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10 minute read
Summary
On this episode of Collaboration Cafe, the Collab Collective’s Craig Durr catches up with Tim Albright, President at AVNation TV, Chris Neto, Head of Emerging Markets at Midwich US, and Nathan Coutinho, Global Head of Strategic Partner Relations and Market Insights at Logitech, during South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
Recorded away from the traditional trade show environment, the conversation explores the value of stepping outside familiar industry spaces to gain fresh perspectives on creativity, technology, community, and authentic engagement. The group also reflects on how relationships, content creation, and shared experiences continue to shape the AV and collaboration industry.
Their discussion covers:
- Creativity Beyond the Booth: Why attending events like SXSW offers fresh perspectives outside traditional AV and UC industry conferences
- Community and Collaboration: How authentic relationships and peer networks help professionals grow, challenge ideas, and strengthen industry connections
- The Human Side of Technology: Why end users care more about experiences and outcomes than technical specifications and industry jargon
- Content Creation and Engagement: How creators, brands, and technology companies connect with audiences across platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok
- Authenticity in Marketing and Media: The balance between supporting brands while maintaining trust, transparency, and meaningful conversations with audiences
- Industry Relationships and Growth: Reflections on mentorship, collaboration over competition, and building long-term professional friendships within the AV community
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Transcript
Craig Durr: Lights, cameras, action, technology, music; it is all coming together here. Where do I find myself? I am in Austin, Texas, for the world-famous South by Southwest music, film, and technology festival.
Why would I be here on an edition of the Collaboration Cafe? It’s because I have a chance to meet up with people, not one, not two, but three friends… people you can know from the industry, from Pro AV, system integrators, UC industry, and we're meeting up here in Austin, Texas, at South by Southwest, with a simple goal: we want to get outside of the norm. We want to find out what it is to put ourselves in a different community and understand what they're thinking about in terms of creativity, culture, and technology coming together.
We're going to be the outsiders looking in. And the idea that we're hoping to do is grab some insights, find out what community means, and bring it back to you. Where's the best place to do it? It's South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Stay tuned. Let's go get a cup of coffee.
We are outside of our norm right now. This isn't our normal area. This isn't a convention floor. There's no booths. We're not going to be seeing familiar faces. This is kind of like exploring areas that we don't know. You got a strategy?
Chris Neto: Here's people with the ISE hanging out versus without.
Craig Durr: So look, I just got off the plane coming back from Enterprise Connect, right? Another industry conference. I mean, a traditional conference that could be an echo chamber, right? Is that the problem? I mean, what are you expecting to get out of here?
Tim Albright: A unique perspective, right? South by Southwest is an intersection between music, technology, and cinema… all of these creatives, right? All of them are leveraging and using the technology that all of us talk about every day. I would argue that one of the driving forces behind ISE’s success is connecting to people that are here and showing them, “Well this, here's some other ways that you can leverage cameras, microphones, light, and things of that nature,” and what this gives us a perspective on people who are using this on a day in, day out basis, to reach people that we typically don't reach, which would be a mass communication audience.
Craig Durr: That’s interesting. What about for you?
Chris Neto: This is home. To me, it's everything you fight against, or at least everything that I don't want to be at a convention center. I love a good conference, not so much for where I'm at. It's where I'm going, right? I'll go to an NAB, I'll go to an InfoComm. I love the meeting, the reason to meet there, you know the LBCC and the OCC is a good place to tell you to meet.
But to grab you, and take you off the show floor, and sit down, and have that conversation off site is 100% more valuable to me than actually being it like we met up at ISE. You cut me outside. If I don't have to be inside, it would be one thing. ISE is the meeting place, but give me a place where I can sit down and casually have the conversation. I get a better conversation, and I get you in a different environment. And I think convention centers automatically amp up a stress level, right? If you go see Nathan at Logitech, you will see Nathan in full work mode.
Nathan Coutinho: This is true.
Chris Neto: Get them two steps away from the booth or outside, and you get a different version of them.
Craig Durr: That's the Nathan I like to ask, by the way.
Chris Neto: He’s dialed down from a ten to a seven.
Craig Durr: Put on your Logitech hat for one moment. This isn't traditional for you guys to be here. Why would you be here?
