Commercial Integrator September 2022 - 4

EDITOR'S NOTE
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commercialintegrator.com | @commintegrator
Shining Bold
and Bright
THIS MONTH, Commercial Integrator proudly
presents its 40 Infl uencers Under 40, marking
the ninth annual occasion that we've spotlighted
the young talent shiſt ing the landscape of
commercial AV and charting an exciting future
course. The 40 Under 40 has many proponents
who extol our eff orts to showcase the next
generation; it also has its share of skeptics who
question whether recognition should have any
age-based parameters. But one thing's for sure:
CI's 40 Under 40 gets attention
- and a whole lot of it!
This year, we received more
than 100 nominations, the vast
majority of which suggested
women and men eminently
deserving of recognition. Rather
than putting the names up for
a public vote, which could turn
things into a popularity contest,
our editors meticulously
pored over all the nominations
and sought to fi nd 40 whose
accomplishments and talents
shone just a little bit more. It
was a remarkably diffi cult task, and we easily
could have generated a worthy list of 40
others. What you'll fi nd in this issue, however,
is our best eff ort to highlight commercial AV's
emerging rockstars.
I kept diversity, equity and inclusion top of
mind as I went about narrowing the list. As
recently retired industry legend Cory Schaeff er
noted last month, AVIXA research into InfoComm
attendance indicates about 14% of our
industry is female. That's far below females'
51% of the U.S. population, and, collectively,
we simply must do better. The CI team tried
to model that this year: Our list is 45% female,
which, although not at parity with societal
demographics, augurs well for a more equitable
future. As we prepare for the 10th
annual
edition, we will strive to continue to improve in
other diversity metrics, such as race, ethnicity,
sexual orientation, gender identity, neurodiversity
and others.
Constant improvement is the goal, aſt er
4
Commercial Integrator SEPTEMBER 2022
Every nominee
deserves their
moment in the
sun, and we
have a whole
lot more rays
to come.
all - not only for CI's editorial off erings but
also for commercial AV professionals broadly.
And each of the 40 women and men selected
has meaningfully improved their organization,
whether that's an integrator, a consultant, a
service provider, a vendor or a distributor.
You might be surprised to read the last two;
indeed, up until now, the 40 Under 40 has not
considered those from the manufacturing and
distribution communities. The reasoning was
sound enough - avoiding even
the appearance of favoritism
toward clients and partners - but
we ultimately decided that we
could no longer justify excluding
veritable superstars just because
they happened to work on the
vendor/distributor side.
With the second edition of
Collaboration Today and Tomorrow
bound into this issue, I've
been thinking about collaboration
a lot lately. But I believe that,
on a meta scale, collaboration
encapsulates the entirety of our
industry: End users come together with consultants
and integrators to conceive a dazzling
integrated system, and then the project team
connects with trusted vendor and distributor
partners to gather the puzzle pieces that they
meticulously assemble and unify. The chain
can only work when every single collaborator
is locked in, connected and working with
shared purpose. With this year's 40 Under
40, we've striven to acknowledge every link in
the chain...every project partner that makes
commercial AV deployments a success.
If a peer nominated you and you weren't on
the fi nal list this year, fear not! We will retain
every such nomination for consideration next
year. Because every nominee deserves their
moment in the sun, and we have a whole lot
more rays to come.
Dan Ferrisi, Editor-in-Chief
dan.ferrisi@emeraldx.com
@danferrisiedit
commercialintegrator.com
EDITORIAL
Editor-in-Chief Dan Ferrisi,
914-383-9030, dan.ferrisi@emeraldx.com
Chief Content Offi cer Jason Knott,
774-505-8042, jason.knott@emeraldx.com
Associate Editor Zachary Comeau,
774-505-8006, zachary.comeau@emeraldx.com
Associate Editor Amala Reddie,
774-505-8039, amala.reddie@emeraldx.com
Technology Editor Robert Archer,
774-505-8049, robert.archer@emeraldx.com
Web Editor Alyssa Borelli,
774-505-8057, alyssa.borelli@emeraldx.com
Design Lead Katie Stockham,
774-505-8051, katie.stockham@emeraldx.com
Designer Taylor DeForrest,
taylor.deforrest@emeraldx.com
ADVERTISING SALES
Group Publisher, Connected Brands
Ray Lyons, 774-505-8017, ray.lyons@emeraldx.com
Sales Director Shawn Tobin,
774-505-8014, shawn.tobin@emeraldx.com
Account Executive Chelsea Cafi ero,
774-505-8020, chelsea.cafi ero@emeraldx.com
Sr. Director, Marketing Marsha Marsh,
774-505-8023, marsha.marsh@emeraldx.com
EMERALD CORPORATE
Executive Vice President Brian Pagel,
770-291-5438, brian.pagel@emeraldx.com
President and CEO Hervé Sedky
Chief Operating Offi cer Brian Field
Chief Financial Offi cer David Doſt
Chief Information Offi cer Bill Charles
Executive Vice President, People and Culture
Ren Akinci
Executive Vice President, Sales Amy Sklar
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Stacey Sayetta
Senior Vice President, Communications
Beth Cowperthwaite
Senior Vice President and Controller
Kate Elder
Senior Vice President, Content and Product
Strategy Sandy Deane
Senior Vice President, Brand Marketing
Felicia Hamerman
Senior Vice President, Corporate Development
Les Weir
Senior Vice President, Marketing & Digital
Operations Joanne Wheatley
PRODUCTION
Creative Services Director
Manuela Rosengard, 774-505-8052,
manuela.rosengard@emeraldx.com
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Commercial Integrator September 2022

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