Barcelona, great city that I love (my father grew up there and my grandparents had a long and amazing life there). There will plenty of tips from all corners on food, food+wine, and more food. Here's my tip: maybe not as extreme right near the convention center where they're used to many conventioneers and tourists, but in Spain generally, where the locals go: If you walk into a restaurant at 6-7pm, they'll probably ask you if you're coming in to recover something you accidentally left there at lunch (i.e. around 3-4pm). Dinner time generally in Spanish restaurants: starts getting semi-busy at 9pm, and peak time is closer to 11pm. Good news: at 7pm you can probably have your pick of tables. This is more so in summer. And again, places that cater to visitors' expense accounts will vary. I love the late night hours – midnight dinner in Barcelona and Madrid, I've been to a bunch of them...

My favorite Spanish dish: Black rice, in spanish: "arroz negro"... think a paella-like dish, but the "black" is: squid ink. The rice is prepared with squid ink. You can get it pretty simple, or in variations up to a full paella-like dinner. Arroz Negro with added squid and/or shrimp– will make your trip to ISE worth it before you even see a single dv LED wall.

Thanks for hosting SANJ. So many important issues and challenges. In no particular order:

• Not on the people side per se, but important: Margins/commoditization in AV. Many AV customers can just buy a simple collaboration stack on their own, so how to convince them that there is so much more to AV and experiential and production, and more.
• “Back to the Office” is only about half way there (for knowledge workers in the U.S.– I don’t have stats on other regions… does anyone here?). How do we support messaging that shows how the ideal office is not what many think, but empowers people to new levels wherever they are – but with an emphasis on new generation offices not WFH. Recent research says that people want to return to the office, but only to one that is not 2019-level but much more– and our industry has the tools to build those offices.
• Labor shortages (for lack of a better term) in AV: How do we better attract talent to our industry, and keep them here? Broaden the reach, to be more inclusive; Then broaden opportunity for advancement and mentoring and more, both at trade conferences and throughout the year– that last part is the huge challenge: we of course want people coming in person to the Trade events, but DEI is very much about reaching out to people, not just waiting for them to come to you… AVIXA is doing a great job but the challenge is still a big one and more hands are needed on deck.

Bien hecho, AVIXA!  Felicidades Martin Saul. Ya tengo ganas a ver – que tiene 2023 para todos...

Good, rigorous data, Joé and Peter. Here is where I see opportunity to move in the right direction: Today, women are outnumbering men in higher education. There are about 130 women for every 100 men at four-year colleges, and the gap is even wider at two-year institutions. How do we bridge that divide between the higher ed demographics and our own industry's? By setting up recruitment, intern, and mentoring programs that reach into higher ed to educate and recruit the future workforce, with a focus on DEI. I for one will be developing one such program in Austin. What resources can we bring to make that a nationwide program?

Good points Sean. Note, I do not work in Higher Ed per se, so I look forward to seeing the comments here of those who do. I’m a market analyst, researcher, journalist, and as such I’d predict that the answers to the questions posed here would be wrapped in some way around the following demographics and the changing nature of student bodies on today’s campuses. Consider:

• While the number of undergraduate students in the U.S. dropped by nearly 10% during the pandemic, formerly underrepresented minority applicants increased some 32%, and first-generation applications jumped 43% from 2019 to 2020.
• Hispanic enrollment at four-year institutions is up 287% between 2000 and 2020
• Women are now outnumbering men in higher education.

Will a changing body of students necessitate a reinvestment in technology tools, in individual campuses, and, more broadly, following the patterns of those demographic changes nationwide?

Looking forward to seeing all the AVIXA APAC team, as well as APAC design, integration, and end user community.