In it’s seventh year, the Technology & Business Summit returned to Southern California on May 12 in Los Angeles and May 14 in Orange County, attracting more than 525 people, including 420 dealers, with the remainder consisting of exhibitors, reps, and “industry associates.”
The Technology & Business Summit returned to Southern California on May 12 in Los Angeles and May 14 in Orange County, attracting more than 525 people.
The Summit is an event organized by a collaborative effort of multiple independent manufacturer rep firms that represent manufacturers in Southern California. The rep firms that host the event are AV Partners, ByDesign Vision & Sound, Calwest Marketing, I Rep Green, JBA Marketing, Morris Tait Associates, Paul Collins Group, ProWest Sales, and Studio Decor.
More than 100 exhibiting companies were represented by the various rep firms that participated with tabletop displays and factory staff. The intimate venue and focused displays encouraged an interactive environment where dealers get to talk with the exhibitors as opposed to doing a “fly-by.” Breakfast, lunch and snacks were served so participants could spend the entire day.
As always, education was a huge feature and draw of the event. Seminars this year included, Innovative Business Process, Practical – Robust Networking (IP), HDMI Troubleshooting, and Understanding Ultra HD/4K Technology The Summit once again hosted CEDIA as its education partner. The Association contributed presenters and CEU credits for some of the seminars.
In addition, the Summit added a live demo component that had industry wide appeal. Craig Eggers from Dolby Laboratories conducted a Dolby Atmos seminar in the morning and then did demos every half hour for the entire day. The demos were at capacity almost the entire day.
“Frankly, I was not really sure what to expect when I agreed to this, but it exceeded my expectations,” Eggers said. “The dealers in this channel are who we want and need to expose what Atmos can do for the end user, when presented and demonstrated properly.”
Industry icon Frank White helped to lead the charge to organize and manage the event this year.The Summit plans to continue to add this type of live demo component going forward.
Industry icon Frank White, who has participated in the Summit as a presenter for years, helped to lead the charge to organize and manage the event this year as part of Integrator Network, the company that runs the Summit.
“There is an amazing amount of work to put together a professional and worthwhile event such as this,” White said. “We have very high standards regarding the level of service and value that we provide to everyone that participates. We are continually finding ways to make it better.”
Several Tech Summit events are already planned for 2016, with a few more in the works:
March/April Texas (two-day event Dallas and Houston)
April 26 Michigan May 10 Arizona May 13 Colorado
May 17 & 19 So Cal (LA and Orange County)
For more information, visit www.techsummitevents.com.
