[00:00:00] Today's church tech tip is the Wave Conference. Joining us to explain more about this conference
[00:00:05] is Ron Procopio and Mike Brown Sistero. Hey guys, hello. All right, I've heard a rumor
[00:00:12] that Wave is joining forces with Cavalow. Ron, can you tell us what's going on? This
[00:00:16] is true. But where you're actually very excited to do this, coming out of our last event in
[00:00:22] Louisville, Mike at Cavalow reached out to us about the possibility of two events, both with
[00:00:30] the same heart, same ideas coming together and making more opportunities for each other. And
[00:00:35] it was just too good of an offer for us to not work together and create this joint effort.
[00:00:42] That's awesome. So Mike, great to meet you. I hear you run Cavalow. Tell us more about this event
[00:00:48] and how Wave is helping your mission. So I created Cavalow back in 2020 when we were all sitting at
[00:00:56] home, you know, for just six weeks waiting for the curve to flatten and got tired of putting in my
[00:01:03] living room. And 2020 was the year where all of the audio video and lighting trade shows for
[00:01:09] commercial professional products happened to be in Vegas. And even the trade shows that are
[00:01:15] that aren't necessarily about AV, but have a good AV presence. Some of them were also in Vegas.
[00:01:20] The only shows that weren't in Vegas that year were NAMM, of course, always Anaheim. And USITT,
[00:01:26] which rarely I don't know if it's ever come to Vegas. But of course, all those shows,
[00:01:32] 13 of them in total ended up canceling or postponing into 2021. And I thought, you know what? I can
[00:01:37] I know lots of manufacturers. I've been an integrator, an audio video integrator by trade now for
[00:01:43] over 20 years. And lots of manufacturers, I know lots of end users and other integrators.
[00:01:50] I can rent a ballroom and put some people in a room. And so we did. And we originally were going to go
[00:01:56] in September of 2020 that became November, that became February of 2021 finally in May of 2021.
[00:02:03] The very first Cavalow debuted right here at this hotel that happened to be in today doing
[00:02:06] another project, the Orlean Hotel in Casino in Las Vegas. I reached out to Ron.
[00:02:13] Regarding Wave because, listen, first hand, I know how hard it is to do a regional event. It is
[00:02:18] a lot of work. You're not going to retire, you know, stink and rich off of doing regional AV shows.
[00:02:27] So you really have to do it because you're passionate about it and you enjoy it, right? And I
[00:02:32] really love doing the Cavalows. And so I reached out to Ron after St. Louis show and I said, hey, listen,
[00:02:39] instead of both of us kind of dancing around each other and trying to avoid each other on the
[00:02:43] schedule, because most manufacturers are only going to do one regional show per quarter or so.
[00:02:49] Maybe two. But instead of us beating our heads against the wall or against each other,
[00:02:56] trying to fight for good dates and fight good locations, maybe we can work together.
[00:03:00] Let's try it out once or twice. Start with Nashville if it goes well. Maybe we do another one
[00:03:06] and see if that works, right? And I can tell from talking to Ron that his passion is the conference.
[00:03:13] Right? He loves the learning sessions. He loves helping people grow their ministry through the use
[00:03:19] of technology or have their ministry at least be more impactful through the use of technology.
[00:03:25] And I like the trade show aspect. We do discussion panels. We do educational sessions as part
[00:03:31] of Cavalow, but I love the trade show part of it. I love the booths. I love building the floor.
[00:03:35] The floor gets torn down. I love the magic of it, right? You show up one day. Nothing's there.
[00:03:39] Five hours later, there's a trade show. So that's where I think Ron and I can really work together
[00:03:46] and help each other out, frankly. So Ron, what can people expect this year at Wave?
[00:03:51] Yeah, as Mike mentioned, we're really going to benefit from with Cavalow is having a more robust
[00:03:58] textbook floor. Having, you know, we've had traditionally somewhere between 25 and 35 exhibitors
[00:04:04] where when Mike and I are both working on this, we expect that we can bump that up a bit
[00:04:11] and show more technologies to people. The conference part that we've been working on is also going
[00:04:16] to have some really cool stuff. We're going to have some of your traditional lighting design sessions
[00:04:21] and your audio design. But we're incorporating some leadership sessions. We've got an AI session
[00:04:26] where to begin with AI in your church. So we're really trying to have a rounded conference program.
[00:04:34] You know, everybody from the team can come and learn something at the conference and not feel
[00:04:39] that it's dominated by one topic or another. There's something for everybody.
[00:04:43] And Mike, I see on your website here that you get to see the gear and touch the gear.
[00:04:49] You mentioned just a second ago that you really got into the trade show piece of it.
[00:04:54] And even the pictures I see here are amazing. It looks like an awesome trade show environment.
[00:04:59] Who are some of the manufacturers that are coming to this event?
[00:05:01] So as of this morning confirmed, let's see, I'm just drawing a mental picture of the trade show
[00:05:08] of the floor plan, which by the way is available on the website.
[00:05:11] Anybody can download it. We updated every two or three days or so.
[00:05:14] If you go to cavalo.tech-forward-exhibit-scrolldown, you'll see the floor plan. You'll see who'll be there.
