AliceThis year Future Technologies’ Rich Green is taking his talents to ISE, leading four different educational talks across five days.
Rich is one of CEDIA’s most highly regarded instructors, his classes being very popular with home technology professionals keen to learn from his expertise developed from years of building relationships within Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other brilliant minds.
How did you get started in this industry?
I started in 1978 by installing stereo systems for Simon Zreczny at Audio Consultants in Evanston, Illinois, right out of my college years at Northwestern University studying Anthropology.
Serving fascinating characters (clients) around the Chicago area hooked me and it became a life-long career. I’ve always been intrigued by how we perceive music and working with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti and Sir George Solti were an invaluable gift during those early years.
We must always cherish the relationships with special people that this industry enables. What a great industry we have!
Joining CEDIA in 1992 helped me stay focused on continuous learning. It’s been an amazing career – thank you CEDIA!
You are known as a bit of a futurist, where do you get your insights on the future of this industry?
I started teaching ‘Future Technologies-The Inside Scoop from Silicon Valley’ after working in and around the Palo Alto area during the 1990’s.
My first class was at CEDIA Expo in 1997 and I’ve been developing the concepts ever since.
Many local world-changing entrepreneurs became my clients and I took the opportunity to talk to them about future development in their companies. Those were heady days with Jim Clark and Mark Andreeson starting Netscape, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Chuck Geschke (Adobe), Lew Platt (HP), Evan Williams (Twitter), Tony Fadell (Nest) and many more.
I attend lectures at Stanford University and many other Silicon Valley insider events. This is where most of my insight comes from, but I also track technology news on a daily basis.
Many of my current clients are venture capitalists and watching their investments is another window to the future.
Your class ‘Future Technologies-The Inside Scoop From Silicon Valley’ is an attendee favourite (and often a sell-out) at the CEDIA show; what can ISE attendees expect from this course?
Fasten your seat belts! This will be an intense class. There is so much happening right now in virtual reality, artificial intelligence, natural user interfaces, IoT, mobile, wearables; it makes my head spin.
I will clarify which technologies will shape the future of our industry and hopefully give insight to the design underpinnings that can help us deliver more ‘human’ custom systems.
The other courses you are teaching are more on the design side – where do you see the future of design heading for this industry?
CEDIA’s middle name is design and I feel it is the single more important aspect of our work, and possibly the most profitable. Design Thinking came about here in Palo Alto and I am very close to the Design School at Stanford University as well as other design firms in the area.
I will share the methods of human-centred design that are exploding in all facets of technology. The ISE Design Thinking-Client Discovery workshop with Peter Aylett is not to be missed.
It is a powerful, action-packed follow up to the Future Technology class. Peter Aylett and I will provide design tools you can take back and implement in your companies. It’s the real deal, very hands-on and loads of fun.
You’ve never attended ISE before. What are you most looking forward to at this show?
I can’t tell you how excited I am to attend ISE this year. Yes, this will be my first.
It is one of the most important shows on earth and I look forward to learning about all the innovation that is happening around the world.
CEDIA is global and our community should take every opportunity to reach out, listen and learn from our peers. Sure, I’ll be doing a lot of talking at ISE, but I also intend to do a lot of listening.
This show is a super-nova of innovation and business excellence. Oh, and I think we will find some good beer. Wahooo! See you there!
