Commercial Integrator April 2021 - 5

Conference Technologies Inc.'s Acquisition of AV Nation
Represents Shift in Priorities for Both Companies
CONFERENCE Technologies, Inc. president and CEO
John Laughlin and AV Nation
founder Tim Albright have been
talking for a couple of years
about ways for their companies
to work more closely and help
each other reach new and more
diverse audiences in their work
across the AV industry.
Those talks turned into CTI's
recent acquisition of AV Nation,
all in an effort to deliver better
information to its customers.
" I've known Tim for quite
some time and I've been impressed by his organization and
what he's built, " says Laughlin.
" We've been talking for the last
couple of years about putting
some synergies together.
" Besides the obvious, there's
a need: CTI needs to build more
interesting and better materials
for our customers. That's really
similar to what AV Nation does.
They're an information house
at the end of the day. We felt
by coming together, we can
deliver a better product on both
sides of the fence, " he says.
Albright says the move
represents a slight shift for AV
Nation to focus more on end
users in its content.
" I've made no secret I came
into this world as a tech manager and I have a lot of love for the
people who are on that front
line, " he says. " In the last 10
years, IT departments are really
driving the decisions in the AV
space and holding the budgets
for AV systems. Call it convergence if you want.
" Becoming an education
house for those end users is
incredibly interesting, " says
Albright.
Laughlin says he'll take a
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largely hands-off approach to
AV Nation but Albright plans
some " subtle adjustments " to
the business after the acquisition. That doesn't mean the
popular AV Week podcast will
become CTI Week, but there
could be a CTI Week podcast at
some point, says Albright.
" If John finds value in what
we're doing, why would we
change them? For the vast
amount of listeners, there won't
be any changes, " says Albright.
Laughlin believes the AV
Nation approach will help CTI
generate " more valuable materials built for the industry.
" My customer is asking
for that and Tim Albright's
customer is asking for that, " he
says. " They want faster, better
materials that are educational
but also entertaining. I think
there's a synergy to build these
materials together.
" Because of this connection,
there are more resources for
AV Nation to build these materials and more resources for
CTI to build these materials, "
says Laughlin.

Albright sees his work as a
CTI employee as " an opportunity to become a trusted
technology partner. "
" Part of the value in the
content we create is providing
information and consultation to
a client, " he says.
The AV Nation brand will
be sticking around for a while,
though Albright became an
official CTI employee last week.
" I'm incredibly impressed by
AV Nation and Tim Albright, "
says Laughlin. " I'd be pretty
doggone arrogant start telling
AV Nation and Tim Abright
what to do. "
Albright compares the
acquisition to the structure of
Comcast, which owns NBC
and also Universal. AV Nation is
most definitely part of CTI now
but it's only one small piece in a
much larger puzzle.
" Conference Technologies has been a little bit of an
under-the-radar company, " says
Laughlin. " That's kind of been
by design. That's my personality. We've been growing rapidly
for multiple decades in that

environment.
" COVID shed a heck of a lot
of light on things we're good at
and the things we're not good
at. We need to get quicker,
more efficient and have more
connection with our customers.
" Nobody knows who John
Laughlin is but everybody knows
who Tim Albright is. I don't want
to candy-coat that that's going
to benefit us over the next five to
25 years, " says Laughlin.
AV Nation will keep its
recording studios for now but
could eventually relocate its
full operations into a CTI office,
says Albright.
" We went from a company of
three to a company of 450 people, " he says. " It's not just about
having the money to make
the transition to end users. It's
about having the resources.
" You have to understand
what you don't do well.
There are aspects of running a
business I don't do well. I don't
have to do them anymore, " he
says with a laugh.
But why join an integrator
rather than another AV media
company?
" I don't recall how many
times we've been offered to
be purchased, " says Albright.
" This is more than just selling
an integrator. It's about joining
forces with someone I like
and respect. If John Laughlin
happened to own a trade pub,
that's who I would have sold to.
It excites me to get on Teams
every morning and learn from
these people.
" You miss that collaborative
experience when you have a
smaller team. There's a value
there sometimes people miss, "
says Albright.

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Commercial Integrator April 2021

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