Zigzag with Jenn at InfoComm and Learn Tons

Jenn Steinhardt, CTS-D, CTS Audiovisual Design Consultant, Associate Shen Milsom & Wilke LLC
(Image credit: Future)

AV Technology asked Jenn Steinhardt, CTS-D, CTS, Audiovisual Design Consultant, Associate at Shen Milsom & Wilke LLC to share some insight into sessions and panels she will be moderating during InfoComm 2024. To say she is excited is an understatement. 

At InfoComm 2024, you're not going to want to miss my sessions. And if nothing else, it will be entertaining watching me zigzag between halls. But seriously, there's something for everyone.

On Wednesday, in the AVIXA Members Lounge, join the Diversity Council Meetup from 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. for networking and updates on what's latest with the council.

Thursday, at 11:30 a.m., I'll be moderating the panel Trend Forecast: Enterprise IT, with perspectives from all-stars such as Oliver Van Camp from Barco, Jimmy Vaughan from Microsoft, Hope Roth from Q-SYS and Colin Birney from AV MSP. It'll be lively discussions around AI, the cloud, and how to manage, monitor and secure AV on the network in the constantly evolving land of hybrid. Whether you're on the IT or AV side of the house, this session is not to be missed and come prepared with questions!

You'll want to catch Documentation and Coordination Strategies for Network Design which kicks off Thursday at 1:00 p.m. I'm quite excited about this one because there are a ton of sessions about how to measure or estimate this and that (yes these is certainly the technical terms), but this session will focus on the documentation and coordination points. This will be good for those in IT and AV. If this wasn't incentive enough, there is 1 ANP (AV Networking Professional) renewal credit available for attending.

If you weren't sick of me yet, Designing Sustainably is an education session that I hope everyone within room capacity can join at 2:30 p.m. Attendees will gain an understanding of what makes an audiovisual system sustainable and environmentally friendly from design to product's end of life. Designers will leave with skills to better document project requirements for sustainability and assess client needs. End users can gain perspectives to reflect on their organization as well. With so many ways to define "what's sustainability," this session will lean into breaking down the AVIXA standard for energy management and ways to use this to guide conversations.

Then, on Friday at 9:30 a.m., we get to the leadership-oriented sessions. The Diversity Council keynote will kick off Celebrate: Strategies for Communication, Support, and Peace at the Technology Innovation Stage. Christina Aldan, Brand Strategy Consultant at Arana Software, will present strategies on career-growth skills like handling feedback, mentorship, micro-affirmation language, and uplifting perspectives to foster a healthy work environment. Right after the AVIXA XChange Live stage, I'll be on a panel, Wellness in the Workplace: A Focus on Mental Health. This last session is very dear to my heart as a neurodiverse, non-binary woman.

My hope is that these sessions will stir conversations, break stigmas wherever they may be, and unfold some inspiration and new ideas, as well as provide some tools or frameworks to approach topics around networking, sustainability, and mental health.

Jenn Steinhardt, CTS-D, CTS
Audiovisual Design Consultant, Associate at Shen Milsom & Wilke LLC

Jenn Steinhardt is an AV Design Consultant for Shen Milsom & Wilke (SM&W), but you may also know her as @NerdyGirlAV in the Twitterverse. She has been in the AV industry for over five years, and her background in DEI advocacy stems from her undergraduate in Media Arts and Design and graduate degree in Sociology. Jenn was also a part of SCN The Nine: Class of 2021 and Class of 2022 Commercial Integrators 40 Under 40.