Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to AV in the Wild, the podcast that dives deep into the heart of the pro AV industry. Out in the field, on the move and in the moment.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: As you can see from the Christmas tree behind me, we are finishing off 2025 and heading into a new year of 2026. And the new year brings the most exciting three letters in the UC and AV industry. ISE. We're excited about it. We want to get you all excited about it. So we were racking our brains, and if.
[00:00:28] Speaker C: Who.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Who can we get to give some spoilers, some exclusives, and some, you know, updates about what people can expect in Barcelona in 2026? What do you think?
[00:00:38] Speaker D: Well, do you know what? I have been thinking about it, and I have been wondering who would. Because as. As you quite rightly say, the minute we hit kind of Christmas, everyone starts thinking, right, January, New Year, it. It literally is time to stop planning our trips to Barcelona. And yes, everybody, it is in Barcelona. We're not moving to Amsterdam. We're not going back that way.
[00:01:00] Speaker C: That rumor keeps coming up, moving forward.
[00:01:04] Speaker D: So, yeah, make sure you're on the right flights, AV tweeps and AV Brits, but really, there's only one person that springs to mind who I think if you really want to know the truth about what's happening, the real scale scoops, it can only be one person.
You know who it is.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: Oh, okay. I'll drop the spoiler. Well, so let's bring up Mr. ISC, Mr. Mike Blackman, joining IFAT and I on AV in the wild to tell you all of the updates and secrets we recorded this podcast. Enjoy.
[00:01:45] Speaker D: What is it about 2026 that you think makes it an unmissable event? I mean, it's the biggest event in our calendar, right.
[00:01:52] Speaker C: For our industry, and it's the biggest ISE ever.
You know, it's increased in size dramatically.
It's got a lot of new exhibitors.
We're going to see, I don't know, thousands of product launches. I think that's what makes it exciting. There's always going to be something new, but the. The real cool stuff is what we're doing.
You know, the. The content part. And, you know, our conference program is increased. Covering stuff like cyber security.
Spark is going to be really exciting.
That's going to be exciting.
It's like, I think it's the next step that everyone was waiting for with ise. And then when you look at the program, you know, one of the things we've always done with ise, and I'll give you A bit of background to that in a second is we've done all stuff outside.
And it started off with the production mapping, which we used to do in Amsterdam, and we always get renowned artists, but when we got to Barcelona, we took it up a level.
And thanks to the collaboration with Casabatio, we're able to get a really good facade to do stuff and really draw really interesting artists. Yeah, and this year it's going to be up another level. I mean, the guys we've got in, we've got Matt Clark, who's, I think, one of the top of the league. Okay.
Everyone fights to beat Rafi Canadol. I mean, he was just a master. And I feel it's a shame we did him first because everyone has to try and live up to. To his standard. But we still had great. I mean, Kayola last year was great, but I think Matt Car Clark is going to take up another level. And then we're going to do drones and stuff in front of the show first Tuesday, Tuesday night, when we close the show, when you go out, it's gonna be a spectacular event outside.
This is a closing for people going out. We're going to repeat it every night. Not in the same way, but repeat it.
Rebecca, am I allowed to tell them?
Yes.
[00:04:03] Speaker D: I love that.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Yeah, Come on.
[00:04:04] Speaker D: Have we got exclusive?
[00:04:07] Speaker C: What we're planning is a drone show. Now, you know, we used to do the indoor drone pavilion.
[00:04:14] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: Well, because we're running out of space. We sort of kicked that out because we needed the space to get exhibits in. And we said, oh, can't we do this outside? And we, you know, a partner for that said, well, okay, we can do something cool.
And we're gonna have 700 drones doing a show above the mate. The south axis. And it's gonna coordinate with the south access screen, you know, the big screen above the entrance.
And we're gonna have an opera singer as well.
So three elements.
[00:04:49] Speaker D: So I've got a question for you then. What came first? These ideas or the theme of Push Beyond? Because it sounds like you. You guys have seen seriously Pushed Beyond.
[00:04:59] Speaker C: Push beyond came first. But I would tell you Push beyond is something we've always done.
