CEDIA Lifetime Acheivement Award recipient Eric Bodley challenged the entire custom installation in accepting his honor during a gala ceremony on the USS Midway at CEDIA 2017.
Bodley, president and CEO of Future Ready Solutions and Bodley and Associates, noted he has three wishes for CEDIA going forward:
- Member Benefits — “Whether integrator, rep, service provider, or vendor, education and recognition are vital and must continue,” he said.
- Workforce Development – “How many people grow up knowing about CEDIA and knowing what it means to be an integrator?” he asked rhetorically, knowing that the answer to the question is not that many. “We should have people in high school and vocational schools aspiring to do what we do!” he said emphatically.
- Advocacy — “At the state level [we need] to prevent special interests from legislating us out of the business. In New Jersey, you have to have a high voltage electrical license to run a wire that carries more than 10 volts. How stupid is that?”
The CEDIA Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual who exhibited outstanding, creative, innovative, and visionary leadership in the growth and advancement of the residential technology industry. Nominations are submitted by industry professionals and evaluated on the basis of achievement and service within the industry.
For the past 40 years, Bodley has worked in nearly every aspect of the consumer electronics industry. Early in his career, he developed the custom installation division for specialty electronics retailer Sound Advice in Florida, and then, after forming Bodley & Associates, trained hundreds of sales associates with his IHAVS (In-Home Audio Video Specialist) program.
From 1995-2009 he launched a myriad of products and programs for Monster Cable Products and started Florida Home Entertainment Design (a CE Pro 100 integrator and CEDIA Member).
Bodley noted in his acceptance speech, “Noel Lee never abused me and I was able to help him a lot” in reference to the well-known head monster at Monster Cable.
In 2009, Bodley was recruited to launch the revolutionary Perfect Path brand of Locking HDMI Cables by PPC, and most recently founded Future Ready Solutions, a national distributor of digital connectivity and fiber cable products for the commercial, residential, and retail markets.
Of that work, Bodley noted his goal: “I don’t want you to install service calls, I want you to install stuff that works.”
He thanked his family, and in particular his wife Suzanne, calling her is “life partner.”
Of the sacrifices made from always being on the road, Bodley noted, “Next year, I will become a 4 million miler with Delta. My family benefited a lot from that. We went to a lot of great places.”
He concluded with a quote from the movie Jerry Maguire, saying, “I don’t have all the answers in life but to be honest I have failed as much as I have succeeded. I love my life, and I love my wife, and I wish you all, my kind of success.”
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