The Home Automation and Networking Association (HANA), Washington, D.C., the sponsor of one of the largest home networking conferences in the industry, has joined forces with the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), Arlington, Va.
CEA will assume the sponsorship of the Electronic House Expo, a trade show and conference for installers, builders, contractors and distributors, starting with the spring show March 6-9 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. The show, which is in its third year, is recognized as the fastest-growing event in the home-automation industry.
“The Spring 2001 Electronic House (EH) Expo grew about 35 percent in both exhibit space and attendance,” said John Galante, vice president of EH Events and Education, Oakton, Va. “For the Fall Expo, we tripled our exhibit space and doubled our attendance.”
HANA, a 12-year-old trade association, became CEA's new Home and Networking (HAN) Division as a result of the merger, which went into effect Jan. 1. HANA's president, Duane Paulson, will serve as the chair of the HAN division, but the other members of HANA will not transfer over to CEA.
“The board of directors are going to continue on as the acting board of this membership division within CEA, but there will be an entirely new staff,” Galante said.
HANA currently has 500 members, who will all benefit from the merger of CEA and HANA, Galante said.
“The home-automation and networking companies are going to have an organization with more resources and expertise behind them,” Galante said. “It should mean higher-quality programs and faster development of the market for those products.”
Galante said the merger allows the two associations to draw on their strengths and work together to promote the home-networking industry.
“The primary constituency of HANA has been automation and networking companies both at the manufacturing and at the trade level,” Galante said. “CEA has strength of membership in categories such as audio and video. All of that is coming together in the home ultimately, so the industry sectors should be able to cooperate more effectively in this context.”