An Early Exit Interview with CEDIA Global President Daryl Friedman

Rob Stott: This episode of the Connected Design Podcast is brought to you by our partners at Oasis Residential Technology Group. Oasis is a community built for high achieving residential custom integrators. With valuable vendor partnerships, a powerful peer community, and tools and industry leading resources available from day one, Oasis helps integrators achieve more together. Learn more about Oasis Residential Technology Group at Oasis Group dot org. That's Oasy S Group.org. All right, we are back on the Connected Design podcast and ⁓ excited to be sitting here in Denver, ahead of C Dia Expo. I as we were scheduling this, part of me was a little up not upset, sad that we weren't doing this on Friday, but at the same time it's like the the quet catch twenty two of like, does anyone wanna do anything on the Friday of C Dia Expo? Except sleep. So this is probably better ⁓ that we're doing it ahead of the show when we both have a little, you know, wind under our sails still before we get to the end of it. But Mr. Daryl Friedman, Global President of CEDIA. I appreciate you taking the time as we get ready, you know, gear up for this show, ⁓ to to sit down and chat with me. Yeah, no, it's a pleasure to always to s ⁓ be with Connecticut Design. And we're actually in the show. I mean the education sessions are actually going on today and ⁓ a lot of activities tonight is a town hall with ⁓ we're gonna unveil our annual research on the industry. So it's ⁓ we're in it. I have And Friday, by the way, the other the alternative would have been to do the bar crawl. That we're doing on Friday at 3 o'clock. And every time I answer a question for them, we have to take a shot. So we can do it that way. Hey, I'm still dead. If you got time, I'm down for that. We'll do it. We'll do it. Awesome. Well, before I you mentioned a lot of great things in there that I do want to dive into, but before that, ⁓ you know, for those that are likely aware, this I believe, final CDI, I know you gave sort of like a you know, there wasn't a definitive end date, but this I have to imagine is the final CD expo for you. So how what are the emotions coming into it ⁓ you know, a as you gear up for this? What what likely is your last CD expo? Yeah, well I I will say and I'm I'm telling everybody this, this is not my last CD expo. It's my last CD expo as CEO. But I am hooked on this show and I am gonna be here. I love walking that floor and I'm gonna I can't every year I can come, I'm gonna come as a civilian, walk the floor and and see what's new and what I can put in my own home. But but it is my last as ⁓ as president CEO and that is very bittersweet. It's been amaz this is my fifth ⁓ expo. It's been it'll be over five years by the time I leave and that won't be until sometime in twenty seven when the board Kentucky very leisurely and thorough search for my successor. I have great confidence in the board that they'll find somebody awesome who be ten times better than me and that that's what ⁓ that'd be nothing would make me happier than that. ⁓ but yeah, walking the floor this time is gonna be it's gonna be bittersweet and people are gonna as I see people and you know, knowing that it's my last my last time in this context. But ⁓ but knowing that I'll be back in ⁓ as a civilian gives me a little bit of ⁓ happiness. Well that's awesome to hear 'cause I I that means I and I know in your letter you even expressed it just the the love you've developed for this industry ⁓ you know to know that you you still want to come back. I think that's exciting to hear, right? ⁓ it is one of those shows that ⁓ you know you can walk around and find something. Doesn't matter how similar the layout is, there's always something new to find on this floor. And you know, I as you're you're thinking about walking this floor ⁓ you know for the last time in the seat, is there any sort of aspect of it or the little things that you'll notice more you know as as you walk it for the last time as as Global Presidency Yeah. Yeah, well I already have I went up there ⁓ as they were setting up yesterday and there's already some very interesting things that are new and some ⁓ exhibitors are taking much larger spaces, which kind of gives you a indication of where the industry is going be going. ⁓ some of the old favorites are just like they always blow me away year after year. ⁓ I have some of the t you know, I I I it was actually last year at the show that I said, okay, I had a little bit of technology in my house, but it's I said to my wife, okay, we gotta bite the bullet and ⁓ and put this stuff in because some of this ⁓ it's just so amazing. So but You know, the floor is great for products and seeing all that stuff, but the people. I mean this isn't in this this is a community, it's not an industry. And it's the ⁓ I like as I said, I've worked