[00:05:19] Oh, we've got Meyer Sound, Blaze Audio, Plain R, AMX, JPL, Analog Way, Main Light, Mega, Sweetwater,
[00:05:33] Media Technologies out of Canada. Sound Control Technologies.
[00:05:40] I'm probably missing a few in there, but that gives you a good idea. Oh, Aurora Multimedia.
[00:05:45] That gives you a good cross section. I try, in particular, and I'm sure Ron would agree with me
[00:05:50] that he tries also, and therefore together we both be trying to have a good mix of not just audio,
[00:05:57] video, and lighting manufacturers, but also knowing that there's different segments to those.
[00:06:03] You have the kind of audio that you would use for building video conference rooms in a corporate
[00:06:08] environment versus the kind of live audio production audio. And same thing for video or lighting.
[00:06:14] And I try and have a nice mix of all that. We try to have networking companies there,
[00:06:19] Zeixel, a company that makes networks switches, routers, that sort of stuff. They'll be there
[00:06:24] long time exhibitors. As a matter of fact, I think they've exhibited in every single cavalo.
[00:06:28] So it doesn't really matter what segment or what market you come from. If you're in commercial AV,
[00:06:35] there'll be something there for you. And where's this happening at, Ron? Yeah, we're going to be
[00:06:40] a Nashville Tennessee. We're going to be at the Gaylord Opera Land.
[00:06:44] Ooh, Nashville Tennessee. Now I know why I'm coming to this event. Nashville, Tennessee.
[00:06:50] Yes, sir. At the Gaylord. Yeah, I'm definitely going to be there.
[00:06:53] Yeah, it's a great property, amazing barbecue. If you haven't been, we'll keep you entertained.
[00:07:00] There's food. There's all kinds of stuff. It's not as good as Texas barbecue out here in Dallas.
[00:07:05] I'm right. You will notice what color this shirt is and my company colors happen to be the same
[00:07:13] colors as the greatest university on earth. What would a university with that be? Might as well
[00:07:18] give your shout out, go for it. That would be the University of Texas. Hook them. Yeah.
[00:07:22] Yeah. So Texas barbecue is recognized as the world's best. What Ron meant to say was that the
[00:07:28] barbecue in Tennessee is a close second, a very close second. Well, the Gaylord, all the amenities
[00:07:35] there. It sounds like a really fun, inviting environment for a trade show for a conference with speakers.
[00:07:43] It totally is and you know what it reminds me of. And I'm going to date myself here because a lot of
[00:07:48] your viewers probably have never been to a holiday in halladome. But back in the 60s and 70s,
[00:07:58] holiday in had these train of hotels that had big geo-decec domes made out of glass in the middle.
[00:08:04] And you would walk through the dome to get from, you know, say the pool area to the hotel rooms or
[00:08:09] from the rooms to the restaurant area, right? The lobby and check-in was right usually in the dome
[00:08:13] there. But a lot of them also had like in the dome section, they'd have like a little nine hole put-put,
[00:08:19] you know, course, right? Set up or they'd have an arcade and open air arcade, right? The Gaylord
[00:08:26] and apologies to the Gaylord people because obviously a Gaylord is several steps up from a holiday.
[00:08:31] Yeah, I was about to say they're going to be like, what?
[00:08:36] It reminds me of that though because you can walk this entire property, you know, indoors. They
[00:08:42] have this huge atrium in the middle that has open air restaurants, tropical plants. They have
[00:08:49] coi-pons and bridges going over stuff. This whole, and that's how you get to and from,
[00:08:54] you know, say the hotel rooms to the convention center to the restaurant section. It's this big open
[00:09:01] area like obviously right now it's snowing in Nashville or Tennessee but generally speaking,
[00:09:07] the weather in Tennessee is pretty temperate. If it were in Chicago, this Gaylord would be phenomenal.
[00:09:12] It'd be one of those places like you check in and you'd never have to walk outside until you checked
[00:09:16] out and you could eat it like, you know, 10 different restaurants without ever leaving the property.
[00:09:21] I love the Gaylord. It's a beautiful property. Yeah, plus Nashville has a great, you know,
[00:09:25] downtown area, the Gaylord all encompassing. You can pretty much do whatever you want right inside
[00:09:30] the Gaylord. It's a beautiful complex. It's an awesome place to hold this trade show in conference.
[00:09:37] Yeah, we love it for all those reasons and downtown is, I think, about a 15-minute drive away.
[00:09:43] So super easy to get around. We love Nashville. This will be our second time in Nashville. Actually,
[00:09:47] we were there spring of 2022 as well. Well, if you guys want to take your tech skills to another level,
[00:09:53] meet others like you put your hands on the gear and experience amazing speakers training in education.
[00:09:59] You don't want to miss out on the Wave conference at the Cavalow event. For more information or to
[00:10:04] secure your tickets, please go to wave-event.co that's wave-event.co you can also go to Cavalow.tech
[00:10:15] that's c-a-v-l-o-dot tech. Reap the benefits of the Cavalow trade show and the Wave conference book
[00:10:22] your tickets today by going to wave-event.co or Cavalow.tech. Thank you guys for coming on and
[00:10:31] telling us more about these amazing events. My pleasure. Thank you David.