Day 2 — what can I say about Day 2?

Well, first of all, my Day 2 was positively packed. Interviews, tours and more is what I call it. Not only was I running around the show floor from interview to interview (and doing my very best to be on time), I also got to co-host the second-ever Technology in Practice tour with Tim Albright. This tour is all about end users — and end users are the reason we partnered our publications. We want to bring more end users to our industry and the tour is only one part of that. We took applications and got to pick 12 booths/products that we showed to our tour group. It went so well — and it was really cool to get to highlight some of the major ProAV players — Sony, Crestron and Shure — but also got to highlight some smaller companies that some of the attendees had never seen before! Getting to make those connections was incredibly rewarding. We will actually upload that tour online for anyone who wants to check it out from home!

Tech-wise, I saw more AI this day. Of course, some of that was actually machine learning — which is a little more simplistic. Teaching the tech a “rule” and making it follow it. In my opinion, true AI is when we let go and start allowing it to make its own decisions based on previous information we’ve given it. I got into an interesting conversation with someone who basically created an AI agent on steroids, integrating it with so much of his own knowledge that’s it’s essentially what he calls a “soul stone.” I probably won’t be uploading a 3D scan of my brain to a ChatGPT-based model to create one of myself, but I respect it. In fact, I see ChatGPT and other AI models advancing so rapidly that it’s almost horrifying. If we look at past technology trends, when we advance too quickly we get sloppy with things like longevity and details so I do hope the recent major milestones slow down a little.

Other than that, I was really pleased this day to hear from a few manufacturers about opening up their standards. (Finally!!) But don’t get it twisted. I don’t think the walled gardens are coming down any time soon. But if we’re keeping with that metaphor, maybe we’ll remove a few bricks. I think that’s one of the most important things I’ve noticed this year. I should thank OpenAV Cloud and the work this initiative is bringing to the AV industry. Sony, Shure and Panasonic are only a few of the manufacturers backing it. I’m really excited, after speaking to other manufacturers today, to see what other companies will be soon following them.

Also, today was the AVIXA Women’s Breakfast! Although I didn’t get to stay for the full thing, I did get a chance to see some of the really incredible women in this industry be honored and recognized by everyone in the room. And during rAVe [TV] I talked to Althea Ricketts, president of WAVIT, about the work of bringing more women into the industry. (I also talked to other awesome people in the industry, so check it out below.)

Finally, I got to go to a few really cool industry events today. From XUSC’s Pixels in Paradise to CTI’s Tech on Tap to Shure’s 100 Year celebration (featuring Brad Paisley????) the end of my day today allowed me to sit back, relax and catch up with my industry peers. Here’s how close I got to Brad Paisley if you care to see. (This is mostly included for my dad, Brad’s biggest fan.)

There was more I saw from today, but that’s probably enough for now. Talk soon!