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TechSpark Showcases the Future of Workplace Collaboration

AV Events

Throughout 2019, AVI-SPL has been hosting its TechSpark series of evening networking events, which give you access to digital workplace experts and technology providers that improve team productivity and reduce your real estate costs.

We’ve already held successful events in Atlanta, Cleveland and Philadelphia. And we’re excited to bring our insight to more cities in September and October, including Dallas, Houston, Toronto, and Los Angeles.

At venues like the Minute Maid Park, the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Porsche Experience Center you’ll learn how the new, agile, digital workplace includes the meeting solutions, video collaboration, and enterprise video capabilities that attract and retain talent.

You’ll understand how to apply technology strategies and solutions that increase business agility and results. You’ll also learn how AVI-SPL services ensure they measure up to your objectives. We’ve got three more events ready for your registration.

TechSpark Cities in 2019

TechSpark Agenda

Each event takes place from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., local time.

  • 5 p.m. – Registration
  • 5:15 p.m. – Welcome by AVI-SPL office representative
  • 5:30 p.m. – Keynote speaker
  • 6 p.m. – Sponsor presentations
  • 6:20 p.m. – Networking
  • 7 p.m. – Q&A: Collaboration and Technology in Your Organization
  • 7:15 p.m. – Prize drawing

Register for the TechSpark event you’d like to attend >

To view our Partner blog, click here

Five Ways to Appreciate Your Employees

AV Everywhere

Today, the calendar on the wall — or your desk, or your smartphone — is asking companies throughout the United States to celebrate Employee Appreciation Day.  Companies are their employees, so a business’s success depends on the success of its workers. To attract and keep the employees that make their businesses succeed, an organization’s leaders should remind them that they are valued. Here are a few ways you can show your appreciation for your colleagues.

1. Provide time off and transportation for volunteer work

Support your employees and their dedication to improving their local communities by organizing or taking part in events that help people in need or causes they believe in. From its Tampa headquarters, AVI-SPL takes an active role in Feeding Children Everywhere, which works to ensure that kids don’t go hungry. We also contribute through groups like Metropolitan Ministries, Paint Your Heart Out Tampa, toy drives, and bike-building events. Go to Charity Navigator to find evaluations of charities and choose the ones that you think are worthy of your effort and will do the most good.

2. Share snacks or have a food truck day

Morning bagels or donuts can help your employees get over the midweek hump and keep them buzzing on Fridays, when energy and enthusiasm flags with the weekend in sight. Once a month, AVI-SPL hosts a free dessert day from our Tampa office. And we often have a different food truck visit our business campus during the Friday lunch hour. Sometimes a department will bring in snacks and share them in the break room. A holiday like Valentine’s Day can provide all the excuse you need for a pizza party that encourages people to get away from their desks and connect with each other.

3. Offer day care services or flexible hours

Show the parents in your office that you value their contribution by giving them the time to care for their children and make it easier to attend to their day care or school schedule. It can be difficult — especially for new parents and those with long commutes — to be away from their children and deal with drop-off and pick-up times, so giving them the opportunity to work from home at least part time (such as the morning or late afternoon hours) can really help those who are always rushing through traffic to make it to work or their kids’ school.

4. Reward employees for outstanding teamwork

Invite employees to nominate each other in recognition of their outstanding teamwork and accomplishments. Winners may be recognized with gift cards, company-wide announcements, and other perks, like a monthly parking spot of their choice. You’ll reward coworkers for their great contributions and inspire others to up their game. Tie accolades to activities designed to increase fitness, like walking competitions, and you’ll have set the stage for a lifelong commitment to one’s health.

5. Provide a modern digital workplace

Empowering employees means committing to a culture that values flexibility in the way they work and generate the ideas that spark a company’s success. Modern digital workplaces with collaboration spaces and their technology systems allow people to share content in real time from their personal devices during same-room gatherings, as well as during video conferences that bring in teams from remote locations (such as another office or one’s home).

By implementing a variety of spaces with collaboration technology that is easy to use and meets the variety of ways people prefer to do their work, you’ll be showing you value your employees by supporting their ability to work efficiently in teams of various sizes, and to do it from a variety of locations. And you’ll be effectively meeting your desired business outcomes.

Transforming the workplace can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Visit AVI-SPL’s landing page “Digital Workplace Strategies to Attract and Retain Top Talent” for a look at the top considerations when choosing collaboration technology for your workplace, the variety of work spaces that support different styles of teamwork, and the technology within those spaces.

To view our Partner blog, click here

Discover the Future of Work With AVI-SPL at ISE 2019

AV Events

The world’s largest exhibition for AV and systems integration begins in less than 24 hours, and AVI-SPL is already there, getting ready to share its latest solutions and services that help companies enter the future of work.

At ISE 2019, guests to AVI-SPL booth 11-C155 will understand what we mean by digital workplace transformation and why it’s so valuable to organizations of all types. In short segments, our staff and special guests will use a five-panel MultiTaction display to explain:

You’ll find the times for these presentations at AVI-SPL’s ISE event website. At our website, you’ll also find a form for requesting a meeting with AVI-SPL representatives to answer your questions.

To view our Partner blog, click here

AVI-SPL and JLL Guide Companies Into the Future of Work

AV Everywhere

We’ve just shared a video about the future of work on the AVI-SPL YouTube channel that shows the efforts of JLL, AVI-SPL and other partners to help companies open up their value by improving how they work. The members of the Project and Development Services Strategic Council also include Interface, Interior Architects, Wiedenbach Brown, and Steelcase.

In this video, produced by VideoLink VLCreative, you’ll see how JLL’s preferred vendors support its “future of work” initiative, which focuses on helping companies find better ways to innovate and collaborate so they lead to better business outcomes.

