I recently started the “Residential Systems Integrator Advisory Board,” which, at the moment, is made up of five working integrators who regularly interact with the brand through the newsletter, website, and/or magazine. The goal is to keep me honest by making sure I am covering the topics that are most important to the readership.
I get to speak to integrators fairly often at events and as the subjects of stories, and our columnists all work in the field, but the purpose of this group is to specifically talk about the brand and what it should be covering and doing to help keep integrators informed and successful. I normally try not to make anything in Resi about me, but that’s what this Board is all about.
The plan right now is to meet every quarter virtually, as I am very conscious of the amount of time integrators have to spare (which is pretty close to none). We had the first meeting in February, where I received some excellent feedback.
One of the items we discussed was the need for a centralized location where all industry training programs could be found. There are times when a shop knows a light week is coming up, and knowing what was available at that time would be helpful.
More From the Editor: The Sorry Optimist
Some research led me to a robust calendar plug-in for the Resi website, which was easy to install. Filling it with training dates is another thing…
That is where we are right now. The Training Calendar is live (you can access it through the “Calendar” menu on the home page — or just click here), and it has some of the key education providers such as CEDIA, IntegrateU, and HTA. We’ve reached out to more groups, and we are waiting on responses. Plus, if we get an email with training dates, we will add them, too.
The Calendar is able to be presented in a scrolling view or in a traditional calendar setting, and links are provided for more information and registration details. Where given, pricing is available, and each event is tagged for its purpose (i.e., lighting education sessions are tagged as “Lighting”).
I realize there are a lot more events that need to be added to make this a useful tool for integrators, and I’m working on it. For now, I invite you to check it out and provide feedback to make sure it addresses your needs. I will also take requests — let me know what training programs you would like to see added and I will reach out and try to get it done.
As is the case with these things, getting it launched is the tough part. Ideally, it will provide a benefit for all, and that will help keep it up to date and useful.
More From the Editor: This One’s for the Readers
Speaking of useful: Are you a successful integrator who interacts with Residential Systems and has opinions to share? Maybe you would like to do that as part of the Integrator Advisory Board? Drop me a line at [email protected] and I can share more details. (That is also the place to provide feedback for the new Training Calendar.)
The more involved you can get, the better Residential Systems will be for it.
