Tips To Effectively Communicate
In any industry, effective communication is the key to building long-lasting connections and creating meaningful messaging for your audience or customer. Let’s take a look at the strategy behind effective communication.
First, we’ll begin with understanding the difference between communication and effective communication. Communication can easily be described or broken down as the delivering of information, but effective communication is when the information is actually able to be received by the audience. This is an important distinction because while the delivering of your message or information may be great, if the information is not received and understood, then the message is not effective. This can be difficult when you are talking to a larger audience, as everyone tends to learn, take in, and understand information in different ways, but the goal is to make whoever you are speaking with truly understand what you are saying.
Personally, this is a skill that I have been trying to work on, as I have noticed that I can have a tendency to be long-winded at times in conversation. I have been working on trying to utilize some strategies that make myself better with effective communication.
Below are a few simple tips for effective communication.
- Try to avoid making the individual you are talking to – or working with – feel that they are being held hostage in a conversation. This can mean that either you, or the other individual in the conversation, is not able to get a word in. We tend to see this in conversation when someone is continuously being talked over or interrupted as they are trying to speak.
- When you are having a conversation, try to make the point clear and succinct. Try to boil down what you are looking to say into fewer words, as it will make it easier for the other person to understand what you are saying or requesting from them. It’s essential to not provide too much information at once, your message can often get lost when too much detail is provided.
- Try to avoid being the person who is talking way longer than you need to be. Although it’s a common to go off on a tangent, these lone expressions inconversation are frequently perceived as rambling.
These are only a few simple ideas to try and focus on or start with that I have found beneficial for myself. I challenge you to try and focus on at least one, if not all of these simple techniques to help effectively communicate better.
Being that I am now 42 years old and have worked in Telecom and AV for the better part of 2 decades, I have 12+ trips to Las Vegas completed and feel like I know what to expect each time I fly into Harry Reid International Airport. First, it was the annual DIRECTV Revolution Conference, then it was Channel Partners, followed by InfoComm in alternating years. As I have explained to my wife (who has never been), I feel like the mystique of Las Vegas wears off after the first or second trip out there. However, when I was approached back in 2019 with the chance to attend my first ever JBL Fest, I felt the type of excitement as if I had never been there and was eager to experience a new list of firsts. Unfortunately, a family health scare cancelled my trip that year and 2 years-worth of a Pandemic further delayed my first JBL Fest until 2022. Having enjoyed last year as much as I did, I still felt a certain sense of the “exciting unknown” when I was invited to attend again this year. Along with our Exertis Almo Incentive Winners – Josh Taylor, Kyle Smith, Randy Robinovitch, and Ray Farler, I headed out to Las Vegas and made sure to document JBL Fest 2023 for all of you!
Landing Las Vegas, you are almost immediately greeted by hosts holding “JBL Fest” signage at the baggage claim area and are ushered to a waiting shuttle (aka a rather swanky party bus) which took us to the Park MGM where we would be staying for the next 2 days. Surprise #1 on this trip was while I was checking in and I lift my head to notice Kevin Humphrey, Harman Distribution Manager (and close friend), standing next to me. I have always said that I am only as successful as those around me, so to be able to share this experience with someone deserving like Kevin made the event that much more rewarding. We then walked to the Hospitality Suite where I received a welcome packet and the “infamous” JBL Fest Swag Bag. This year, the bag contained several JBL branded items such as water bottles and hand sanitizer, but the highlight was the customized pair of JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds. If you are not familiar with these, they are JBL’s newest noise cancelling earbuds which were featured in WIRED’s Best of CES 2023. Spatial Audio, wireless charging, and a first of its kind touch display on the charging case make these anything but your typical earbuds. I had to open and pair them with my phone the second I got to my room! Once we got to the complimentary lunch, I was able to meet with our team as well as with Frank Joseph and Whitney Bosch from the Harman marketing team as we game-planned the day and discussed all that was happening.
Next stop was a VIP-access tour of Allegiant Stadium which is where the Las Vegas Raiders play their home games. Seeing as how I just recently took my daughter on a tour of Citizens Bank Park as well as Lincoln Financial Field, this was right up my alley! Aside from going down to the field level and experiencing this newer facility up close, we received some behind the scenes sneak peaks into the A/V which included their control/IT room which housed an impressive 50+ Crown DCI4x1250N amplifiers and multiple BSS Processors amongst other items. Simply standing next to the rack of amps was eye-opening as you realize how much it takes to truly power that type of operation. While we didn’t get up close to the speakers, we did learn it was the JBL VLA Series of Line Array Speakers which are typically found in stadium-type applications. Following the tour we had a little downtime before meeting up for the evening welcoming reception at the Hotel, which we were greeted by a team photo opportunity and another swag bag complete with a custom JBL Fest Masterclass Bluetooth speaker. This opening event was followed by an even bigger party at the onsite club. Mingling with a diverse group of worldwide influencers and Harman executives is always fun but I was fortunate enough to make my way to the Harman VIP lounge which then led to a once in a lifetime opportunity! Kyle Smith and I were invited into a back room where we met and had a photo opportunity with Lenny Kravitz! To finish things off was a rather surprise appearance from Grammy winning artist Bruno Mars who sang along with some of his biggest hits. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday night!
Waking up on Friday I knew we were in for a long but rewarding day. First off was breakfast which came complete with a Johnny Fly Sunglasses gifting station! You essentially walk up and try on several pairs of high-end sunglasses and then say “ok ill take these”. The wrap them up in a custom JBL case and you are on your way! We then made our way to the Installed Audio Masterclass presented by 
We immediately went to the JBL Stage with VIP access where we all met up for drinks, food, and music. I ventured off while Bebe Rexha was performing and found myself with perfect view of the main stage where an EDM DJ was getting the crowd fired up for the next act. After looking through the street vendors and other areas, I called it a night as I listened to Bebe Rexha perform with special guest Tyler Hubbard (from Florida Georgia Line). The Killers were the headliner of Friday night and through videos I saw from Josh Taylor, it seemed our entire team left the trip on a high note!
Now, suddenly, we are running out of ceiling height to get into that sweet spot of a comfortable viewing angle for our audience. That 110-inch display you just ordered might not allow you to get 48 inches above the finished floor, which means we might have unusable content space when a conference table is in the way or for someone in the back row. An easy fix would be running a 2×1 display wall and using your 55-inch or 65-inch displays to show your desired content. Now, we don’t have the ease or clean aesthetic of one display in your conference room. That is where *shameless plug* something like the Avocor 105-inch 21:9 displays comes into place.
I remember working in the garage as a kid with my dad, and it seemed like 80% of the time we were cleaning up and 20% of the time we were actually working on a project. He would always say, “a clean workspace is a safe workspace!”
For dvLED displays, the site prep requirements are pretty rigid, and for good reason. I’m going to discuss a few universal requirements that you will run into on almost every dvLED project.
We all had similar thoughts. And now, the role of BDM has an even bigger meaning.”