AVI-SPL contributes by providing its expertise with the AV and collaboration technology solutions and services that improve the worker experience and help them perform their jobs at a high level.

Watch the video and tell AVI-SPL about your company’s goals for being a part of the future of work.

To view our Partner blog, click here

Driving Change in the Workplace

AV Everywhere

You’re committed to improving the way people work at their jobs. How do you get those you’re trying to help — and those whose support you need — to share your enthusiasm for a vision of working smarter?

The term “digital workplace transformation” lends some industry weight to this vision.  But it doesn’t capture the complexities and obstacles different organizations may encounter as they try to improve their internal processes and their ability to interact with customers. It also doesn’t make a case for the benefits, which include helping companies connect with customers (through tools like video collaboration and interactive displays) and making it easier for individuals and teams to work together.

Let’s add some context to our consideration by addressing AVI-SPL’s perspective on — and contributions to — workplace transformation.

AVI-SPL designs, integrates, and supports the type of meeting spaces where it’s easy for participants to start video collaboration meetings, connect personal devices to room systems, and present materials to in-room and remote participants. Among AVI-SPL’s case studies, you’ll find many examples of corporations, museums, and schools using interactive displays to engage their guests so they can find information and get a favorable view of the organization.

As you commit to workplace transformation, consider the value your business provides and how that value could change or be delivered more effectively. AVI-SPL helps companies improve their ability to collaborate in teams because it gives them the technology tools that today’s workers expect to have, and it makes them easy to use. One reason for that ease is automation, where rooms are designed for a minimum number of user interactions to engage any of the major functions. And scalable cloud-based services automate the scheduling, launching, and management of meetings so that they start on time and with no inconvenience to the participants.

Gaining consensus for workplace transformation

Digital workplace transformation requires people and an organizational structure that are open to change and are willing to put in the work to achieve it. To gain consensus for workplace transformation, learn how people want to work, their current struggles, and what kind of functions they expect of their technology systems. By collaborating with consultants and internal focus groups, you’ll identify areas for improvement. The solutions providing that improvement may include a catalog of meeting spaces with systems for video collaboration, simple control of room devices, interactive touch panels, and wireless presentation systems.

Always remember that the end goal is a better way of working together. Don’t undergo a process of change for its own sake, just to say that you’ve done it. The technology systems should fit the workplace culture (be it the current culture or the culture the company wants to emulate).  Because change will affect the entire company, give a voice to different stakeholders, including representatives from HR, marketing, finance, operations, and the like.

Once you’ve determined that change is necessary to improve the way people work, follow these steps laid out by JLL:

  • Those in leadership positions must endorse the commitment to change. If the executives don’t believe in the plan, why should the rest of the company?
  • Understand why employees might be resistant to change. If they are resisting because they think they don’t have the ability to change, or because they won’t have sufficient support, work through these obstacles through workshops and training sessions.
  • The resistance can be cultural (“this is how we’ve always done things”) and personal (“we don’t have the skills “). When you understand different cultures and how they can affect your strategy, you can address employee resistance through training and new processes.
  • Your company’s circumstances should dictate how you implement change. Some companies can change quickly, while others would be better off with an incremental process.
  • Manage your strategy. Be flexible and willing to change the strategy as you learn more about the way your company operates.

The entire business doesn’t have to be ready for change. To make changes on a small scale, focus on a couple of internal groups or departments that would benefit from better collaboration with one another. As they are successful, they can be part of the advocate groups who share the news of their success to the rest of the company.

In the comments, tell me about your challenges with improving the workplace through meeting spaces and collaboration systems. You can also fill out this form and share your questions with AVI-SPL’s collaboration experts.

To view our Partner blog, click here

Work With the AV Partner That Understands What Your Business Needs

AV Everywhere

Dan Newman’s recent article for Commercial Integrator isn’t just a warning to commercial AV businesses; it’s a set of criteria that companies should use when shopping for an AV and unified communications provider.

Dan covers a handful of mistakes that AV integrators need to overcome if they want to remain competitive. Those mistakes include being too slow, incomplete service, and working with the wrong manufacturers.

AVI-SPL isn’t making those mistakes.

Rather, AVI-SPL embodies traits and abilities that companies should look for in a partner that provides digital workplace solutions and services.

  • AVI-SPL Smart Spaces is a catalog of ready-to-deploy meeting rooms that allows for easy collaboration and presentation using the latest in AV and UC technology, including video collaboration and wireless presentation systems.
  • Our research and development team is always improving AVI-SPL’s Symphony managed services platform, which is the cornerstone of its award-winning video managed services. Symphony automates the scheduling, launching, and management of your meetings, gives you the ability to monitor and manage your AV and UC estate (including rooms and devices), and generates the reports you need to guide your AV and UC investment.
  • AVI-SPL is the only AV and UC solutions provider that is part of JLL’s Workplace Strategy Council. To share its commitment to workplace transformation, AVI-SPL hosts educational events throughout North America. JLL, a global professional services company that specializes in real estate, is a valuable partner with us in delivering these events, because they help explain the future of work and how companies must adjust to attract and retain the best employees. I frequently share insights from JLL on this blog, including this one on the 3-30-300 rule.
  • AVI-SPL meets with Fortune 500 companies in its Customer Advisory Board to understand what they need to improve collaboration in the future workplace. These meetings have helped us understand the issues these companies want us to help them solve, including voice control in meeting rooms, workplace flexibility, and the need for video collaboration systems that are reliable and easy to use.

I’d like to hear about your challenges when it comes to improving the workplace experience. Comment below or send me an email. I may use your insight for a future post, and I’ll help guide you toward resources that address those challenges.

To view our Partner blog, click here