As part of this year’s CEDIA Talks at the virtual Expo Experience, Jessica Thornburg, CEDIA’s member programs manager, hosted a panel of previous CEDIA Award winners. Here’s more from those conversations.
Have the CEDIA awards ever helped you “seal the deal?”
Jason Vorhees, Cantara
Absolutely – actually, I can think of a project that we have just completed and we hope to submit to CEDIA for another award. It’s a $1.5 million project. We had worked with the general contractor for this one on a prior job, and they made reference to the fact that Cantara was the only firm equipped to handle a project of this size, pointed to the award, and passed that recommendation on to the client.
Nic Black, The Pyramid Group
You know, winning a CEDIA award for any organization is hugely important because it just absolutely underpins your credibility. My team been able to say, “Well, not only are we multiple award winners, but we are helping to drive the standards that elevates the Awards program.” (Note: Nik Black has been a CEDIA Awards judge in the past.)
How do you use CEDIA Award in marketing your firm?
Albert Mizrahi, Smartlab
We post in social media, we paste the logos into our websites, and proposal quotes. We have the trophies in our showrooms, so that’s another exposure.
How do you share your award with industry partners?
Albert Mizrahi, Smartlab
We actually send them a copy. We make copies of the awards and we send a copy to the client, and then another copy to the architect.
Jason Voorhees, Cantara
We’ll mention that we were honored to receive the Best Integrated Award in 2019, but we'll make an even bigger deal about the Life Lived Best at Home Award that we won last year. We let our partners know that this award is extra special because it's actually judged by a design and architecture team. That's actually the ultimate recognition: That we were able to enhance the everyday lifestyle for this client and, you know, make their average Tuesday night better. The meaning of the word “Cantara” is “to sing.” We want these technology systems to just sing for our clients. We want them to feel like their home is just this magical environment.
Here's Part One of this series.
The 2021 CEDIA Awards are OPEN for entrants. Find more details here.