Stampede Celebrates Twenty Years of Innovation at Its 2017 United States Vendor SummitIn the ever-changing pro AV landscape, evolution and innovation are the keys to continued success. That was the point made by Stampede president and COO Kevin Kelly to vendors, industry professionals, and sales team members at the company's 2017 United States Vendor Summit. This approach to the industry, said Kelly, has paved the way for Stampede to achieve 20 years of innovation along with a record-breaking 33-percent increase in overall revenue in the past year alone. The annual three-day summit was held in Buffalo, New York from October 16 - 18, 2017, and featured a keynote presentation by AVIXA CEO Dave Labuskes, two days of vendor exhibitions, one-on-one "speed dating" style sales meetings, a state-of-the-business presentation, and a half-day Drone Vendor Summit -- in addition to evening receptions designed to foster closer business relationships. "What better way to celebrate 20 years of growth than with a record-breaking year of sales," Kelly said during the executive presentation on Tuesday. "Quite simply, Stampede's success is hinged in our ability to create new ways to deliver recurring revenue opportunities for our vendors. With a laser-focused sales team, strategically aligned resources, and the proven ability to convert emerging trends into new revenue streams, we have expanded from a regional distributor to a global distributor. Over the past two decades, Stampede has become a worldwide enterprise that quickly adapts to market changes and capitalizes on upcoming trends that result in revenue gains for all of our partners." According to Kelly, Stampede has capitalized on the growing role that distribution continues to have in the AV marketplace. In fact, the pro AV industry has experienced record-breaking growth this year as well, with growth in the projection category, the audio category, and the LED display category. "We are experiencing profitable times in the AV business, and Stampede's success is a clear reflection of the industry's growth as we continue to drive revenue opportunities across many applications," Kelly commented. In the past year, Stampede has continued to strengthen its involvement with a broad range of commercial vertical markets, including corporate, education, government, hospitality, retail, amusement, and health care, assisting with high-profile installations at clients like McDonald's, SunTrust, Snapchat, and more. "More than ever before, Stampede is helping to deliver the AV experience to companies around the globe," Kelly asserted, "and we are doing so by partnering with manufacturers and solutions providers that we are proud to represent." Stampede has added global manufacturers to its roster in the past year, with more than 20 new manufacturers currently finalizing their partnership contracts. According to Kelly, Stampede chooses each new partner carefully to complement current vendors, with the ultimate goal of providing resellers, and in turn, end-users, with a cohesive solution built entirely from Stampede's portfolio. As Stampede's roster of offerings increases, they continue to invest in new resources for their partners. Backing up this assertion with action, Stampede unveiled several new initiatives that will be rolled out over the course of 2018 -- including a new business intelligence team, LED technology solutions centers, Stampede 1:1 power networking events, and special 20th anniversary sales promotions. These new initiatives are in addition to the company's already rock solid program of sales and marketing programs that include the now globally focused Stampede Big Book of AV Tour & Conference Series, participation in major industry trade shows in the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific and strategic partnerships with Unmanned Vehicle University and Unmanned Vehicle Insurance to provide the necessary training and insurance required of today's growing base of drone and drone video system operators. As part of the expanding business intelligence team, Kelly noted that a new technical sales specialist will be provided to each vendor marketing partner. "This new dedicated resource will assist our partners in launching products quicker, and tracking new sales opportunities efficiently," Kelly added. "Our goal with these initiatives is to make sure that even the smallest manufacturer is receiving the best customer support." Moving into 2018, Kelly also vowed to continue expanding Stampede's reach into emerging categories that prove to be profitable. Its investment in drone video systems, for example, has increased sales in the commercial markets and has resulted in more add-on AV component purchases. Likewise, since committing to the audio channel in 2016, Stampede has experienced double-digit growth in the category, noting that industry audio practice has evolved so that distributors can successfully build cohesive audio solutions. New categories of significance include educational tech and LED displays. "Since 1997, Stampede has invested tens of millions of dollars to build the AV industry's best, most robust, and diverse customer base," Kelly said. "More important still, we have invested countless more hours in learning about our customers, their business strategies, core competencies, and their staff, resulting in the strongest working partnerships in the industry today. All of this has been done to provide our growing number of vendor partners with real growth opportunities that combine the best traditional and new products into the next generation system solutions our resellers are demanding to meet their end-user customer needs." 
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