[00:05:04] Speaker D: Yep.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: The team, you know, we've got a really motivated team who always look, because I say to them, guys, although we're number one when it comes to the shows, to stay there, we can't be complacent. We can't just sit back and say, hey, we're number one. Let's just do as to carry on as we are. So every year the teams, we leave the show, everyone has a few days break to just relax and come down from that buzz. And then, and then each department, marketing, sales, operations, it, finance, they all get together as their individual departments and they look at everything they did that year and they look at it say did it work and was it good and was it only so because we were lucky or did we do it right?
And the stuff that didn't go well, did it not go well because it wasn't worth doing or did we just do it badly?
So we sort of dissect the show, every aspect of the show in every department. Then we come together at the end of March, middle to the end of March while it's still a bit fresh.
And as a team we discuss and come forward with the things that we should change, the things that we should continue, the things we should keep doing and new things that we should start looking at. And then there's a process within the next three, four months while we're doing our budget and putting in the ideas into that budget, let's say two months, we present that to our owners so Avixa and senior, what the plan is and what it's going to cost and we get sort of like a rubber stamp okay or no, then we have to, if it's a no, we have to go back and rework the budget. If it's a yes then you know, we can go with that. And we present that in June to our board, to our board and we get it rubber stamped and once that's done we get on with the job of actually doing everything we've been looking at and getting prepared.
So you know, the team is always.
When we're not just looking inwards, we're looking outwards as well and saying on everything. And even if something was good, we always look to see can we do it this, that bit better.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: That's an interesting point because one of the big things is obviously it's not just a trade show but there is the whole live event stage you have there with a big sur and all of that as well. Again, talk us through again for someone who's maybe never been to Ise, just talk us through it. It is obviously a trade show but then there's a whole bunch of additional stuff on the outside as well.
[00:07:41] Speaker C: So you have to look at the aspects of a trade show.
It's an opportunity to bring buyers and sellers together and it gives them the chance to look at things they may want to consider or things they might never even thought about and to actually experience those. So the sellers, the exhibitors have that opportunity to really present themselves. They're presenting to some of their existing customers. So people they know they're presenting, the people they've invited, who they know of, and then the people who just accidentally run into them there and find them and say, oh wow, that's cool, I should have that. So it's a real opportunity for both sides to learn. We in the middle, we're like the glue. We're putting things together to actually make it work.
Bringing everyone together, but the other side as well. We have to be, we have to be giving that independent information, the non selling part of the show. Think about it like a magazine. You have the advertising, you have the editorial and you have the readers. The attendees are the readers, the exhibitors are the advertisers and we are the editors. We're the ones who are responsible for putting it together. And we're responsible for writing the information that brings everybody there.
And this is where we get a chance to do things. We're looking at themes, we're trying to find out what state of the art.
Talk to people like yourselves and ask, well, hey, what should we be doing?
What's exciting, what's not just trendy, but what's the way we're going forward.
And we try to bring in experts to come and talk about that as well.
[00:09:23] Speaker D: You've got some pretty big mega trends this year that you're focusing on, haven't you? And things like AI and cyber security. And I know you wanted to.
[00:09:32] Speaker C: AI is still not old hat. It's still changing every day and advancing and getting more and more into what our industry is about and seeing it's not just software, it's hardware now as well, or the software that's driving the hardware.
But everybody is using AI in their solutions now.
So you know, we have to keep talking about that and I think bringing in Sol Rashidi, I mean she was the one of the inventors of Watson.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: The IBM Deep Blue.
[00:10:07] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. And you know, so you've got a real expert, a real pioneer there coming in.
And then the cyber security came about.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: And yeah, there's a hackathon as well, isn't there? The Cyber Security Summit, isn't there in the hackathon?
[00:10:23] Speaker C: I would tell you how the hackathon came about.
I was actually talking to one of our exhibits, Tobias Lang. Tobias Lang, you know Tobias.
[00:10:30] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:10:31] Speaker C: And about five, five, six years ago, Tobias said, you should do a hackathon. And I was like, what's that you're.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Showing your age now, Mike?
[00:10:42] Speaker C: Well, we're talking six years ago now.
[00:10:44] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:10:46] Speaker C: Anyway, so he said, you know, you should really think about this. And we were thinking saying, how do we implement something like this?
And then I've got a really, really good business development manager, Lara, in fact, you know, Lara.