in three different industries and this has been my favorite because it is a community. And ⁓ very different than the music industry where I came from. You know the first time at the C C Dio expo and somebody, you know, said, ⁓ so I'm glad you're here. Thank you for taking the job and gave me a big hug. I was like, There's no knife in my back. I'm not in the music industry anymore. It's too good. So yeah, no, it's the people and that that's what I'm gonna miss the most. So so walk in. But I'll be at ISC as well, so I'm I'm I'm around for a while, so I'll get to do my round of goodbyes. You mentioned the the transition and I know this was ⁓ a point too you brought up in the letter ⁓ you know that you released a couple months ago. A really awesome opportunity. And I I I want to relate it to something else that's also I as I think as we sit here today, there's a new Apple CEO. ⁓ and they talk about the transition that Tim Cook had from Steve Jobs and now John Turnus has taken over. And ⁓ that was like the legacy that Steve wanted to leave behind. He didn't want to stay in that seat forever. Right. So ta like your approach and the opportunity for this this organization, this industry to go through a leadership transition, like they said hasn't really experienced that. ⁓ so talk about how important that is and you know It's sort of the ⁓ what we'll see over the next weeks and months. Okay. Well, let me just say by starting out that ⁓ there will be nothing in the coming days that I'll hear better than a comparison to Tim Cook. And and I'm just like what Tim Cook is doing, Daryl Friedman, you know, ⁓ 601 half of the one. So that thank you for that. No problem. There's not gonna be another comment that I'll love as much. ⁓ but yeah, CDA hadn't has ⁓ hasn't had the the the luxury of having an orderly transition. We've had c CEOs before and they've left, and ⁓ you know, then there's a gap, and then the board had to kind of figure out how they're gonna run the company while searching for the new CEO. And I I I said that my first day. I said like this will never happen. When if you get tired of me or if I get you know anything happens, we're gonna commit that well the next ⁓ transition will be orderly. So I told them in April and I said, you know, I'll I'll I'll be here as I'm not going to another job, I'm going to retirement. So you guys ⁓ take the time you need to do a thorough search and you don't have to worry about the company. I'm not taking my foot off the gas, as any of the staff will tell you at CDA. I'm the I'm the same hard ass that I've been for the last five years. And and yeah, so we're just gonna keep running the company the way it has been. We're we're doing setting things up. Right now, every decision I make I think about what's gonna set up my successor for success. And I think we're we're doing that and ⁓ hopefully we'll have an amazing person to announce. I I hope. Okay. ⁓ No, that's awesome to hear. one thing you'll tell them, ⁓ you know, as they come into the seat, is there one piece of advice or whether it's about the industry, the organization, the the community, what what would be the one thing you'd tell them to set them up for success? I'm sure that there's gonna be lots you're gonna tell them. Yeah, I mean there's so many things, but I I would say first of all, listen ten times more than you talk ⁓ in the beginning. Because you gotta there's so many ⁓ nuggets of wisdom that you're gonna hear from this professional staff. The volunteers, the board members. And ⁓ that really helped me. I spent my first, you know, three to six months really on the road all over the world hearing from the members and finding out what was of interest to them. And then take that information and form that into what the next iteration of CDO needs to be because you know we're not a trade show organization anymore. ⁓ and Forge owns the show and there are our partners, but CD needs to be that preeminent ⁓ organization that professionalizes this industry. We are the only industry trade association. There's other groups But they're not they're not CDS. It's the CDA channel. Yeah. And I mean you look around, you you mentioned it. I know the expo opens tomorrow. Today we're sitting here. There is a ton of education going on. So ⁓ I know that's developed over the last couple of years to it's always a great track when you come here, but talk about the the advancements there and the things that are going on. I know there's lots that goes on throughout the year, but even specifically here in terms of education ⁓ and how that's you know you guys have really put an emphasis there. Yeah, education's gonna be a key emphasis for For ⁓ the coming years, not just at Expo. ⁓ I'll talk about Expo, what we're doing here, but we started something called C to Connect, which is a pilot program that we're going to expand next year. We're going to take our education to