AV Week 2009 Recap
October 18-25, 2009 marked the fourth annual AV Week celebration around the audiovisual world. InfoComm International along with many of its members helped promote the AV industry by holding fundraisers, facility tours, educational workshops, high school and college career fairs and many other programs.
Social media gave members a new way to share news of their successful events and show how wide the outreach spread during AV Week. Participants tweeted about their events by including the #AVWeek hashtag, so events could be followed around the world. Members also uploaded photos to Facebook, the 2009 AV Week Flickr group and posted videos to YouTube.If you still haven’t jumped on board – consider getting involved next year, AV Week will be celebrated October 17-23, 2010.
InfoComm Celebrates at Home
For the first time during an AV Week, InfoComm International hosted a series of events to bring attention to the audiovisual industry. In Washington, DC, InfoComm organized a half-day educational panel discussion for meeting planners, association executives, public relations and information technology professionals on the Power of AV with the help of Bosch, Swank Audio Visuals and Sonic Foundry.
InfoComm also hosted an open house at its corporate headquarters in Fairfax for members, local companies and InfoComm staff. Enjoying the inaugural InfoBake, with 27 highly caloric dessert entries and six distinguished judges, to Wii games, Rock Band and AV Power Trivia, guests spent an afternoon with AV.
Student Outreach
InfoComm also hosted a group of 30 high school television production students from the West Potomac Academy in Alexandria, VA, who learned about the industry from AV professionals from PSAV, Swank Audio Visuals and George Mason University.
Audio Visual Services (AVS) in Virginia spoke to a group of nearly 50 students at ITT Technical Institute in Chantilly, VA. They also announced a Job Shadowing program, which will allow graduating ITT students to explore AV careers by shadowing an AVS employee and learning the type of work AVS does daily.
In Texas, AV pros from AMX and Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams (WJHW) gave a presentation on Careers in the AV Industry to the College Education and Gateway to Technology classes at Indian Springs Middle School in Keller, TX. Next, they spoke to students in the Media Technology class at the new Northwest ISD Academy of Media Arts and Technology in Justin, TX where WJHW designed the AV and Studio Systems and AMX provided control systems.
Biamp Systems gave a tour of their facility for engineering students from the University of Portland in Oregon.
Xerox Audio Visual Solutions hosted an AV Palooza with their partners SMART and Epson. The free event was held for the Broward County Public Schools in Florida.
Proclamations
In Salt Lake City, Listen Technologies worked with local and state government officials to get an AV Week declaration and proclamation by the governor of Utah and the mayor of Salt Lake County officially declaring October 18-25 AV Week for the state and county.
Kramer Electronics secured an AV Week proclamation from Wall Township in New Jersey.
Client Events
Listen also celebrated AV Week with a lunch and learn event for their employees, a webinar on the value of InfoComm for Listen’s independent reps, and a tour of BYU Museum of Art.
rpVisuals had another successful Nitwit training session in California with more than 50 attendees. The Nitwit Reality showcase featured 3D and immersive environments.
Crestron celebrated AV Week with a grand opening of its Crestron Experience Center in New Jersey.
Advanced Video Systems in Maryland exhibited at a Fall Technology Expo for technology managers and government contractors.
In California, Spinitar hosted a tour of Chapman University where they installed AV in the Residential Complex. They encouraged lamp recycling, offering free shipping for new lamp orders when customers turned in old lamps. They also recognized staff with an appreciation lunch and prizes for a week-long AV industry quiz contest.
