On Tuesday, we brought you live coverage on day one of Almo Professional A/V’s spring 2021 E4v. Wednesday, we were back for what Almo promised would be a very exciting day two.
Spring 2021 E4v Lineup (March 10):
- The Reimagined Workplace: The Role of Existing and Emerging Technology (Pete “TEC MAN” Coman, PTS — People | Technology | Space – New York)
- The Power of Place — The New Next Workplace (Kay Sargent, HOK)
- NSCA Roundtable — Corporate AV (Tom LeBlanc, National Systems Contractors Association; Joseph Cornwall, Legrand | AV; Dan Abrams, VP and sales professional for streaming media, Crestron, managed services, and video and audio engineering; Eric Olson, Almo)
Our roundup of the emerging technologies and corporate AV part of the show — part two of three in an E4v recap series — is below. Enjoy the recap!
The Reimagined Workplace: The Role of Existing and Emerging Technology
Chances are, if you’ve been in our industry a while, you’ve heard of Pete “TEC MAN” Coman. Pete is the Chief Technology Officer at PTS in New York — but he’s known for his trade show coverage. I first met him at ISE 2020, and we had a 20-minute long argument on the correct pronunciation of “mayonnaise.” Today, there was no mayonnaise in sight. Only technology.
Pete began his keynote with the simple statement that the workplace is changing. Heck yeah it is! How does technology fit in with this new idea of the workplace, and what can we expect the new innovations to be?
Pete’s key takeaways:
- The workplace can be thought about as a three-legged stool; each leg represents people, tech and space.
- As the workplace will change around us, so is the rest of the world. People are chomping at the bit to get back out there and it’s not just because they want food or a new shirt. People go out for the experience. User experience is something tech will have to account for more than ever before.
- Most frictionless experiences are touchless experiences right now — voice will play a pivotal role in workplaces moving forward.
- Do away with the PC and reduce some of the hardware in a workspace moving forward — move to cloud computing instead.
Technology Pete says will soon take the workplace by storm:
- Transparent OLED displays.
- Roll-up OLED displays.
- Flexible/adaptable spaces within a workplace.
- Augmented reality.
- Fewer meeting rooms.
- Personalization of the workplace.
- Circadian rhythm lighting.
The Power of Place – The New Next Workplace
Next up was Kay Sargent’s session. Kay, senior principal – director of workplace, HOK, spoke to us about how COVID-19 will not only influence the way we work. It will change how we interact with people and physical objects. What does this mean? How will we manage to stay connected with others while not getting burned out?
As it turns out, there are five major things that businesses are looking for as they adapt to the aftermath of COVID-19:
#AlmoE4v: These are the five big things businesses are looking at as they adapt to the impacts of #COVID19 on the workplace ⤵️
1- Safety
2- Remote work
3- Purpose of place
4- Business resiliency
5- Environement @AlmoProAV #AVtweeps pic.twitter.com/aQ0cBmwlBl— rAVe [PUBS] (@rAVePubs) March 10, 2021
A few other key takeaways from Kay’s presentation:
- Health and wellbeing is about more than just physical health.
- Workers who are now working from home should build a commute into their day by walking in the mornings and afternoons.
- Stress and burnout were already at an all-time high before COVID-19 hit.
- Remote work is about more than just productivity.
- Your company should be thinking holistically and building the social capital that will propel you forward.
- People miss being in the office because workplaces foster a culture and brand — you can’t necessarily get that at home.
- When we come back to the office — consider investing time into putting employees in an outdoor space. Will employees focus more? Will this be better for the environment long-term?
NSCA Roundtable – Corporate AV
Before wrapping up the day, we were excited about a roundtable with the National Systems Contractors Association (NSCA), hosted by its very own Tom LeBlanc, and included panelists Joseph Cornwall, Dan Abrams and Eric Olson. The topic was AV technology for business.
#AlmoE4v @NSCA_systems Roundtable is now on! Here's a preview of the discussion happening over on https://t.co/yTZ4RsioNl ⤵️⤵️
Come join us! #AVtweeps @LegrandAV pic.twitter.com/clquNPYOpT
— rAVe [PUBS] (@rAVePubs) March 10, 2021
We also made sure to catch the Solution Centers of E4v, which included what the show called expert insights (offering one AVIXA CTS RU per four videos watched), classes and featured products. Wednesday’s two featured Solution Centers were emerging technologies and corporate AV, including sessions like:
- Beam Me Up! Introducing Holographic Telepresence (Sixteen:Nine’s Dave Haynes and B.J. Hjelholt of ARHT Media Inc.)
- Top Trending Picks — Corporate AV (Almo Pro A/V’s Melody Craigmyle)
- AV Angles (Almo Pro A/V’s Tom Kehr)
If you missed the spring E4v live, check out the E4 Flex Experience — the archived content will be available for watching (and rewatching) until April 16. Yes, there are still 14 CTS RUs still up for grabs. Sign up here: https://e4evolution.com/.