wherever our members are. So we just picked four cities, we did our certification training, classes were full. There was a hunger because, you know, an integration company, you're busy and you you've got jobs and you can't really spare your texts. Sometimes you can't get them away for a you know to come to Indiana for a training. So we want to go to them. And of course, C to Expo is the one place. It's the largest ⁓ residential technology gathering, so that's why we want to be here. We have an amazing conference. A new conference director this year, Evan Hicks, who's ⁓ just put together a really phenomenal sessions from power ⁓ to AI to finance to tech technical, owning your business, running your business, ⁓ workforce. There's there's nothing that we're not covering here. And I would encourage folks who are here to buy a class pass or buy the conference pass. Yeah, you mentioned all those things. I think about ⁓ ⁓ you know, th it's almost indicative of the the different initiatives you guys have gone after as well over the last five years. ⁓ you know AI and workforce development. You you guys have done so much ⁓ with with you at the helm. Is there anything that yeah, I you wanna say you're proud of all of it, I know that's the the the cliche answer, right? But is there something that stands out, like what you're most proud of of what you've been able to accomplish over the past five years? Well, yeah, I I think the the staff has done an amazing job on the board. You know, the the partnership is just this it's this team effort that that I think has really done quite a bit. But I think it's really kind of ⁓ honing in on our unique values. CEDIA ⁓ had been known as a trade show for so many years, decades. And when CEDIA sold that show, what I found in my kind of listening tour was that there was a gap of like what is our value. And so we we we kind of did a lot of strategy work. We came up with advocacy connection education. We call it our ACE, ACE. And those three things are really, I think I'm very proud of. Advocacy is for the first time. We're ⁓ asking the government to recognize us as an industry which will help integrators from insurance to recruitment to apprenticeships, everything. ⁓ connection, of course, ⁓ not just with ourselves, like at the expo and other events, but we're really doubling down on the design and build industry and making sure that partnership is solid. At K Biz ⁓ this past year at the Kitchen Bath Show, thousand designers in the audience and their awards. I got to present the first step. CDS Smart Home Tech Award for a partnership between an integrator and a designer, and that's going be so important for people to build their businesses. And of course, education, which we're updating and revising, and reinventing and taking on the road. So all the ace is what I'm most proud of. To ⁓ break down that A, you mentioned, I know the smart home on Capitol Hill Day has been a big part of that. ⁓ So talk- I know that is getting even larger this year. Talk about how that's developed over the last couple of years. Yeah, well, first of all, for long before I came On we were doing great, CEDA was doing amazing work at the state level, and that's very important because licensing is done at the state level. Sometimes electrical folks would try and say, like, ⁓ integrators can't do this, and we'd push back. We have a tremendously hardworking gentleman named Darren Rearman who does that work. We had not done anything at the federal level, so we decided to play at that level for a couple of reasons. One is every 10 years at the ⁓ you know fast pace of the U.S. government, every once a decade, they ⁓ reanalyze job classification. And technology integrator was never in there, and we want that in there. So we applied for that. We've been lobbying on that. We expect that to happen in 2028. ⁓ but also the ⁓ we met with the Department of Labor last year, so that we are trying to get an official officially recognized apprenticeship program. So imagine how useful what's the biggest challenge every integrator tells you. Yep, the talent pipeline. Yeah, the pipeline. So by creating a new pipeline of ⁓ government recognized apprentices, that would that will help that. ⁓ but next year we're gonna grow it. Each year has been, you know, scaling. ⁓ the f the first year was just the board, and then next year we invited some key manufacturers to join us. Us. Last year we invited those manufacturers to say, pick your top two or three dealers and bring them along. And then this year we're going crazy. This year, this year, I'm saying it's a movement. And we expect this to be the largest one yet and make an impact. Yeah, and I think they will know we're there. Well, that this most recent one, I know you guys ⁓ the ⁓ There was like a mini I want to say trade show. You had like a small booth. Talk about that, because that was is that something that had