HTSA Virtual Spring Conference 2021: Ahead of the Curve!
HTSA Executive Director Jon Robbins welcomed members to the Spring Conference and State of the Union address on Monday—the conference was completely sold out. Jon vowed to everyone that the next few days online would hold opportunities, presentations and interactions for attendees.
Jon thanked all the Members, including the very latest to the HTSA family, for jumping right in and taking advantage of all of the HTSA Member opportunities. He also highlighted a few changes from the Fall virtual conference in that while the remarks from attendees from Fall were positive, the team still wanted to improve upon the program.
Said Jon, “I feel people may be suffering from a little ‘COVID fatigue’ at this point, and we didn’t want people locked down in front of computers for hours on end. We only wanted the most compelling presentations with the most knowledgeable people we could get, covering topics such as driving HR issues and the constantly changing face of Cyber Security.“A year ago at this time, we were looking at each other and saying OK, how is this pandemic going to play out for our industry? Are our people’s businesses going to close down? Will technicians be able to go into people’s homes? It was concerning and we weren’t sure where it was going to go.
“Who was to know our industry was actually going to benefit from some of these terrible circumstances that took place? And here we are a year later and I am happy to say that through September 2020, HTSA has shown a 20% increase in vendor purchases. This was hard to imagine after having such a difficult March and April 2020, but after a very strong summer, business flattened out a little, the result being an overall 17.5% increase in vendor purchasing for 2020. We were very happy with those numbers.
“So far in 2021, for those Members that have reported in, January and February numbers are up approximately 22% vs. the same time last year.
Continued Jon, “We now have to sit back a minute and ask ourselves, ‘Has the novelty of fixing things around the house and doing home improvements worn off?’ Could we be approaching the ‘post pandemic doldrums’? Will other industries, like hospitality, grab the American public’s disposable income?
“We need to answer these questions, and after polling the HTSA Membership, we are bullish on continued growth. That despite interest rates being slightly up, we still know real estate is hot as a pistol and people are still buying new construction and improving the technology in their existing homes.
“So the big question remains, will our channel continue to benefit? We went directly to our Members and the feedback was riveting: Lighting Design Services are significantly up, new construction purchasing is huge and the HTSA Members are, ‘massively up’!
“Under the tutelage of Keith Esterly, we have added 190 courses to our vault assets, including ten courses on Keith’s Relationship Science training and six of Tom Doherty’s Lighting Fundamentals Master Classes. A new CRM is being produced by Tom Doherty and this planning tool is adjustable to all Members and we encourage the Membership to use this exclusive HTSA tool in the future.
“While this year has been trying, to say the least, and we have done well, we can’t wait to get out and see our Members. There is no substitute for face-to-face interaction between Members, and Members with vendors. We are in a solid growth position and I believe we will all be together at CEDIA EXPO and then a few weeks later at our Fall conference in Dallas. In the meantime we will continue our focus to grow, move forward before anyone else and stay Ahead of the Curve!”
