Daryl Friedman admits he doesn’t have time for hobbies these days leading CEDIA as global president & CEO. It didn’t help that the former GRAMMY executive took reins of those roles in 2021, when the pandemic was experiencing a surge.
He came into CEDIA and embarked on a worldwide tour of the organization’s conferences and meetings with integrator members.
Thankfully, I was able to capture 30 minutes of Friedman’s time recently – on a day when he only had eight meetings.
We chatted about Friedman’s challenges after being named as head of CEDIA; his investment into the community; his and the association’s commitment to advocating for members; and the direction of the organization for the rest of 2024 into 2025.
CEDIA Advocacy Benefits from Daryl Friedman’s GRAMMY Experience
CEDIA recently took up advocacy for the integration industry by taking part of agendas and initiatives at the U.S. capitol and the Michigan capitol.
“I’ve been involved with this part of the business for 20 years. I’m just outside Washington, D.C., and it was a part of my portfolio at the GRAMMY organization,” Friedman tells CE Pro.
“I learned one saying from a congressman that I’ve used many times over the years. It’s, “If you’re not on the table, you’re on the menu. You’ve got to be in Washington, you’ve got to have your industry showing it’s face.””
Thanks to those and other successes such as developing workforce resources and defining RP22 immersive audio best practices, Friedman recently received a three-year contract extension.
“I’m happy to say that 2023 was the first year in many that we were breakeven, and 2024 is expected to be a good, profitable year for us,” he notes.
“And then we can turn around and invest that money back into the community.”
Hear about those efforts and much more Friedman, including a preview of a new app on the way, from in the latest CE Pro Podcast by listening to or downloading the audio podcast above.
Find past episodes of the CE Pro Podcast by subscribing to the CE Pro YouTube channel or our Apple and Spotify podcast feeds.