Trade Days At Hi-Fi í99
The Academy Advancing High Performance Audio and Video will be sponsoring Trade Days at Hi-Fi í99, the Home Theater and Specialty Audio Show, taking place at the Palme House Hilton in Chicago, Illinois from May 11-13, 1999. This marks the fourth consecutive year that The Academy has sponsored Trade Days at the Hi-Fi shows. The Music and Film Seminar Series will be expanded in 1999 to a two-track educational program. Each track will consist of the five disciplines showcased at the Seminar Series in 1998: Sales Techniques, Digital Technologies, Room Acoustics, Video Technologies, and Multiroom Design and Installation. Courses in he five disciplines will be offered on the ìAmbassadorî and ìMasterî levels. To qualify for the Master Series, participants must have prior Ambassador certification, or five years minimum experience in high-performance audio/video retail, with a letter signed by the storeowner confirming the participantís employment history. Ambassador courses will be targeted at newly hired salespeople, salespeople coming from mid-fi backgrounds, salespeople with less than five years experience. The Music and Film Seminar Series, designed by Andy Regan, Chairman of the Music and Film Seminar Seies at The Academy, and Vice President of Meridian America, is the centerpiece of Trade Days at the Hi-Fi shows. For the last three years the Series has featured educational and technical seminars on breaking technologies such as DVD and HDTV, and has focused on such topics as how to design and sell high-performance acoustic and video systems. ìIn this age of emerging high-definition and high-resolution formats, the currency of the specialty audio and video retailer is their ability to decode this complex information for their customers. The Music and Film Seminar Seriesí goal is to help these retailers to staff their stores with ëhigh-definitioní salespeople,î explained Regan. ìI am really pleased that The Academy has decided to offer courses in these two tracks,î stated Maura Rieland, Hi-Fi Show Director. ìWe have the opportunity to introduce new salespeople to high-end sales techniques and audio/video technologies, and also to offer courses specifically designed for those trade people whoíve been in the business a long time.