We spend an awful lot of time writing about the newest product releases from AV manufacturers of all sizes and we love to share case studies that tell you how some of the coolest AV installations became realities. [related]
We also write a bunch of profiles of AV integration companies of all sizes that share a few of the secrets of their success and we do our best to cover as much of the breaking news and as many of the industry trends as we can.
I think we do a great job at all of those things and I hope you agree and will continue to show your support by reading those pieces as much as—if not more than—you have in the past.
But there’s probably been nothing that’s brought me more satisfaction in more than nine years of writing about the AV integration industry than the stories of AV philanthropy that we call Connected to the Community.
What was supposed to be a one-time roundup of the charity work among AV integrators and manufacturers that would serve as a nice holiday feature for us has turned into 26 consecutive Mondays (yes, that’s six months or half of a calendar year) of Connected to the Community stories.
Connected to the Community Will Continue
We wrapped up the weekly Connected to the Community series with one of my favorite additions to the group, a closer look at the Premier Mounts recovery program that helps people with trouble pasts get a second chance at a successful and enriching life.
That doesn’t mean we’re walking away from Connected to the Community completely, though, just that it won’t be a regular weekly feature on CI anymore. We still have a few more stories to share with you about AV companies and their philanthropy and I hope you’ll share yours if I haven’t covered it yet.
I know 26 weeks of anything seems like a lot, but there are certainly plenty of other stories out there that we haven’t told yet because we don’t know about them. I know from a lot of the Connected to the Community interviews that some companies shy away because they fear it’ll look like they’re involved in these activities for marketing purposes, but I found out about almost all of them on my own.
The AV integrators and manufactured we’ve profiled in the past six months through the Connected to the Community series probably haven’t raised enough money for charity to be able to eat lunch with the Kardashians or write a joke for Saturday Night Live, but they’re making real differences in people’s lives.
And the people for whom they make a difference are people who live in the communities where they work, so they can see how the money they raise–no matter how meager they may believe it is–can transform the futures of the people they’re helping.
I’m proud to have been able to share 26 of what’s surely hundreds or thousands of the stories and I’m looking forward to hearing about a few more of them so I can tell our readers all about them—and perhaps even inspire them to start a philanthropic effort themselves.
