As the world continues to change so do the needs of custom installers, and CEDIA is planning complementary changes of its own.

Over the past 18 months, a taskforce made up of CEDIA staff and volunteers from each region has been gathering to consider what 2015 looks like for the organisation.

The answer reportedly came quite quickly: the three regions wanted to be more closely aligned and act as one association.

However, lots of work must be done if global alignment of the CEDIA officers is to succeed.

Utz Baldwin is chief executive of CEDIA Americas. He says the plan, still in its infancy, would bring together branches in the US, the United Kingdom and Australia to achieve a common goal – the global promotion and support of the electronic systems industry.

“The original idea behind CEDIA going international was to start delivering products and representing integrators around the world,” Utz says.

This led to the development of licence agreements allowing each region to create its own legal entity and manage its own resources, within certain guidelines.

“The licence agreements were designed to let us present ourselves as one global association. At the time we were a young association with finite resources in the US, and we couldn’t be everywhere all the time.

“So at that point in time it was the right thing to do, and it has proved to be successful, as Region 1 and Asia Pacific have flourished and gained real traction in their markets.

“We’ve empowered local members to work and think for themselves and create the products and services they needed. But now there’s intellectual property and content and a brains trust in each region that could help the industry as a whole.

“The regions co-operate occasionally, and share ideas and resources. But it’s time we move to a higher level of collaboration and start to align ourselves from an operational standpoint, such as having similar accounting practices so we can share financial data and can demonstrate global strength.

“If we have the same requirements, policies and goals, then a CEDIA member in Sydney is also a CEDIA member in Dubai, South Africa or Sao Paolo.”

Asia Pacific executive director Stephen Miller says the global alignment of CEDIA is necessary for future growth of the organisation in this region.

“I believe the only way forward is global alignment. It’s definitely a major benefit for our members,” he says.

“With three separate entities and limited resources, the ability to grow is challenging. By aligning with the other two regions, it allows us to pool resources and intellectual property to make all three regions stronger. For that reason, global alignment is very significant to growth in our region.”

Region 1 executive director Wendy Griffiths, who is responsible for members in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Pakistan and Russia, says the plan is necessary to give the CEDIA organisation (and brand) strength and credibility in the market.

“We are an international trade association, but because we don’t act like one we lose the integrity and meaning of the word ‘international’. And being an international trade association counts a lot when we deal with our design and architecture partners.

“We are all heading in the same direction and all doing the same things, but our timing isn’t the same. So it makes sense to think about things at an international level and develop products and services for an international audience with input from all of our offices.

“Our members will understand why we are looking at this and will be well and truly behind it, because most don’t see a division between the three offices anyway – especially with the very visible products we offer, like education.

“In fact, education is probably the one area where the international approach started to happen almost by default.”

The taskforce responsible for putting the plan together has developed a list of 189 items that need to be reviewed. A determination will be made about whether they can be aligned easily, with some effort or not at all.

“There are some things, like financial reporting, that are very easy to align,” Utz says.

“Legislative work, on the other hand, will never align because the laws and the needs of an American member compared with an Australian member are completely different.

“The premise is to think globally and act locally. We want CEDIA’s product, no matter what it is, to be the same everywhere.”

Utz describes his vision of CEDIA 2015 as similar to McDonald’s restaurants – the brand and look are the same around the world but some of the offerings differ slightly.

“There has been a lot of input from all three offices during the planning stages,” Wendy says.

“This isn’t something that has been instigated by one office. We’re all talking and working out how we can do this, and what we need to achieve it.”

Utz adds it’s not just the electronic systems contractor that is set to benefit from global alignment, rather it is all CEDIA members – manufacturers, distributors, professional services and resellers.

Emerging markets

One of the primary motives behind the plan is the opportunity presented by emerging markets, such as China.

“It is no secret that the US is the largest CEDIA entity, and we have resources that other regions don’t,” Utz says.

“When we look at emerging markets like China, we know that the Asia Pacific office doesn’t have the resources to properly handle the expected growth in that region. So we need to partner more on building that market.”

China will remain part of Asia Pacific until it reaches ‘critical mass’. At that point it will become independent.

Wendy says the idea is to eventually set up an ‘emerging market fund’ supported by all the offices.

“We are also working on strategies for how we are represented in emerging markets.”

In Region 1 at the moment, countries with one to 10 members get basic member benefits; those with 10 to 25 members get increased benefits and all documentation is available in the local language; those with 25 to 40 members receive everything on offer in the UK translated into the local language; and countries with more than 40 members have at least a part-time member of staff based locally.

“This has worked very well for us up to this point,” Wendy says.

“We doubled our membership growth this year, and 60% of that has been from outside the UK.”

The next 12 months

A focus on emerging markets, although important, will not detract from local initiatives, Utz says.

“Associations need to change because the world around us is changing. The needs of an association’s members are constantly shifting, and we have to stop thinking in terms of a ‘bricks and mortar’ environment that people come to.

“We must become more ubiquitous. We need to be like the internet or smart grid – to be there when our members want us, where they want us and how they want us.

“In the past, because of limited resources, we haven’t reinvented. That’s why I think this is the most pioneering board of directors in CEDIA history, because they have made strong commitments to the CEDIA brand and this industry.”

CEDIA is also on a mission to create a stronger presence among consumers and end users.

“This is very difficult because we don’t have deep pockets to do a big marketing campaign,” Utz says.

“There are other campaigns that haven’t been successful, so we need to find the right approach. At the moment, reaching out to architects and designers is crucial to building awareness of our brand.”

Over the coming 12 months the association will be focusing on four main areas.

“First, we need to promote commerce and increase the use of our online finder service.

“Second is influencing the market, by which I mean educating and certifying more professionals.

“We also want architects to choose a CEDIA member over others, and we want consumers to click through the finder service. In fact, we want to drive behaviour through all our stakeholders.
“Third is building a skilled workforce. We need to recruit people into the industry, so we have a plan to bring them in through new channels. We will work closely with distributors on training.

“We have to simplify our core offerings and repackage our fundamental education, and we need to make sure all our education is available all the time.

“Last is advocacy. We need to market to architects, building designers and end users.”

So where does that leave things?

It is just three years until 2015, and much work and many more discussions are required to ensure that any plan to restructure by that date is mutually beneficial to all members, no matter what country they are from.

All three regions seem to be in sync, philosophically, to start moving towards global alignment. But it is important to acknowledge it won’t be a magical event that occurs overnight; it will be a slow rollout and an evolving transformation.

One thing is sure, though – any additional resources coming to the Asia Pacific region will be welcomed with open arms.