San Antonio’s history might tell us to “Remember the Alamo,” but a group of highly successful integrators perhaps instead will “remember the Total Tech Summit,” as the 2024 edition took place at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Resort & Spa in November.
As usual, the Total Tech Summit, comprising split tracks for residential CE pros and commercial integrators, attracted some of the brightest minds and vaunted vendors.
This year’s keynote to the entire audience, sponsored by D-Tools, provided a bit of a reprieve from the usual economic forecast or call to better digital marketing messages.
Rather, local Radio Hall of Fame personality and motivational speaker Sonny Melendrez delivered a talk centered on “Intentional Enthusiasm,” something that certainly resonated with a crowd of passionate smart home and pro AV dealers.
He recounted several entertaining and compelling tales of how this commitment to intentional enthusiasm throughout his life helped him achieve a decorated career highlighted by a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction for being among the Top 100 Radio Personalities of All-Time.
Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.
Melendrez augmented the message with anecdotes about others he’s encountered who have conquered similar goals or fell into serendipitous situations.
Sonny Melendrez, a local and national Hall of Fame radio personality, shared benefits of “Intentional Enthusiasm” in his keynote presentation.
Day 2 began with breakfast panel sessions among the individual CE & CI tracks. On the CE Pro side, the perennial “Fresh Horses, Emerging Technologies & Services to Ride to Success,” kicked things off.
This year’s wide-ranging business boosts came from panelists Adam Zell, president, Boston Automations, who shared how his company leverages supplier technology design services; Michelle Ferlauto, COO, SoundVision, who detailed what went into the company’s launching of a separately branded security division; and Eyal Akler, founder & CEO, ATTYWON, whose team has benefitted from selling and installing LiquidView Virtual Windows in classrooms and residential rooms without views.
For this year’s Day 2 networking luncheon, each track worked on roundtable-format responses to questions that ran the gamut between business operations, recruiting and retaining employees, inflationary pricing, labor rates, and other important topics.
Day 3 on the CE side featured a breakfast discussion, “Growth by Franchise & Acquisition: Scaling Your Future,” as mergers & acquisition activity has heated up in the CEDIA channel of late.
Gavin Lantzy, president, SaaviHome – whose own franchise model was scooped up a couple of months ago by national franchisee Daisy – and Tom Redhead, co-founder, SuRe InnoVations, whose Saskatchewan-based company has been in the process of adding an Edmonton, Alberta, location.
“The reason I take time out of my schedule nearly every year to attend,” says Beverly Hills Smart Home’s Jay Dobensky, who was at his 20th CE Pro Summit, “is because I don’t feel there is any other event in the industry that can give me such a personalized, one-on-one opportunity to speak to your peers.
“And the format, the environment keeps that relatively small form factor so there’s no overwhelming massive event where you’re suffering from sensory overload. This is really a tight-knit group who understands the business of the industry extremely well. You get to talk about things that are working, that might not be working from one year to the next.”
Total Tech Summit Attendees were given a guitar kit with instructions to do their charitable activity.
For both tracks, the time in between breakfasts and lunches was reserved for one-on-one and group “boardroom” meetings with Total Tech Summit’s sponsor vendors.
“We get to meet and engage with the vendors directly in a very tight format where we get to express our experiences to them privately, and if necessary, talk to them at the outside events that we have every night,” Dobensky notes.
The commercial integrator attendees commenced their agenda with a Day 2 breakfast panel, “Entrepreneurial Frameworks for Running Your Business,” moderated by Charmaine Torruella, Q-SYS’ enterprise accounts manager, Business Development.
It featured insights from Shawn Hansson, CEO and founder, Logic Integration; Jarrod Hillman, president, Hillman Audio Video; Alex Fortin, president, NDS Integration; and Brittany DiCesare, CTS, director of Sales & Operations, Control Concepts, Inc.
On Day 3, the commercial track finished up with a breakfast session, “AI and AV: What the Future Holds,” led by Amala Reddie, associate editor, Commercial Integrator. This buzzworthy panel included Bill Fons, regional vice president/AI Influencer, CTI; Blaine Brown, VP of Innovation, Workplace, Diversified; and Jerry Blayne, product engineer, Services, AVI-SPL.
“This year’s Total Tech Summit brought a burst of creative and entrepreneurial energy to both San Antonio and the integration community broadly,” says Dan Ferrisi, group editor, commercial and security, Emerald, who put together the CI track content.
“When about 150 top-tier integrators come together with insightful keynote speakers and a raft of key vendor partners, the mind-sharing and partnership-building is second to none. It’s the reason why many TTS guests seek to return year after year, and it’s why the list of applicants seeking to attend grows every year. Plain and simple, TTS is where thought-leader integrators need to be.”
Evening activities at Total Tech Summit 2024 were highlighted by the 4th Annual Cornhole Cup and a charity project, “Band Together Under the Stars,” during which attendees and suppliers collaborated on building guitars for the HeartStrings Foundation.
“I can’t tell you the experience that I continue to have year over year, and it brings me back. The peer-to-peer sessions — the involvement that I have with my peers in the industry where I’m able to drop the guard and actually have tangible conversations that benefit me and my employees and the growth of my company,” comments Darrance Tezino, Director of Technology Services, CenterPoint Energy.
“This is why I continue to come back.”
Next year’s Total Tech Summit will be staged Nov. 10-12 at the Renaissance Orlando at Seaworld. Learn more at TotalTechSummit.com.
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