Nathan Coutinho: I think for our consumer division, definitely. We've been to South by Southwest several times. But you know, our users are now everywhere. What I mean by that is that people were picking platforms to spend their time on. Some are only on LinkedIn, aka me. There are a lot that do only Instagram and not Tiktok. Some will do tech talk and not Facebook, right?
The reality is, your users are going to find different platforms to be on. When you think about our users, they are everywhere, especially the creative types. I mean, everyone's using our mice, our keyboards, and our webcam. I can get going on our board products, but the reality is, we can’t get to all of them. We go to an IC great shore for IT buyers for CIOS; our users are not there. So how do you get them to experience new things?
And that's why we're doing all the different activations here at South by Southwest, because these are our people that are actually using it. They may not be buying it directly. They might be being given a Logitech mouse, but this is a way to say, “Hey, this is what's new. This is what we're all about.” And can it create a little bit more loyalty and brand recognition.
Chris Neto: Yeah, it's for the end user. Ultimately, we're all in the content business because it always ends up in a certain spot, whether we're building a studio right for them to record stuff on an enterprise level, or if you're providing a keyboard that they're working in their home office, the content creation is there. And I think expression is one of the things that's our roots of AV. AV is everybody that didn't make it as a musician or filmmaker.
Craig Durr: Remember that line from the movie, right? Those who can't do, teach; and those who can't teach, teach gym.
We drown ourselves in acronyms that mean absolutely crap to everyone else outside of this fair. And so we're gonna have these guys who are not gonna know what some of these terms are on mic levels, gain volume things. They’re going to be like, “I can't hear myself,” and they’re not gonna think about the camera, about auto focus, AI framing, or whatever else. They’re like, “I can't see, I don't know who you are.”
I think this is kind of a little bit of a roots tour, and hopefully a little bit of a humble pie to kind of set the stage to say, “Oh, this is the people who are using things. This is how they're using it. This is why they're using work.”
Where we all come from, the people we know in 15 years history… Nathan and I, we've known each other for a while. Community is a big part of this right now. Is that like a secret power, superpower for us? You think, because we're all putting ourselves out there, we all get online, we're like, “I think this post is going to flop. I don't know what. What's wrong with this? Why is no one liking me?”
Tim Albright: I think community is intrinsically important to just life in general, but especially what we do because we could be our own worst echo chamber, if we're allowed to. If we allow ourselves to sit in our office, and for me, nobody's liking my post, where a community like this, a community like anything, it gives you an outside perspective. It gives you, usually, non-judgmental feedback, and it makes you better. One thing that Chris and I have done over the years, we sharpen each other, we challenge each other, and we push each other. The community that you've built, we push each other, right?
Nathan Coutinho: Most of this started with the internet for us, right? And not just technologically, but just it started with ZDNET comments. I remember, if you Google, you'll find some crazy theories I had back in the early 90s, which didn't actually happen. But then we started with YouTube, and then YouTube comments. And then I feel like everyone sometimes has too much of a voice online. We'll agree with that, but I feel like that created the first level of, “Okay, now I can actually talk and get feedback right away.”
But now the problem is, it's everywhere. It's Instagram, it's TikTok. It's like that, so I think it's definitely community. But yeah, it's huge now, and it's over different platforms.
Craig Durr: There is community: our audience, and then there's community who we confide in to help us talk to that audience as well.
Chris Neto: Yeah, I will tell you that without the community, I would be nowhere because I'm just the fat kid from Jersey…
Craig Durr: You’re always gonna drop that line.
Chris Neto: I gotta, but it's how you kind of know that I came from the bottom up. And I think part of the appeal, of why I connect with folks, is because I've been the installer. Now that I'm in this role, which is not technically a role that you assume, but there's a responsibility. And with that power comes the responsibility, right, Spider-Man? That's kind of like where we got to go with this. The community is everything, and I think what corporate marketing wants is that attachment to community.
The hardest part about that is how do you endear folks to that group? And what I created with AV at the AM is not easy, just bring it in and say, “Because of this, you're going to like that.” Yeah, it's not like that. You kind of have to assume that you're still helping uncover things. One of the things that the community loves is to see us in the wild, in our setting.
Tim Albright: Chris and I had a very interesting story 15 years ago. Now, that's a long time ago. He and I were just getting our footing in what I will say the community building and the content creation space inside AV, and he and I could have very easily became rivals, right? Not that Chris had a podcast, not that I was doing articles, because he was writing articles for SCN and from others, but there was an opportunity there for us to absolutely be rivals, and we didn't, because both of us saw each other as an opportunity to make the other one better.
