InfoComm Cancels First Stop in End-User Focused InfoComm Connections Series

The October 22 Philadelphia event, the first of InfoComm’s new tech manager and CIO targeted Connections series has been canceled, but the March 4-5 San Jose stop is still planned.

Tom LeBlanc

InfoComm International has decided to shelf the first of its InfoComm Connections series of two-day trade shows aimed at technology managers, in-house technical staff, institutional buyers and end-users.

The first planned stop in the series, Philadelphia on October 22, had already been edited down to a one-day event before the decision to cancel it. However, InfoComm says the second planned event, March 4-5, 2015 in San Jose, Calif., is still on and structured for two days.

InfoComm has aimed to design end-user focused events that are geographically located so tech managers can minimize travel and maximize the educational value of attending. The organization was “questioning the value proposition of the one-day event,” according to VP of communications Betsy Jaffe. The slate of training sessions hadn’t come together as quickly InfoComm had hoped and it decided to wait and launch InfoComm Connections in San Jose in March.

Sponsors have already been informed of the schedule change, according to Jaffe.

Following is a statement from InfoComm:

InfoComm has decided to cancel the InfoComm Connections event in Philadelphia, scheduled for October 22. The event was originally conceptualized as a two-day “one-stop shop” offering exhibits, education and manufacturers’ training for technology managers. 

Unfortunately, space constraints required us to consolidate the event to one day and limit the programming accordingly.  As we re-evaluated the show and received feedback from the industry, we concluded that a successful event requires more than a single day of programming in order for attendees and exhibitors to receive the return on investment that everyone expects when participating in an InfoComm-sponsored show.

We view cancelling Philadelphia Connections to be the best alternative we have, and plan to refocus our efforts on San Jose In March 2015, where we have all of the elements needed to put on a successful event.

InfoComm got its feet wet with two end-user focused events during InfoComm 2014 – Solutions Summit Digital Signage and Solutions Summit UCC (unified communication and collaboration)—and it highlighted training sessions beneficial for higher education market tech managers.

Related: CorporateTD’s coverage of Solutions Summit UCC

Related: HigherEdTD’s coverage of InfoComm 2014 tech manager in higher ed training

“Getting in front of more end-customers is a major strategic goal of many of our technology manufacturing members,” InfoComm executive director David Labuskes told CI at a recent InfoComm Roundtable event in Boston.

Watch InfoComm’s David Labuskes discuss why end users are increasingly important to Infocomm and its members:

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