been done before or is that great? That was that was a new activation for this past year. We decided to do demonstration. ⁓ because the Hill is obsessed with AI. And there's a hearing every week about AI, and they've covered it from different angles and how it affects finance, how it affects national security, et cetera. But it not how it affects the most important place in people's lives, their homes. And so working with a lot of manufacturers, ⁓ I hope I don't forget anybody, but it was We had Lutron, we had Josh AI, we had IC Real Time, we had Sonos ⁓ and Ketra. And they basically put together a demonstration model where you could show a member of Congress, you know, how AI is going work. And so when a member of Congress would come up, we'd have some cute little demonstrations, we'd say, like, I want to create a party. Well, no, when the staffers would come up, you know, the people who run the country are all in their 20s. ⁓ the staffers would come up and they'd say, like, what are you doing this weekend? ⁓ we're having a party, what's the theme? Tell tell this monolith ⁓ what it is. And they'd say like, ⁓ we're doing like a retro disco party, and then the lights would change, the shades would the music would come on. They blew their minds. But for for the members of Congress, ⁓ we had a gun. Okay. No, not a real gun because that would be very risky to get the Capitol. But But ⁓ we showed them the threat assessment that we can do. And so it recognized the gun. It closed the shades, the light started flashing red, or sir the the sound system became a siren. And it was just a great way to open their eyes to what AI can do for people in their homes. Right. I and again just shows the the kind of the vastness of this space too. You can have AI and and all the smart home technology for fun. And then there's the safety aspect too. So it's whatever, you know, ⁓ appeases to the ⁓ the senses of someone to get them to understand why it's important and and the benefits of it is it's pretty cool. Exactly. ⁓ well the connection I know we talked about a little bit. One thing I wanna ⁓ you know dive into separate from what we've already discussed with connection, there's a cool story I heard ⁓ very early on in our our sort of you know bringing back of connected design early on in the podcast I had Amanda Wildman on and we talked about your connection to the industry and an early story the of you going on the road with her. And ⁓ you know I mean when you talk about diving hands first into this industry and learning it ⁓ I from what I understand, you really got your hands dirty. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah. So talk about that a little bit. I went to the chiropractor after that day. So no Amanda it was a generous offer ⁓ to to join her crew, her and her husband Ponch, who we unfortunately lost this year. Just to see what it's like to be an integrator for a day. Yep. And ⁓ I got to go on the crew and you know, I carried the tool bag. I wasn't the apprentice. And I think she loaded up the tool bag with like the heaviest tools that we had no intention of using. She just wanted to like you know, mess with me. so yeah, it was just incredible to see the dedication and and the The skill. And I, you know, so they had me terminate a table. I I just assume like most people consumers that this is a machine that does this and you stick it in and the handwork that's involved, the the skills involved, it took me like twenty minutes. It did pass the first time. There you go. but yeah, it was ⁓ it was a great day. And I actually, you know, I came the I was gonna I was gonna challenge you and ask. I know she mentioned it. I always carry this with me. That is so awesome. This is my totem. This this reminds me of how hard the work is, how skilled it is, and and and who I work for. Yeah. Pocket. I love that. And I I'm glad you did it because I was gonna ask regardless if it was on you and that's that's so perfect. So ⁓ but I mean that shows I I think too, ⁓ you know, th I know we we've talked before about the ⁓ I Yeah, but association at heart, right? The the mindset of do you get someone that can understand the industry or someone that's a an association professional in this role and like I you I you may have understood a little bit about, you know, custom integration or technology, but your willingness to, you know, go into the field and really get hands on and learn it and see what these people are doing I think speaks volumes to kinda you know, the past five years and how you've run the organization. So it's been incredible to watch, ⁓ for one. ⁓ but also, you know, I think it sets an example for what could be next, right? And what you hope to to get in the in the next leader of of CDI. So ⁓ you know, it's just been it's been cool. Like a lot of fun. I ⁓ flipping the script, I do wanna ask, is there I know, you know, in the five years you've