Returning from yet another successful InfoComm show (has there ever been a bad one?), I find myself reflecting on the unique relationship I’ve had with Randy over the past 12 years and his impact on our industry. In 1999, as I was trying to lead my fledgling three-year old, three-person firm, I stumbled onto the InfoComm Board of Directors when I was elected by a one-vote margin to beICAT chair. So naïve was I that I had to sheepishly ask if we got paid for this. (Oh God, I was so young.) At about the same time, Randy Lemke, then InfoComm’s vice president of education, stumbled into the role of executive director when Walt Blackwell, the previous executive director, resigned to move on to other ventures. Since then, Randy and I have been intertwined across many initiatives, and I’ve had a front-row seat to his impact on the industry.
Before I go on, let me state that Randy would be the first to say that the real credit goes his excellent staff and the many dedicated (aka insane) volunteers who have given their time to this member-led association. While there is certainly truth to that sentiment, the significance of Randy’s visionary leadership in establishing the fertile playground we now enjoy cannot be overstated. Association revenues have quadrupled under Randy’s tenure, which has afforded us the ability to pursue initiatives unimaginable to all who served on the InfoComm Board prior to the Lemke era.
Under Randy’s leadership we changed our name from ICIA to InfoComm, setting us up nicely for an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) future. We got out of a confining show in Germany and partnered with then-rivals CEDIA and NSCA to create theISE Europe show, which is now larger than the North American InfoComm show. In fact, this year InfoComm will run 10 shows on five continents (can Antarctica be far behind?) to broaden our industry’s global reach like never before.
Our education system, nurtured under Randy’s tenure as education VP, is second to none among industry associations and has resulted in our ANSI-accredited CTS program. Speaking of ANSI, Randy and the InfoComm Board took the bold step in 2006 to establishInfoComm as an ANSI standards development organization. I was plucked from “retirement” in 2007 to chair the ANSI steering committee and help create this program out of whole cloth alongside Randy and our happy ANSI warrior, Joe Bocchiaro. Today, Joe and current steering committee chair, Rich Derbyshire, lead a group of hundreds of volunteers, unleashed to create standards that raise the bar for our industry. This group’s latest standard, approved by the InfoComm Board earlier this month, is an energy management standard for AV systems that establishes the firmament of our role in smart, sustainable buildings.
In 2009, Randy and the InfoComm Board approved the formation of a task force to develop the STEP rating system. Today, STEP is supported by five major technology trade associations and is gaining wider recognition and acceptance, as evidenced by our presentation to the U.S. House of Representatives Caucus on High-Performance Buildings last month. And the hits just keep on coming. We now have a recently approved Smart Building Imperative (SBI) task force and a continuing investment in preparing InfoComm members for success with Building Information Modeling (BIM).
The thing most people probably don’t know about Randy is how smart and quick he is. You don’t have to explain things twice to Randy. He gets it, and then he runs with it. An executive director of a non-profit association could be just a caretaker who keeps the lights on, but Randy has been much more than that. He has set us on a course for a healthy future where AV technologies have a seat at many grownup tables.
Currently, InfoComm has appointed a search committee to find Randy’s replacement. I have high confidence in this group’s ability to target the right qualifications of a candidate to replace Randy. I just hope there’s someone out there with the talent, vision, tenacity and integrity to fill Randy’s very large shoes.
Scott Walker, CTS-D, LEED® AP, is president and CEO of Waveguide Consulting, a leading AV, IT and acoustical consulting firm. He is also a past president of InfoComm International. Scott is recognized as being one of the primary forces behind the founding of the Sustainable Technology Environments Program (STEP) rating system and currently is a member of the STEP Foundation board, which is responsible for managing the STEP program. Scott can be reached at swalker@waveguide.com