And I just said to. I just thought, okay, pass this on, Lara. We should do it. We should do a hackathon.
Make it happen. Okay?
And off she went and visited a couple of our hackathons and came back and said, this is what we should do.
And I have to give the credit to her. I mean, she's the one who's made it happen and really makes it.
She's really behind it and makes it happen.
But I can say the father of the idea was to be a slang. And I was just the guy, the person who made it happen at the end. And there are other people who do all the hard work. Most of ISCs like that, you know, are you gonna.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: I mean, is, is it. Is there an opportunity for people to get involved in this again? Is it an opportunity for us to call out, say, hey, if you're interested in the hackathon, I mean, how's. How's it going to work?
[00:11:44] Speaker C: We.
So we put out that call quite early and we deal with a lot of universities because we find the biggest benefit and the most potential comes from students. And most of them are not master's students.
They put teams together, they're coming from universities. We started just with Spanish universities and thinking that's what it's going to be. But then we got applications from outside. So we had a Swedish university last year. Now we probably have about 30, 40% of the applications are from non.
You know, we've got American universities, we've got universities all over Europe coming in with teams. So they put in there, they apply to be part of this. We choose themes, so it's sustainability, cyber security and innovation.
And these are the themes that get split into groups. We bring in experts, so we bring in people who are involved in those fields to be there overnight during the day, working with the students to be there to actually as bouncing boards and getting information.
And they're giving these tasks and they have to come out and present after two days working through. You know, we give them a pizza and coffee and everything else.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: Or Red Bull. We do developers. Pizza under the darkened door. Yeah.
[00:13:08] Speaker C: And they, you know, last year was the first time we did it as a mega success.
And what it's doing is creating an opportunity for students to look into our industry and look at some of the challenges and master students that are best to approach things like this. They've got that mindset on how to approach it.
And so, and they're coming and they're learning about our industry.
Our industry is looking at these people as talent for potential jobs as well. So it's a win, win on all sides on here.
And they're coming in, they have fun doing it, but it's a real challenge they're looking at.
And it's, it's been a mega success and it's growing.
You know, we were surprised that, I mean we, we love the success we had last year. The, the amount of attention has grown this year come, you know, students and companies with interest in it has just grown as well. So it's a real winner and something new and it's going extremely well. It's a lot of work.
We have assistance from two university professors who manage and curate the whole program for us.
And you know, they work very hard on this as well with Lara. And yeah, it's, it's, it's growing and I tell you, it's going to be another success.
So, I mean that's something new. Last year, bigger this year, cyber security is new. That started off so we have a consultant that we took on to look at primarily physical security.
[00:14:46] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:14:46] Speaker C: And you know, we had the issues general generally about the venue and just taking care of, you know, making sure it's a secure place and safe place, but also the issues we had in the city.
And in fact, I don't know if you made it in the end, but you were invited, you went, didn't you?
[00:15:06] Speaker D: Yes, yeah, yeah.
[00:15:07] Speaker C: So we invited a few people, a few key people in the industry, journalists to come and experience a couple of days with the mosos. And the idea came from our security consultant and he's the former chief of mosos.
So the guy who, who was pre. When the guy you met ifat and so and when we talk said about the issues we had of dealing with the PR fallout on theft in the city, he said, mike, don't try and fight this one because everyone's going to say you have a vested interest to say whatever you need to say. And he said invite some journalists to come and experience what's going on and how it's being dealt with. And if was one of the people we selected on that. And, and I think it was a great experience and I think it gave a different view to what's going on and what I can tell you that what the city's doing to fight crime has increased phenomenally.
[00:16:07] Speaker D: The crime rate so noticeable last year. Well, this year we're still in 25, obviously, calendar wise, but yeah, the, the presence. And it just felt safer. It felt like there was more visibility and I'm sure everything was down. I mean, I didn't hear.
It was a fraction compared to the year before.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: And you'll see it's even better because, you know, they've really clamped down on crime and, I mean, it's petty crime. One of the things where Barcelona is a little bit different to, say, London or Paris or some other cities is you don't see violent crime.
Because what happens is if they just steal your watch or your wallet or your phone, they get a slap on the wrist, they're in the police station for a few hours and then they get let go.
