’t enough personnel diversity in the custom electronics integration industry.

If you head to a tradeshow or industry event, the evidence will sit plainly before you. Plenty of anecdotal evidence exists as well, including a recent AVNation podcast episode expounding on the experiences of diverse members of the AV industry.

Both of these problems speak to the insulation of the integration industry. There is no AV degree one can earn in college, and attempts at creating an ‘electronics integration’ type of trade school have been few and far between (CE Pro has covered the efforts of AVDG-owned Maverick Integration’s Maverick Technical Institute, which showed much promise before closing its doors last year). There is no path that a 16-year-old can look upon and say that when they reach the end, they’ll be a member of the AV industry. In fact, most people that have worked in the AV industry for years weren’t aware of it until they had already entered.

CE Pro 2022 Product Guide

CE Pro's 2022 Product Guide showcases some of the latest and innovative solutions from manufacturers serving the custom electronics industry in a cross-section of categories.

Download the guide now!

A single approach – recruiting and training diverse talent – can help tackle both labor issues, as panelists addressed during the Total Tech Summit Virtual keynote. Neither of these problems will be fixed overnight. Both will take strategy and effort from integration firms themselves. But the result will be a more well-rounded industry with a preponderance of new talent – a rising tide to lift all ships.

In the keynote, a group of industry veterans discussed exactly what such a program would look like.

Diverse Employee Base Elevates Industry in Myriad Ways

In a candid discussion moderated by Matterhorn Consulting principal Paul Boucherle – a longtime proponent of hiring military veterans as one way find talented and diverse candidates – representatives from NSCA (Tom LeBlanc), CEDIA (Samantha Ventura), the AVIXA Foundation (Sarah Joyce), and the AVIXA Diversity Council (Charmaine Toruella) emphasize the importance of diversity and where it meets the strategy of recruitment and retention of new talent.

Discussion topics include:

  • Why and how a more diverse employee base makes a difference to the bottom line
  • The business side of creating strategies for recruiting and training new talent
  • How to target more diverse potential recruits to the industry and to your organization
  • What diversity will do to improve the AV industry, and how homogenized employee bases can hurt your business specifically
  • Next steps for getting started on the path of bringing in new talent and emphasizing diversity in your organization
  • Much more!

2020 has been filled with conversations around the topic of diversity, and CE Pro and Commercial Integrator hope integrators head into 2021 with actionable strategies on how to begin to turn the tide. If takeaways from this keynote can be of even minor help in beginning that journey, all the better.


Related: First Female Graduate of Maverick Technical Institute Always 'Curious about Home Automation'

It’s uncertain if something like the Maverick Technical Institute will happen again. There may never be a clear secondary education track, such as what computer engineering delivers the IT world, that perfectly prepares graduates to join an integration firm. If integrators want to sit around and wait for those programs to start, they might continue to feel the frustration of the shallow new talent pool that has been a problem for years.

With everything that has happened in the past year, integrators are poised to be a key part of our customers’ business strategy moving forward as we’ll be the ones designing the technology that shapes the new workplace. If integration firms want to grow, each of us need to be proactive about recruiting new talent.

If the industry wants to grow, we need to be honest and open to improving our inclusion and mitigating our insulation. CE pros are always welcome to share their ideas with us.

ARTICLE TOPICS

Associations/Buying Groups • Business Support • CE Pro Summit • CEPro 100 • Events • News • Operations • Resimercial • Videos

ARTICLE TAGS

AVIXA • CE Pro 100 Summit • CEDIA • Hiring • NSCA • Total Tech Summit

SHARE

Share On Facebook
Share On Twitter
Share On Linkedin
Share On Whatsapp
Share Via Email
Copy URL
← Previous Article Next Article →
Article Audio/VideoCommercialControlDesignEventsISELightingMarketsOutdoorsPress ReleasesProductsResimercialWellnessWhole-House Systems

KSCAPE RAIL Lighting/Audio Solution to Debut at ISE 2023

KSCAPE notes that its new model of RAIL integrates Casambi for the ultimate ‘plug-and-play’ light audio system solution.
Article Business SupportNewsSoftware/Services

Portal API Integrates with iPoint

Portal.io opens its API to other business management software solutions, and announces its first integration is with iPoint.
Article Audio/VideoCommercialControlDesignEventsISELightingMarketsOutdoorsPress ReleasesProductsResimercialWellnessWhole-House Systems

KSCAPE RAIL Lighting/Audio Solution to Debut at ISE 2023

KSCAPE notes that its new model of RAIL integrates Casambi for the ultimate ‘plug-and-play’ light audio system solution.
Article Audio/VideoDesignLightingMotorized ShadesProjectors/ScreensSpeakers/Subwoofers

Technology Has Become an Interior Design Statement All Its Own

From LED light fixtures to loudspeakers to shades, access control and keypads, to solutions used as ways to conceal technology, design was on everyone’s minds at the recent CEDIA Expo in Dallas.

SHOW NEWSLETTER

Sign Up

CE Pro

Subscribe Sign Up

Content Types

News
Products
Projects
Companies
Downloads
Webcasts
Podcasts
Events

Specials

IntegratorJobs
CEDIA EXPO
CE Pro 100
CE Pro Summit
Awards Programs

Company Info

About
Contact Us
Customer Service
Media Solutions & Advertising

Subscribe

Magazine
Newsletters
Digital Edition

Connect

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
YouTube
RSS Feed

Categories

AUDIO/VIDEO
AV Accessories
AV Racks
Amplifiers/Receivers
Cabling
Displays
Furniture
Mounts/Lifts
Multiroom AV
Projector Screens
Speakers/Subwoofers
Wireless AV
CONTROL
Central Vac
Energy/Power
Interfaces/Devices
HVAC/IAQ
Lighting
Motorized Shades
Whole-House Systems
NETWORKING
Cellular
Devices/Equipment
Wireless
Wiring/Installation
SECURITY
Access Control
Alarms/Sensors
Services/Platforms
Surveillance Cameras
BUSINESS SUPPORT
Associations/Buying Groups
Distributors/Reps
Operations
Recurring Revenue
Research
Sales/Marketing
Software/Services
Tools/Testers
MARKETS
Builders
Commercial
Design
Europe
Outdoors
Wellness
FOLLOW US ON
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow

© 2023 Emerald X, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

  • ABOUT
  • CAREERS
  • TERMS OF USE
  • PRIVACY POLICY