I have said this before. I am naturally an introvert. Mr. Nutter was not, but we were able to see the benefits of that of a burgeoning relationship that is obviously trying to do a much deeper friendship. But there is a choice that has to be made, right?
Chris Neto: It's always a fork in the road.
Tim Albright: Yeah, sometimes it's a several pronged form, right? And you have that choice to say, “Okay, here is somebody that I can help, but can also, you know, make me better.” I said there are certainly opportunities for that rivalry, but if you choose to, you can not only make yourself better by helping somebody else, but you would also grow the community and make it stronger.
Chris Neto: And my side of that story was Tim was building a pirate radio, and I love that. I love the Rock and Roll aspect of it, like it was doing something that others were… we were broadcasting off an oil rig off the coast. It was that mentality, right? You take things back.
Craig Durr: I try to remain authentic. I literally try to use that word every time, because you're the kid from New Jersey. I'm not gonna say fat kid. I'm the goofball that hopefully is not afraid to ask the questions. Maybe use the wrong term and have somebody bring me along because if they're bringing me along, maybe they're bringing along someone who's watching or reading as well, and they can learn the whole process.
Nathan Coutinho: So what's the difference with him? His community drives the questions for AV in the AM. Yeah, he doesn't necessarily have an agenda. Saying, I want to talk about X, Y, and Z today. Sometimes you mind, but for the most part, it's like, what do you guys want? You are my community. What do you want to talk about? And that's what I appreciate. So everyone feels like they have a voice, and then they get feedback from everyone.
Craig Durr: So let me ask you, have we crossed the line where we are still being authentic, or are we still… I mean, it's a line. I get that challenge all the time. The challenge is, am I being paid to play? I am helping brands bring their message to people, but I am trying to ask the questions so that people can choose for themselves, see between the marketing lines, if it's for them or not. I hope that helps, but that's what I do.
Chris Neto: You know, it's hard for a company… none of this, and you ask the question, none of this is something that you get out of a bottle. You don't buy it as a happy meal. It's not a pre-packaged thing. And what's tough about marketing, community, and authenticity, you know, being authentic is not on a spreadsheet. And that's how we all in the corporate world will think. What's the data? What's the analytics? Those are wonderful. Those are the driving factors, the algorithm, and we all try to crack algorithms, right?
But the fact is, you're not your true self, and you're not your authentic self, until you let your hair down, or you're in a comfortable setting interviewing, and you've done this before. You've interviewed CEOs. You can interview them in their office, and that's one thing.
Craig Durr: Yeah, interview them over a cup of coffee.
Chris Neto: Over a cup of coffee. It's a different setting. Interview them where they have… say, their car geeks, and you interview them in their garage while they have the hood of their 68 Vettel… that's a different person.
Craig Durr: People want to do business with people, is what I believe. And that's actually a great lens to use going to this event. We're going to see pop ups, we're going to see OpenAI and they're going to be big here, and I challenge you guys in your time here to kind of see through that, to get to those authentic conversations, get to the uncomfortable zones.
Chris Neto: We specialize in making things uncomfortable.
Craig Durr: Let's get out of here. Come on. We got to get you guys off to your panel, right?
Tim Albright: The reason I'm going to panel is just to learn, right? Number one, what are some of these folks' challenges, and how are they meeting those challenges?
Craig Durr: Okay, and Nathan, where are you going?
Nathan Coutinho: I'm going upstairs. This is me.
Craig Durr: All right, I'll see you guys later. Thank you for the coffee and the conversation. You have a good one.
Chris Neto: You go be Nathan. I'm here on a purpose. I'd never reveal my purpose. Come on, dude, that's like having a movie and revealing the first five minutes what the story's about.
Craig Durr: All right. Well, I guess this leaves me here. We'll wrap it up. So we're looking forward to seeing some new ideas, getting outside of our norm, and talking to people we don't normally talk to. We're thinking about the idea of what is out there that's outside of our own echo chamber. And I think we're gonna have some good insights between Nathan, Tim, Chris, we'll bring some in.
So anyway, join us again for the next episode of the Collaboration Cafe. I'll bring together some more friends, families, insiders, and we'll talk about what's taking place inside our industry, and outside as well. Take care. We'll see you later.