But if they pull a knife on you or hit you, they go to jail straight away. And they know this.
So they tend to. The criminals will more than likely touch wood, more than likely run away, then attack you.
So, you know, it's something. But still, it's a, it's a problem. It's been dealt with and, you know, the figures have dramatically reduced even in the last six months.
I get crime reports from the tourist office, you know, just giving updates on that, what's being done, etc. And it's really, really improving. So this. The sea is clamping down on it, which is good.
But anyway, so Pere Ferreira is our security consultant. He took me, we were chatting and just talking about security, and he talked about cyber security.
And I said, well, is that something we should be concerned about? And he looked at me and said, what are you doing next week? I said, tell me what? Where I should be going. He said, do you want to meet the.
The head of the Spanish Secret Service?
And I said, are you serious? So, yeah, come on. He made a phone call. And the following week we went to Madrid and we actually met the deputy director of the Spanish Secret Service.
And we started talking and they started highlighting things I tell you after I walked out of that place. Firstly, I had to empty any electronic device out of my pockets before I went in the building. I got a lock and everything went in there. They're so paranoid.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:18:33] Speaker C: But you start to understand. And then the things they told me, I would never do any banking on public WI fi ever anymore. Wow.
The dangers of stuff like that, just crazy. And airports are the worst places, they said. But they told us about how cyber Criminals get into our systems and things like this.
And I walked out of that and I said to Perez, wow, you know, we, we, we may be a bit too naive about this.
And he started talking and, and he told me all the people he knows around Europe who are involved in this stuff on the EU level, on different police forces, different authorities. And I said to him, shouldn't we be telling the AV industry about this?
And, and I said, I said, you know, I want you to be my conference chair. He said, I've never done it. He said, it doesn't matter. You just have to find, you have to just bring those people, you know, and let them come and talk to the AV industry.
So we launched this, the, we had all these issues happening. Airports, Heathrow Airport, we had the crash on Microsoft and the airline ticketing system. There were all sorts of high level, high profile issues that suddenly happened. And I'm saying, hey, this looks like, you know, if we were trying to do pr, we were managing these things to actually happen, you know, so it started really put it in the front of everybody's noses. And we said, I think we really hit the right thing here to actually highlight this. But not a case of saying, hey, there's a danger here. It's more a case of saying to the industry, this is what you need to do for your customers to reassure them.
You know, when we hear about the UK government not accepting any Chinese equipment into infrastructure anymore, or more and more governments doing that, then, you know, and these are command and control centers or, you know, things which are in the AV business. So, you know, I think our community has to understand what to tell the customers because the customer is going to be saying, well, you know, is anyone going to get in my back end and screw up my, my building or whatever.
So I think this is the thing to actually highlight, show some, some things as well. I think it's gonna be quite an exciting conference.
I was, I hope that our industry is not as naive as I am.
You know, I, I hope the, the lesson that everyone learns from this is actually to approach it in the right way and have the right answer for the customers.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: So I was going to ask, Obviously there's over 1600 exhibitors. 270 of those are new.
[00:21:24] Speaker C: Over 17.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: I stand corrected. My numbers are obviously out. But what would be your top three kind of tips for an exhibitor to get the most out of ise? And what would be the top three tips for someone coming?
[00:21:39] Speaker C: So firstly, for the exhibitors, invite your customers because a lot of these Customers are going to get lots of invitations anyway and if they don't get one from you, it may be they're there and they don't see you. So invite your customers, invite your potential customers.
The second thing is use the tools that we have in terms of pre promotion. Promote yourselves before the show. That's so important. Don't just think because, because you're there people will find you. Tell people you're there, tell them what you're doing and take advantage of all the tools and that. We have that in the exhibitor manual in the exhibitor back. Back end that will help you to promote yourself and get more business.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:28] Speaker C: So that's on the exhibitor side. On the attendee side. ISE has grown so big now.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Again, how do you, how do you navigate that as I, you know, get around.
[00:22:38] Speaker C: You cannot get around the whole show in four days.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:42] Speaker C: So you have to plan.
If you're coming on your own, then go. I mean first thing, download the app. It's one of the best tools you can use. We also have a bot called Dave D A V E And Dave is there to help you navigate, answer questions. Dave is there to try and pull all the information that's available on the show that you can actually ask about.
