News

CEA and AE Ventures Announce CEA TechHome Mediterraneo 100 Summit to Focus on European Residential Systems Integration (11/12/2009)

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® today announced a partnership with AE Ventures to produce a new annual, hosted-buyer event for residential systems integration companies in Southern Europe. The CEA TechHome Mediterraneo 100 Summit will host owners and senior executives from the 100 top systems integrators from Italy, France and Spain for three days of intensive education, peer-networking, idea-sharing and high quality contacts with vendor sponsors. The inaugural event will be produced in Milan, Italy in October 2011, with rotation to venues in France and Spain planned for subsequent years.

“CEA is excited to partner with AE Ventures to bring useful events, information products and market development activities to the Southern European market,” said CEA President and CEO, Gary Shapiro. “We are aiming to help systems integrators grow their market, improve their businesses and connect with high quality vendor partners in an efficient and effective way.”

“France, Italy and Spain are the number 2, 4 and 5 economies in the European Union, representing better than 35 percent of the EU’s output and boast population of more than 170 million,” said John Galante, President of AE Ventures. “Yet despite their large size and enormous potential, these Mediterranean nations are not served by dedicated information products, events and research on custom installation and integration. Our collaboration with CEA will help unlock market potential in this region, benefiting both suppliers and integrators.”

The hosted-buyer conference is a common event model in the US IT industry, and AE Ventures has successfully applied it to the custom electronics market in America. Now CEA and AE Ventures, along with Southern European market expert Mongiovi Consulting, will bring the unique benefits of this executive event to the growing markets of Italy, France and Spain.

Forerunners to the event will include CEA TechHome Mediterraneo consumer and business e-media products and research studies. In July 2010 the CEA TechHome Mediterraneo Directory will launch, providing an online resource for connecting consumers, architects, builders, remodelers and residential systems integrators in Southern Europe. In October 2010, CEA TechHome Mediterraneo Biz will launch an online information resource for owners and managers of Southern Europe’s residential systems integration companies. Market research to be conducted includes market sizing, consumer awareness, market pulse, operating ratio, builder and business practice studies.

www.CEA-thm.com