Let me start by saying I actually don’t know David Labuskes very well personally. He has always been kind to me and generous with his time when I needed something. In fact, he offered up an hour of his time a few years back to help me navigate possible futures within the AV industry. I’ve been grateful for the interactions we’ve had one-on-one, as well as the opportunities I’ve been given to contribute to AVIXA’s various initiatives under his leadership.

When I heard that he was retiring, my first thought was that I was happy for him. I can’t imagine the amount of hours and stress that must come with leading such a large organization, especially through the pandemic, when live shows— AVIXA’s main source of income—were taken away with no warning.

I didn’t really think too much about what we may be losing as an industry with his departure, but upon reflection, Dave’s legacy will be one worth remembering and studying.

David Labuskes became CEO of InfoComm in 2013, with the moniker being both the name of the organization and the trade show at the time.

Not long after, in 2014, InfoComm announced the Audiovisual Provider of Excellence (APEx) program, and I remember being excited about the change.  The previous program, meant to rate integration companies’ work, failed in one key area: It didn’t ever ask the customer what they thought about the work they received. It was a self assessment, and as most self assessments go, I’m sure most companies rated themselves rather well. APEx changed that and asked the customer what they thought.

Although APEx was discontinued in 2022, I saw it as InfoComm’s first serious nod toward customer “experience” as a core pillar of the organization, and for that, I was impressed.

In 2017, InfoComm made a bold and somewhat controversial move: rebranding. The organization changed its name from InfoComm International to the Audio Visual and Integrated Experience Association, AVIXA. Whether you loved the name or not, (insert “Ask your doctor if AVIXA is right for you” joke here), the rebrand was the right move. I personally loved the change and wrote about it here on rAVe.

https://ravepubs.com/avixa-dawning-av-x-men-women-course/

After the rebrand in 2017, AVIXA introduced a new pre-InfoComm conference that focused on Technology, Innovation, Design and Experience called TIDE. TIDE was a great effort to bring experience to the forefront of the conversation and bring in new members. Talks by well known creators and innovators headlined the schedule. TIDE ran for three years, from 2017 to 2019, and then the live format was discontinued for a TIDE Generator podcast series headed up by my good friend (I think she’d allow that) Kirsten Nelson.

I feel like TIDE may have been slightly ahead of the curve for an industry moving from AV to experience, but they might want to bring it back again in the future (Hint).

2020 brought challenges to the whole industry, with no portion of AV suffering more than the live-events teams. For every commercial AV professional complaining that the pandemic was hard, there were five live AV people ready to hand you their beer. InfoComm was virtual one year and really small the next, but it lived. That’s more than can be said for some other technology shows that existed pre-pandemic.

Every cloud has a silver lining, and for the AV industry it was that after the storm, technology was no longer an optional conversation and the world was rapidly scrambling to build the infrastructure for hybrid work. AV systems were now tied tightly to IT-owned platforms like Teams and Zoom. This made the decade-long conversation about IT and AV convergence a moot point.

Labuskes had always seen AV as a highly specialized and important part of the IT ecosystem, so it was no surprise that AVIXA announced their Audiovisual Network Professional (ANP) certification in 2023 to help establish a benchmark for AV and IT professionals deploying AV over networks.

Looking back and connecting the dots, those moves seemed less like isolated decisions and more like a consistent philosophy.

With the announcement of his retirement in 2026, it wouldn’t have been atypical for Dave to pull up his legs and coast a little into the sunset. However, that’s not what happened. AVIXA announced the introduction of Reside, a residential component coming to InfoComm in 2027, as well as the acquisition of the Lightapalooza show, which focuses on lighting automation, further expanding AVIXA’s experiential reach.

Over the course of Labuskes’ tenure, AVIXA has continued to push the conversation forward, and as such, even though overall attendance may be down from pre-pandemic levels, the percentage of customers and creatives attending is higher than ever.

(See my recap of InfoComm 2026 here)

The legacy of David Labuskes will be one of broadening the conversation, increasing our industry’s credibility and inviting more people to the table. He is also handing off the baton in a full sprint.

AVIXA has not announced who will helm the organization next, but with the emergence of AI, the potential for hyper-personalized experiences at scale and the potential opportunity for revolutionary changes in the way the world does business, I’m looking forward to seeing who they think is up for the task.

In any case, whoever steps forward will be standing on a solid foundation thanks to David Labuskes, and for that, I give a thankful nod.