Get the app.
[00:23:10] Speaker D: We love a mate called Dave.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: Yeah, everyone needs a Dave.
[00:23:15] Speaker C: And and plan. So go to exhibitor list, decide what the most important things you want to see subject wise and go to the list and find out what they are, where they are and do that first. Just go and plan the things which are your must sees and then when you have time afterwards, go and see the other. Nice to have. Yeah.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: Create your top, your own top five top 10 things that you want to get out of ISE and who are your top three people to go and see and then focus on those first and then whatever time you've got. Then it's your kind of shopping trip.
[00:23:48] Speaker D: Yeah. Because you will, you will get distracted on route as well.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Time will get evaporated.
[00:23:53] Speaker C: But if you're going with a few people, if you're, you know, if you're a company, you've got several people there. Split up, split and conquer. Divide yourself.
Spend the first part, you know, looking at the must sees. Get back together and tell everybody about the things they should actually that you've seen that they should go and look at as well.
So you know, put the highlights in there. I think that's the best way to approach it.
Those are my first two tips. The second one is take some Rest, get some food, drink a lot of water.
It's, you know, one of the. One of the worst things is the aching feet at the end of the day and, you know, getting.
[00:24:31] Speaker D: There's an ISE shoe for that, isn't there?
[00:24:34] Speaker C: Yes, there is.
And I've tested them and they're good. They're good.
All right.
[00:24:40] Speaker D: Very good. I heard they're sold out.
[00:24:45] Speaker C: You guys haven't got yours?
[00:24:47] Speaker B: No, not yet.
[00:24:48] Speaker C: I'm sure, you know, somebody can help. Yeah, yeah, let's hope so.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: It's Mike Blackman, actually.
[00:24:55] Speaker C: I am. You know, you have to speak to Steph. She's the one knows those.
Perfect.
[00:25:00] Speaker D: It's all about who, you know, talk to us about Spark. I mean, obviously I work for MCUBE now, so since last ic, I'm with a new employer, as is Neil, actually. So as well as AB in the wild, we've got new jobs as well. And I think Spark is sparking a bit of an interest, certainly for my colleagues. And we're coming on max.
[00:25:23] Speaker C: You know, it's funny enough NCUBE is going to have a presence at ISE for the first time.
And that came from me sitting next to Marcus in Korea. Here I go again.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: Yeah, Korea, Hong Kong, Dubai and Marcus.
[00:25:40] Speaker C: And it just came to that discussion and said, yeah, we have a solution. But anyway, the missing spark has been the missing link of ise. You know, we have all these hardware suppliers, all these exhibitors, and we've always been weak on software. You find it. If you go to most of the hardware vendors, you'll find some of these software companies on their booth because they're presenting themselves, they're presenting their solutions and that's part of it. But we haven't had that many software companies presenting themselves or content creators presenting themselves. And it started slowly. We've had people like media Pro or TV3, and slowly it's getting there. We say, okay, we need to actually create a community. We need to create somewhere where we can focus this part of the show.
And talking to some of the industry people, talking to internal, internally discussions, we came up with the idea of Spark, the concept of Spark. We took this out and talked to a few associations and exhibitors and they said, yes, that's what we need.
And the resonance has been phenomenal.
So we're quite excited about it. It's been launched as a stand, as a, how we say, it's being incubated within ISE for 2026.
And our plan, my understanding is it's about bringing the.
[00:27:05] Speaker D: Create the Creative part into. Into some, you know, with the technology, bringing that actually together.
[00:27:13] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
So, you know, and it also comes. It fits in with, you know, the guys who create projection mapping, the agencies who are creating corporate TV or advertising, things like this. So we're creating. We're putting up a platform where they can actually come together, meet with vendors, meet with buyers, etc. In there.
[00:27:42] Speaker D: I'm sure Marcus probably told you, but we've been working with Rafi Canada on a project in Europe for. And it will.
[00:27:48] Speaker C: Tell me, did he not imagine he would fit with you guys really? Well, It's.
[00:27:54] Speaker D: It's such an exciting project. Obviously. I met him when he did ise, so I was lucky enough to spend a few minutes.
[00:28:04] Speaker C: Such a nice guy.
