I would like opinions from fellow business owners/managers on whether or not CEDIA certifications matter in the day to day craziness of our business. The CEDIA tag line is "If you raise the bar, profits will follow". Has anyone found this to be true/false? Does this make or break any deals with clients? Thanks.

Does this make or break deals with clients? Short answer, I don't believe so. CEDIA certs. are less valuable than the education you receive. If you are already very experienced, which I gather you are, treat it like a check list. They touch on several aspects and by going through their program you will find out if you are deficient in a given area. If you are crazy busy as you say, then you can afford it financially and would have trouble making the time. So treat it like a vacation. You will have the luxury of visiting a part of the country that few get to see. All of the USA is worth visiting in my humble opinion.

Secondly, I've never attended a training program for anything where I haven't learned something of value.

An old boss gave me a credit card and let me "go to town".
I filled out the whole CEDIA weekend schedule with ala carte courses, solid as many as I could squeeze in!

Im with you Junkie. It was a great experience.
Make or break directly with customers? No
Is CEDIA profiting? yep, just a little i'd say
Is it everything? nope
Does it look good on the resume? yes
Was it fun? hell yes!

Any of you that remember car audio from the early/mid 90's may remember MECP certification.

I ran a retail/custom store back then that had a nice little custom mobile operation in addition to our little a/v shop and the 12V reps and industry guys wanted us to spend big dough to get our 12V sales and install staff certified to set us apart as the real experts. So we did.

The next year, they struck a deal and every Best Buy and Circuit City hack in sales or install had to be certified to keep his job. I had a college friend that sold mobile at CC and was (and still is) clueless about audio or anything mechanical, but he got the same MECP cert. that my IASCA winning installers did.

My guys got a pricy training book and then had to go to straight to the test without it. MECP gave the CC guys primer classes which were not available to the other dealers at the time as well as the training books and they held private testing at the CC regional offices that were open book.

CEDIA looks to be taking the high road with this, with continuing education like the AIA and ASID certifications. I hope that CEDIA doesn't whore out their cart. process like the MECP did, but since BB, CC, and Tweeter have so much clout, I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen someday.

All that said, I'm most likely going to get the Designer Cert. at the Expo this year...

But certainly you've seen that AVAD and CEDIA have teamed up to bring the certifications to any Tom, Dick and Harry's AV Company with a biz license to their local branches.

Ultimately the certification will be a bit watered down and the Level I installer test is not that hard (Level II was a lot harder... I feel lucky to have passed).

I still hold it proudly and it has garnered me some kudos with clients. It also puts me near the top of clients looking on the website as companies with certified people are listed first among members. Membership has provided me with over 300K of jobs so I have to say it has been WELL worth it.

Remember also that those who will be obtaining memberships at AVAD will still have to maintain CEDIA CEUs (30 over 3 years). I guess that ultimately brings more attendance to EXPO and Regionals so smart biz on CEDIA's part.

I say do it. Its not that expensive and its kind of a club. I never tell clients that it means that my non-certified competitor doesn't know his s--t though... I just use it to explain that my company spends a lot of time and money on training to keep up with the latest and greatest.

Yeah, I have used the analogy of taking your German car to the dealer's service department or to the corner garage.
The dealer may not be the cheapest way to get the job done, but it's reassuring to see all of those completed factory training certificates in the waiting room.

Sounds like CEDIA has paid off for your company, I can't recall ever getting a lead straight from CEDIA.

Most of the consumer leads I have gotten ofver the years have been from Lexicon from consumers looking to take advantage of the trade in policy. I swear selling that line is like creating little annuities to be cashed in every few years with the trade ins and upgrades.

We have gotten jobs as a result of our CEDIA listing. None of these jobs have been very good though...not sure why that is. The only reason we are going to training eventually is to bump us up on the search and maybe learn a few new things. I think it's probably most beneficial to people with no A/V background. It never hurts to learn something new or re-enforce good habits.

I just spent some time at the CEDIA site browsing the companies that come up at 20, 50, and then 100 miles from my area.

Companies w/ certified staff head the list in alpabetical order, then non-cert dealers in alphabetical order.

I noticed a spike in Installer 1 certs in the 50 and 100 mile lists from the AVAD training, so that is more reason for me to sign up for Expo training and get back on the top of the listings.

I tend to feel that CEDIA will soon lobby the industry to require certified/licensed companies only... like the plumbing or electric trade. But, perhaps, attempt to avoid unions or "brotherhoods" in the process.

For the record, none of my clients ever heard of CEDIA none the less care what CEDIA has to say.

As an analogy, do any of us really care what AAA has to say about windshield washer fluid?

The training to become certified is very valuable. The marketing benefits may be mediocre. However, let us remember this is a business association. We make very valuable contacts with manufacturers, distributors, potential employees/employers, and other business owners. Running a profitable custom design and installation business takes a whole lot more than selling and installing the cool products available on the market. CEDIA is a major support system for professionals in our field of choice. The certification system benefits us all and should be a goal of everyone involved in this industry.

My company has a few different crews that are always busy. I have never lost any job because of any type of cedia certification. Our jobs are all word of mouth, recomendations or because we're locked in with different development companys. I'm all for "certifications" throughout our industry, but don't think for a second that someone who isn't Cedia certified that they're not the right person for the job. I know plenty of guys in the area who do this, some better than others of course, but i seriously doubt cedia certification has anything to do with any of us scoring a job.

Just a drunk kids .02

Mike