I’m no CEDIA Expo newbie by any stretch of the imagination. But the sense of excitement and anticipation in the run up to the 2026 edition of this event is on a whole different level for me personally. And, selfishly, it has everything to do with the relaunch of the Connected Design brand.
Last year was my first CEDIA Expo after a few years off, and it was certainly exciting then to be back at the custom integration’s marquee event, covering product launches, collecting podcasts, and enjoying the sights and sounds of a show that has plenty of them.
But this year, I get to return to the Colorado Convention Center with a brand in tow that will make its first appearance there in three years.
Call me crazy, but it all feels kind of emotional for me (and a few others, no doubt).
Here’s this little media platform, launched almost a decade ago and put through the absolute wringer. It was left for dead on the cutting room floor in some overseas media room with not a second thought given to its disappearance. Personally, I was in a completely different spot in my career three years ago. Hearing then that the brand had closed up shop, I was sad, but I wouldn’t have ever given two seconds worth of a thought then to having anything to do with it’s possible and eventual return. And now, here we are a few short years later and it’s risen from the ashes like some phoenix, ready to reconnect with the very people it was launched to represent.
Sure, I’ve been having conversations, publishing content, and producing podcasts for the better part of the past eight months. But this feels more like the first time I’m taking my child on some big adventure out into the real world and (re)introducing them to all of my friends and family, curious how they’ll react to meeting them.
The efforts to revive this platform have been a labor of love, and it’s all been building towards this first week in September. While I trapse the halls of Expo, wondering how this event will continue to evolve to meet the needs of our industry, in the back of my mind I’ll be equally curious how others feel about today’s version of Connected Design.
Naturally, there’s some uneasiness. Am I representing the brand well enough? Am I pursuing the right conversations? Does anyone care?
But, at the same time, I carry a sense of pride that I’ve been able to step out independently and pursue this opportunity. And certainly, there’s some validation that the work I’ve done has landed me the opportunity to do things like moderate a panel during the CEDIA Education Conference and interview the leaders behind the association and the show organizers—let alone just be in Denver at all.
My schedule is packed with appointments, demoes, sessions, and more, all of which will result in troves of content that I cannot wait to share through this platform. But what I hope, beyond all else, is that if you see me in Denver, you stop me and tell me what you think of the work we’ve done here and how we can make it better. Because Connected Design was never built to be one person’s platform. It’s meant to be inclusive of our entire industry.
So, as we look to forge connections with those cross-discipline professionals in the builder and design communities in new and unique ways, we’ll continue to seek input from every angle of the custom integration channel. That starts with showing up in Denver next week and getting much needed face time with all of you—something I very much look forward to doing.
