Bridging Generational Gaps at CI Summit 2014

AV Nation’s “live from CI Summit” podcast delves into 4K, net neutrality, generational leadership and other conference topics.

Tom LeBlanc

Anybody who read CI’s40 Industry Influencers Under 40” article on the plane while traveling to Orlando, Fla., for 2014 CI Summit would have felt like they were at a celebrity gala during the Nov. 12-14 conference.

Many of the young AV integration industry professionals highlighted in the coverage were represented at the third annual CI Summit with several of them attending for the first time. The youth infusion seemed to spark dialog between baby boomers and millennials learning from one another on topics ranging from project management to net neutrality.

It was fun to watch.

First-time attendee Chris Neto, an audiovisual consultant with AV Helpdesk, embraced his role as part of the “group of people stuck in the middle” poised to eventually “lead the millennials,” he said during an AV Nation podcast live from CI Summit. “We need to help bridge the gaps and I think X-ers are in a position to do that.”

Meet CI’s 40 Influencers Under 40

Panel discussion participants like Josh Srago, manager of audio visual engineering at ICS Integration, challenged the group to think differently. During the AV Nation podcast he reflected on his proclamation to the CI Summit audience that “they are not going to make money on 4K in certain industries,” which was followed by “an audible gasp.”

Next came productive dialog. Srago explained that although there isn’t going to be a lot of money in the hardware integrators can thrive on the infrastructure aspect of 4K. “The current infrastructure that we have will not support the kind of bandwidth required for these types of things, so that’s where we have this advantage. That’s where there is a lot of money to be made.”

Srago, Neto, Philip Cordell of M3 Technology Group, Matt Scott of Omega Audio Video, Dawn Meade of Net-AV, Harry Meade of CCS Presentation Systems Mid Atlantic and Steve Greenblatt of Control Concepts and myself joined AV Nation’s Tim Albright for some analysis — good and bad — of CI Summit 2014.

Listen to “Live from 2014 CI Summit” AV Nation Podcast

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