[00:28:05] Speaker D: So humble.
[00:28:06] Speaker C: Unbelievable. And really.
[00:28:07] Speaker D: Absolutely, absolutely.
[00:28:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
It's really nice to spend time with him. And what amazed me is when we first. When I first approached him about coming and doing the mapping and speaking at iic, he said, you really want me?
He's so humble, you know.
[00:28:27] Speaker D: So, yeah, we've installed LED in the. In. In the longest tunnel underground. It's sort of. Well, obviously a tunnel.
[00:28:35] Speaker C: Oh, yes, okay, Marcus Nit. Tell me about that.
[00:28:37] Speaker D: Yeah, so Rafiq's been involved in the.
In the creatives for that.
[00:28:44] Speaker C: Okay, I'd love to see that Italian news.
[00:28:48] Speaker D: So, yeah, I'm sure we'll be shouting about it soon.
[00:28:51] Speaker C: Yeah, it's this tunnel between Trieste.
[00:28:57] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:28:58] Speaker C: Wow, that would be really cool.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: So what happens between now and launch day and go day? I mean, is it. Are you frantically running around like headless chickens or is everything calm and relaxed.
[00:29:11] Speaker D: And we got a countdown clock.
[00:29:13] Speaker C: Yeah, we do have a countdown clock. We have deadlines, a lot of work going on because we have this crazy. These two crazy things called Christmas and New Year in between that shut us down.
They're really badly placed in our calendar.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: So inconvenient.
[00:29:32] Speaker C: We would rather have the show and then Christmas and New Year.
[00:29:35] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:29:37] Speaker C: But we have it in between. We were used to that.
And, you know, it's. It's one of the things. We have a lot of work going on at the moment. Next week we have our final team meeting of the year.
So my team is split all over Europe.
We have an office in Barcelona, we have an office in Munich, we have an office in Amsterdam.
And the whole marketing team are in the uk or majority of them.
So, you know, people all over the place. So what we do, we meet online every.
Every two weeks and then close to the show every week we have a jore. Fix team meeting. But every three months we meet physically in the, in the same place and everyone comes together. And this was the last one of the year before the show as well, where we do our final. This is what the show is going to be, this is what's going to happen. Everything's fixed now.
This is what we're going to do. And then that's next week. And then the week after people start going off for Christmas and then on the 6th of January, we get back in and then it's all, all shoulders to the wheel and, you know, it's running around, not headless.
We like to, we like to be well prepared.
[00:31:00] Speaker D: Or well controlled.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: Absolutely.
So for, for anyone who's kind of sitting on the fence and not sure whether they should attend, you know, they've never been to ISE before, not sure if they should come or they've been before or they've been before. And that was a while back and they thought, oh, you know, I didn't get much yet. Mike Blackman why should people come to ISC 2026? In a, in a nutshell, elevator pit. You're standing next to your friend in an elevator. Pitch it.
[00:31:34] Speaker C: If you're a channel person in this industry, you have to be iic. It's where you're going to see all the latest and greatest about what you know, what you need. You'll see the product launches. We're lucky. All the R D is being focused around the beginning of the year now, so we have hundreds of product launches.
And if you're an end customer and you want to understand why AV is important for you and understand what you should be doing, this is how you can find out without having someone trying to sell you something.
Well, they will, but.
[00:32:09] Speaker D: And it's also in a year where we're seeing the industry really going through the mill in terms of its people and companies that are struggling, companies that have had to let people go, you know, both Neil and I have been through that experience this year and landed in new homes.
It's a great place to meet people and, and, and actually network the human connection.
And it's amazing if, if people are in that position.
It's a great place to have your CV and, you know, connect with people.
[00:32:44] Speaker C: And, and it's one of the things I don't shout about because, you know, I don't want companies not sending their people because they might be headhunted. But if you're looking for a job, it is actually a great place to go and talk.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: You should do Like a recruitment, speed dating thing, you know, have like a little area where people can get for students.
[00:33:07] Speaker C: We have the Fast Forward Friday, which we do for years, and actually it's managed by vixen Celia now.
It's where we encourage the HR people from companies to actually come and we bring in the students do have speed dating so they can find out. And I know people who have had jobs. In fact, one of them I saw last week, he works for Lang. He's my poster boy for Fast Forward Tuesday. He told me he was a. He was a student. So I met him for the first time two years ago at the Lang branch and Tref and.
