Randy Lemke: One Year Later

Exactly a year ago, Randy Lemke (PhD) was appointed by the ICIA Board of Governors to lead the Association on an Interim basis after the resignation of Walt Blackwell. He has since been given the job "officially" by the Board and assumed the title Executive Director of ICIA.

ICIA, the association for the ProAV market and the managers of the INFOCOMM Shows, the Shoot-Out, the Display Systems Exploration (formerly Projection Encounter), the IPD (Institute for Professional Development) and all the educational courses at INFOCOMM, has a mission that includes helping to grow the ProAV and presentation marketplace in awareness and size. That's a lofty goal, but one that must be managed by someone, as the industry association is better positioned than anyone to do it.

So, who's running the educational department since Randy became ED of the association? Two great people: Terry Friesenborg and Melissa Taggart. Terry is a 20+-year industry veteran who taught for over 25 years as a volunteer instructor for ICIA while he was General Manager at AVS (Audio Visual Systems in Dayton, Ohio - now an MCSi company). Terry is now the VP of Education.

Melissa came to ICIA from Mass Mutual where she was a curriculum developer and taught for years. Melissa has participated in curriculum development for a number of ICIA courses and the ICIA Academy and now serves as the Director or Education and Professional Development for ICIA. In addition, there's Lou Nanni, former Coast Guard instructor at the Corpsmen School and Yvette Dalka and Amanda Collett. A training and education team that is unparalleled in the ProAV market.

But, that's not my purpose in writing this column. Everyone knows the successes that ICIA has enjoyed in the growth of the shows, the Shoot-Out and the other events that ICIA hosts, but not everyone understands the true, eventual impact that Randy will have on the industry.

The ICIA Board could not have picked a better leader for the future.

Why?

Well, I believe that ICIA's goals and mission will be realized through education. Education is the KEY to our future.

Let me explain. For the past three years, our industry has been growing at an amazing pace - even faster than the traditional high-tech market spaces of computers and consumer electronics. In fact, one complaint from the market -- from you, the readers -- has been that in growing so fast, you cannot find good people, without stealing them away from a competitor. That worked for a short time, but the long-term solution is to grow organically - from within. Meaning, hire people, train them and mold them into your corporate culture. Education is the key to that happening as the training part is ultimately what will drive their development and understanding of our market.

ICIA has developed the industry's most complete educational programs. There's a new 'New Hire' course in development at ICIA right now; and there's the new Networking for AV course, the basic CTS (Certified Technology Specialist) courses, the advanced CTS courses in Design, Installation, Rental and Sales and, finally, the INFOCOMM courses already available through ICIA.

All these courses owe their beginnings in some fashion to Randy Lemke.

I know, as I have served on the PETC (ICIA's Professional Education and Training Committee) since 1992 and have chaired the committee since 1999. ICIA hired Randy in 1996 to be the staff liaison to the PETC and run the educational department of ICIA. Randy came to ICIA from the educational world (he was a professor in college) and was the first person with a PhD to run the Educational department at ICIA.

Why does this matter?

We now have an educational visionary running ICIA. That's significant. That means that, above all else, education, training and certification are near and dear to his heart, and they will always play a major role in ICIA's mission.

With that as a major part of the mission, our market will grow. Our market will expand and ICIA will help provide the tools, mainly educational tools, to its members so that they can educate and raise the bar of quality within their own companies. And, we will always have the premiere educational program of any trade show in the ProAV market.

So, happy anniversary to Randy Lemke, and congratulations to the ICIA Board of Governors for unanimously making the best decision they could have possibly made in picking Randy to provide the leadership to carry out the vision and mission of the association and its members.

(Reprinted from Sound & Communications Magazine: http://soundandcommunications.com)

Gary Kayye is Principal of Kayye Consulting a firm that specializes in providing marketing consulting, telephony integration and training development to the professional audiovisual industry. He spent 12 years at Extron and AMX as VP of Sales and Marketing before founding his own firm. He can be reached at www.kayye.com or via e-mail at gkayye@kayye.com.