Commercial Integrator February 2023 - 14

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PERFECTING YOUR CRAFT
Don't Talk About It; Be About It
How Platform Five and NOW community will help the AV industry -
and the local community - for years to come. By Alesia Hendley
HAPPY NEW YEAR, #avtweeps! Yeah,
I know, I'm a month late. But, trust me,
2023 is kicking off with a big bang,
setting a solid foundation for greater opportunity
and inspiring fresh new blood
to be part of the AV industry.
To round off 2022, I took my last trip
of the year, to Easton, Pa., for the grand
opening of Platform Five. Platform Five
is a boutique real estate management
company whose name echoes Easton's
past as a bustling hub for train travel.
At one point in time, five major railroad
lines passed through the city of Easton,
providing passenger and commercial
service going virtually anywhere in the
country.
That's how I found myself out in the
cold, freezing, in 30-degree weather.
But, somehow, as soon as I stepped
into 915 Northampton St., I was fired
up with passion. That address is home
to Platform Five, which is owned by
Hagai Feiner, a technology evangelist,
forward-thinking entrepreneur,
#avtweeps community member and
dear friend of mine.
Initially, I was overwhelmed with emotions,
as I knew what this building represented.
However, quickly, familiar faces
greeted me, and I told myself I wasn't
going to cry. (If you know me, you know
I'm a crier.) As the night began, the Platform
Five team delivered their speeches,
which were filled with backstories, with
giving of thanks to all the people who
helped bring the vision to life and with
mentions of exciting future plans.
Creating the Space
Platform Five isn't merely a new office
and coworking space for teams to operate
and run their business, though. Located
just alongside it, at 923 Northampton
St., will be a school currently codenamed
NOW community. Feiner's plan
is to create a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that will
14
belief in what the NOW community
would become.
Alesia Hendley and Hagai Feiner,
president of Platform Five.
be the school, and it will be managed
by Platform Five with full financial and
operational transparency.
Right now, there is a massive shortage
of talent in the commercial and residential
AV industries. Thus, when the former
NAPA building came onto the market,
Feiner knew it would be the perfect fit
for his mission to create the change he
wanted to see within our industry, within
the community in Easton and within the
world in which we live.
With fewer than 30,000 residents,
Easton, a small city, struggles with low
income, lack of housing and limited opportunities
to grow past these challenges.
Creating a space for opportunity and
change was a vision that occupied Feiner's
mind from the very beginning, and it
formed the foundation of his unwavering
Commercial Integrator FEBRUARY 2023
Creating the Opportunity
The old building has now been gutted
and fully renovated into a modern
masterpiece for Platform Five. Next up is
bringing the NOW community to fruition.
" In the space next door to us, you'll find
a beautiful shell of what can and will be a
platform for good, " Feiner declared.
His team and he have put their heart
and soul into this project. So, I asked
Feiner, what does success look like? " For
me, " he began, " when I came to America,
I used to think success was being able
to provide for myself. Through Access
Networks [Feiner's former company], I
learned that success is being able to provide
for myself and my team. " That brings
him to the present. " My final iteration
for success is that my greatest success
is being able to provide for myself, my
team, people I don't know and people I
haven't even met yet - people within my
community, " Feiner said. " And, for that
reason, we've embarked on the NOW
community school journey. "
Once the ribbon was cut, we all got to
tour the space that will soon be the NOW
community. Though the space was literally
just a shell, you could intuitively sense
and envision how it will change lives and
extend a whole new world to many who
don't know that the AV industry exists.
Creating the Change
For Feiner, the idea for NOW community
arose from many emotions, questions,
one-on-one talks, heart-to-heart conversations,
and the desire to not only talk
about it but also be about it. The intent of
NOW community is to create a program,
which is free to the community, where
students can learn all the great trades in
the AV industry: audio, video, lighting,
shading, controls, surveillance, power
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Commercial Integrator February 2023

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