And he came over and said, mike, I'm Danny and I wanted to thank you. I said, what for? And he said, well, he was a student at the University of Valencia and he accidentally got the email that where the university was organizing a trip to ISE on the Friday as part of our program.
And he was studying engineering.
And he called and said, hey, this looks interesting, can I come? And they said, oh, you're an engineering student, it wasn't really meant for you.
And he said, oh, that's a shame, but I'd still like to come.
And they said, well, actually there's a spare place you can come along. And he went along and he was there and he had four interviews when he was there and got offered a couple of jobs and he took one of them and now he's a junior sales manager at Language. He went to Infocom Latin America a few weeks ago and was a speaker at that event as well. So I'm looking and saying, look at, look at what you can achieve.
[00:34:44] Speaker D: How do you feel about employ. Well, exhibitors putting something on their stand to say we are hiring, you know, whether that's speaking, you know, is it something that we should be encouraging?
[00:34:57] Speaker C: Job board?
Why not?
[00:35:00] Speaker D: It doesn't have to be a great big. Just something subtle that says, you know what, we are hiring if you want to speak to somebody, you know, I.
[00:35:09] Speaker C: Actually think we are in the best position to bring people together.
[00:35:12] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:35:13] Speaker C: And you wouldn't believe the amount of people who call me and say, hey, Mike, I'm going to leave my current job if you know of any opportunities. And the amount of companies who call me and say, hey, we're looking for someone in this position. Do you know anyone? Might be.
So, you know.
[00:35:32] Speaker D: You can multitask, you can have a side hustle, Mike.
[00:35:35] Speaker C: Yeah, not a bad idea.
[00:35:41] Speaker D: Right. We know that you've got a flight to catch.
There's One last thing that I just wanted to add for anybody who is, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mike, but I believe there is an AI assisted tool to schedule your trip to ise. Whoever you are, it will help you get your dates in, get you, you know, get a planner in place and tell you which halls you need to be in.
Is there anything else that you, you'd like to add before we, we let you go and actually make your flight?
[00:36:11] Speaker C: I mean, firstly, you know, use the tools that are there just to turn up and go wandering around. You'll miss so many opportunities.
So, you know, if you're, if you, if you have to go and justify your trip to somebody, you know, do it well, make sure you've got the justification. If you're just doing for yourself, justify it as well and plan that trip. The tools are there. Everything's there to help you plan it. We have a lot of matchmaking, we have events. If you are a startup looking for investment, we have an investment conference.
If you're looking for a job as a student, we have the Fast Forward Friday. And if you're just someone in the industry looking for a job or looking for job hunters, well, in fact, just throw up the great idea.
[00:36:58] Speaker D: Yeah, come and find me.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:37:03] Speaker D: Thank you so much for your time, Mike. It's been an absolute pleasure. We're so excited to see you in a few short weeks. It won't be long.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: Bring the sunshine. It's freezing here.
[00:37:14] Speaker C: Yeah, it's freezing here as well.
[00:37:17] Speaker D: There's some sunshine in Barcelona.
[00:37:19] Speaker C: Yeah, we had a smattering of snow here in Munich. I mean Munich today. And it's warmed up a little bit.
Barcelona.
I think we should be expecting around 17, 18 degrees, which for us is warm.
The sun usually shines.
Touch wood.
And I can tell you the atmosphere is great.
Yeah, very cool.
[00:37:45] Speaker D: Always is. Thank you.
[00:37:46] Speaker B: What's the website? Where can people go? Where should they go?
[00:37:48] Speaker C: So you want to get more about ISE, go to www.iseurope.org is europe.org. you can find us on LinkedIn under is underscore show and also on X in the same place. Also on you can find us on Instagram and on Facebook.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: That's a wrap on this episode of AV in the Wild. Big thanks to our guests and to you, our listeners, for joining us on this journey through the AV landscape. If you liked what you heard, don't forget to subscribe. Share Leave a Review it helps us keep the conversation going. Catch us next time as we hit the road again. With more voices, more stories, and more of what makes AV wild.
Until then, stay curious, stay connected, and stay wild.
