New CEDIA CEO Sees Mainstream Opportunity Emerging From Pandemic

A year after announcing the departure of CEO Tabatha O’Connor when her contract wasn’t renewed, CEDIA named former Recording Academy executive Daryl Friedman CEO Wednesday, to fill a role that the CEDIA board has played since O'Connor's departure. Friedman begins a three-year term Nov. 29. Friedman’s “decades” of nonprofit experience in trade association leadership includes overseeing membership, advocacy, industry relations and the technical wing for the Recording Academy, the same kind of “skill set” he will bring to the custom electronics industry association, Friedman told us Tuesday under embargo. He also brings knowledge of the audio industry, he said, citing the Producers and Engineers Wing’s 2014 endorsement of CEDIA’s high-res audio training program for home technology professionals. On his vision for CEDIA’s future, Friedman said he would like CEDIA to become “a household name” for anyone looking to install residential technology. “We want them to use a professional integrator, we want them to use a knowledgeable, certified integrator, and that’s an area I can help with,” he said. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a “once in a generation shift in mentality about residential technology,” Friedman said. “Because of what we just went through, people have an awareness of the need for the home technology sector,” which creates a more mainstream opportunity for the channel to address home-based technology needs for education, wellness, security and safety and energy efficiency. “CEDIA can be a catalyst to help it move it even more mainstream,” he said. On challenges facing the organization, Friedman said, “Coming out of the pandemic, if we miss this moment in time when everybody is thinking about the home in a different way, it’ll be a very big lost opportunity.” He plans to travel to meet with CEDIA members to learn what’s important to them and create a strategic plan that capitalizes on the opportunity created by the pandemic.