done a lot, we've highlighted a lot of the great ⁓ initiatives and and things like that. Any regrets, you know, ⁓ that you have as you think about your time winding down or maybe things you didn't get to that, you know, you'd leave a bug in the ear of the next person, you know, like this is something that we need to approach as an industry or anything like that? Aaron Yeah, I think there are going to be a number of initiatives that my my successor will need to take on that We're just on our list, you know, we just didn't get to because we were we were doing so many things. But one thing I think is really important I I would encourage when I when I have my chance to talk to the next CEO is ⁓ is peer groups because CDA is so large. I mean one of the advantages that smaller groups have is that they can really have this sort of ⁓ dialogue and and interaction with each other. And CDA the advantage of scale is is incredible that we can be the it's the CDA channel. It's like we can do things that no one else can do. We can the advocacy and the workforce and design and build. ⁓ but But by being so large, we kind of it's harder for us to have that small thing. So I would I'm going to encourage there's there was an attempt at this several years ago to do peer groups and a couple of them still are still going on, but I would encourage them to figure out how we can break down the membership into you know like-minded people who really can on a day-to-day basis interact with each other. So that's one thing that I know that we I wanted to do, we just didn't get to. That's awesome. ⁓ and I just last closing question. I know we're sitting here ahead of the town hall, so this will drop after the fact, not asking you to drop secret. Ahead of the town hall or anything like that. But I do want to get you to comment just as we sit here on what is the state of the CI channel. As we enter the CDIA expo and ⁓ you know think about kind of where things are, where they're going, ⁓ you know, where where are we at? Yeah, so it's gonna be it's gonna be an interesting ⁓ discussion. This is the first time we've had a professional research department in-house at CDA. We're gonna build that out. ⁓ and he's got a ⁓ a very ⁓ enlightening deck to share with the the folks. I guess the one thing I'd say to T. Tease it in answer to your question is there's a lot in there about the construction industry and there's a lot in there about the integration industry. And the two are very much linked, as you know. And we kind of rise and fall sometimes based on what's happening in construction. I would, when people go to that tonight, pay particular attention to the forecasts that the construction industry are looking at and their expectations of the long term, and the forecasts that the integration folks are looking at and their expectations of the long term. They do not match. I'm not going to say which is which yet, but it's a fact. Fascinating ⁓ split and dichotomy. So I would encourage people to sit and kind of think about that and what it means. ⁓ there are the like the the luxury end of the industry is very different from c we'll call it mass market, right? and I know builders see a lot of ebb and flow in the mass market, but for you know, this industry it feels like the the luxury end where a lot of these integrators tend to lie, not that it's shielded, but it it's it's a little less impacted, right? You don't worry about mortgage rates when you're paying cash for a ten million dollar home. Yeah. So so i as you know, to f as far as that goes, ⁓ you know, I I know the the the higher end ⁓ side of this industry, you know, to to your point, ⁓ definitely more stable, but you know, it'll be interesting to see. I know that it's always I'm a big data nerd. So diving into those numbers, I look forward to doing it. Yeah. Fascinating. ⁓ you know, it'll it'll be a lot of fun. But Daryl, no, this was awesome. ⁓ a great start to the show for me. It's the first thing I get to do and ⁓ sit down with you and feel like it's all downhill from here. Appreciate that. Yeah, right. But always great to talk to you, Robin. You as well. Congratulations on the on the relaunch and we're really looking forward to Yeah, absolutely. So we appreciate it and best of luck ⁓ you know over the coming weeks and months and we look forward to you know continuing to follow the story of Cia. So it's ⁓ it's always a fascinating one. It is. Thank you very much. This episode of the Connected Design Podcast is brought to you by our partners at Oasis Residential Technology Group. Oasis is a community built for high achieving residential custom integrators. With valuable vendor partnerships, a powerful peer community, and tools and industry leading resources available from day one, Oasis helps integrators achieve more together. Learn more about Oasis Residential Technology Group at Oasis Group.org. That's OASYS Group.org.