Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) is hosting its 20th Anniversary Fall Conference from October 18-20 at the Westin Michigan Avenue in Chicago, IL.
Headlining the event this year is a keynote presentation by Alicia Rainwater, a certified generation speaker from the Center for Generational Kinetics, a research center whose work has been featured in top national media such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CBS’ The Early Show, 60 Minutes, HLN, CNBC, and more.
Dealers and integrators today work in a time of unprecedented generational challenge and change with four generations in the workforce and five generations in the marketplace. Strategies that work for one generation can be a complete turn-off for others; this generational divide makes HTSA members’ job more difficult and more important than ever before.
In a provocative presentation titled “Crossing the Generational Divide: Unlocking the Power of Generations to Grow Your Business,” Rainwater will highlight new generational truths that directly affect leaders such as HTSA members. She will share data, firsthand stories, and step-by-step actions customized for HTSA members’ unique needs. Rainwater said that HTSA members can rely on these actions to drive their sales, communication, engagement, recruiting and more.
Media Panel: The Emergence of Voice Control
At the recent CEDIA 2016 show, Amazon announced several integration partnerships with leading custom integration brands such as Lutron, Crestron, Control4, URC, Bose, and more. It was the first major launch of a voice user interface (VUI) into the custom integration channel. More recently, Google launched its Google Home “OK Google” voice control initiative as well. As exciting as all of these announcements are, for many dealers and integrators, the dramatic news raises as many questions as it does answers.
HTSA has invited leading journalists to participate in a panel called “The Emergence of Voice Control” to discuss the major issues and opportunities surrounding voice control for the custom integration industry. Joining the discussion is: Jeremy Glowacki, editorial director of Residential Systems and NewBay Media; Lisa Montgomery, electronic house editor and CEPro editor at large for EH Publishing; Rob Stott, senior editor for Technology Integrator and Dealerscope for NAPCO Media; and Tim Albright, founder of AVNation.TV.
This panel will discuss the issue of voice control from multiple perspectives, and through the lens of the custom integration industry. Questions such as how much influence will voice control have on the CI market, what the opportunities for dealers are with voice control, what challenges will voice control represent, and more, will be discussed in depth.
Powerful Member/Vendor Discussion Groups
Perhaps one of the most popular of all of the events at HTSA’s conferences is a series of breakout sessions known as the Member/Vendor Discussion Groups. For this conference, HTSA has put together 10 separate breakout sessions on key business topics that pair an outside subject matter expert with an HTSA member who is actually utilizing the technology or service being discussed. In this way, theory and practice are closely linked, giving members information of greater depth but with real world insight.
Both members and vendors are encouraged to participate in as many of these sessions as they prefer. Each session includes a set presentation and ample time for group discussion.
Members can select from an array of topics including: The Importance of an Organizational Structure: Maximizing Profits per Employee; The Changing Landscape of Home Automation; Training for IT and Networking; Creating a Service-Oriented Culture; Job Costing: Best Practices; YOU are Your Brand; and more.
“The leadership team at HTSA has worked hard to develop a program for our 20th Anniversary Fall Conference that we think will be both thought-provoking and helpful in assisting members with information on all of the latest technologies and techniques to advance their business,” said Jon Robbins, executive director of the Home Technology Specialists of America. “We are particularly delighted with the keynote appearance by Alicia Rainwater of the Center for Generational Kinetics who we think will offer a real eye-opening presentation with actionable steps that will allow our members to drive greater sales with smarter generation-savvy approaches.”
