Episode #27 - Catalyst Connect - What to Expect from Year Two

Catalyst Connect - What to Expect from Year Two

Riley Pope

Hello, and welcome to episode 27 of Catalyst Conversations. My name is Riley Pope, content marketing manager here at Catalyst Acoustics Group. And today we have a very special Catalyst Connect–centered episode for you. Catalyst Connect is back for 2026, bringing together architects, designers, consultants, engineers, contractors, and other industry professionals for a single day event focused on learning, networking, and connecting with the people and brands shaping the acoustics industry. This year's event takes place October 14th in Columbus, Ohio, and features CEU and technical presentations, a tour of the Kinetics Noise Control manufacturing facility, tabletop displays from the Catalyst brands, and plenty of opportunities to connect with industry peers. In today's episode, we're going to hear from those attending this year's event, and learn more about what they're looking forward to the most, and what makes this event so unique in our industry. Whether you're already registered or still deciding if Catalyst Connect belongs on your calendar, this episode gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what the event means to the people putting it together. Let's dive in.

Riley Pope

And for our first guest today, we're joined by Charles Merrimon, or as we know him, CM, CEO here at Catalyst Acoustics Group. Hi CM, thanks so much for joining us for this special Catalyst Connect focused episode.

Charles Merrimon

Hey, thanks, Riley. Really excited to spend a few minutes with you and catch up today.

Riley Pope

Yeah, thanks so much. Well, I appreciate you joining us. Before we dive into the meat of this Catalyst Connect episode, we may have some listeners who have no idea what Catalyst Connect is, have never heard of it. Could you give us a little bit of an overview of what Catalyst Connect is, and maybe who it's designed for, who would get the most from attending?

Charles Merrimon

Yeah, sure, I appreciate that. It's a great question. It can be a very long answer, I'll try to make it fairly short and succinct. But really, Catalyst Connect is a great event, or a forum if you will, for those in the acoustics industry, acoustics professionals who are highly focused and engaged around acoustics, noise control, and vibration isolation. They may have a myriad of different roles or remits or responsibilities, but that's really where this audience is targeted for us. And the day itself will include a lot of technical presentations, continuing education seminars, CEUs if you will, and direct engagement with leaders and partners in the industry. And like most events, though, it's really about the people and the relationships you get to experience at this event. That's really what we're trying to bring together. So that's our aim, to provide a platform to do just that.

Riley Pope

And for those that don't know, Catalyst Connect is focused on the brands that Catalyst Acoustics Group encompasses, which makes it a bit different from other events attendees may be going to this year. From your perspective, though, what makes Catalyst Connect different than the typical industry event they might be going to?

Charles Merrimon

Sure. A lot of your industry events are doing that, they're trying to really call out those brands. I think what we're trying to do differently is make it unique because it's about the sharing, the collaboration, the listening and learning that's happening with other professionals in the space. And it's not about us pushing an agenda, it's about us bringing those individuals together, right? So that they take away more knowledge, more understanding of what's happening in the markets and the customers they serve, and how we can do that better collectively, really as a community.

Riley Pope

Well, this is the second year of the event, so we're excited to take what we learned from last year and put it into this year. What are you most excited about for this year's show?

Charles Merrimon

Yeah, you know, a lot of times people are afraid of what they call the sequels, or the "part twos." I'm more excited about this because I think we're building on what we did last year. I know it will be bigger and better in a way that allows us to take the lessons learned and bring it to another great location, one that's really important to the customers and industry we serve, Dublin, Ohio. This gives us that platform, again, for those partners and customers to really collaborate, share, and take away things that will build their knowledge and their network. That's how we get better collectively.

Riley Pope

Well, CM, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for that overview. We've got lots of great guests coming up on this episode, and you set us up well to cover this year's Catalyst Connect. I appreciate your time.

Charles Merrimon

Awesome. I'm excited to hear what they have to say, and I know it'll be great. Thanks, Riley.

Riley Pope

All right, and now we're joined by Aaron Duncan. Aaron is the sales and operations manager at Sound Seal. Aaron, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself a little bit, and then we'll dive into what we have to expect this year at Catalyst Connect.

Aaron Duncan

Hi, Riley. Thanks for having me on the podcast today. Yep, as you said, the newly appointed sales and operations manager for Sound Seal. Been with the company for just over nine years, with a little over twenty years of acoustical industry work. And I'm just happy to be here to talk about CAGCon this year.

Riley Pope

Awesome. Well, last year you led one of our CEU sessions. What could attendees expect from this year's sessions?

Aaron Duncan

Absolutely. So last year I presented on some interior room acoustics, we talked about everything from wall panels, ceiling treatments, just a great breadth of offering from Sound Seal. We got into some baffles as well, banners, indoor-outdoor spaces. I think my favorite part about presenting at CAGCon was all the before and after those presentations, because people have certain expectations, they want to learn certain things. And when those sessions wrap, specifically mine, I probably had no less than five or six one-on-one conversations with various people from various walks of life in the industry. We talked with a group who were interior designers, and they were talking about the impact on the space and the importance of form and function. Then I was talking to some contractors about installation methods, and some consultants about product specifics. I really enjoyed that, and I think a lot of people find that it's not your normal CEU. You're not just running into an architect's or designer's office for a one-hour session, shaking a few hands, giving a business card, and then off and running. It's the ability to stand around and have those meaningful conversations after the presentations that makes a lot of connections and connects a lot of dots.

Riley Pope

Yeah, I agree. And what I'm hearing is that just having that in-person interaction is so valuable. Which kind of leads me to my next question, what makes seeing acoustical treatments, physical products, in person so much more valuable than just scrolling online or seeing them on a website?

Aaron Duncan

Absolutely. And with the diverse group we have at CAG, CAGCon is going to showcase a lot of different products for Sound Seal, because we cover so much ground, from industrial noise control to architectural finishes to some specialty products as well. It's nice to see how things come together, to feel the fabric, to see the texture, to see the stitching on a panel, and look at the level of quality, which is probably the biggest understanding people walk away with, because then they realize this isn't an off-the-shelf product. This is something bespoke, fully custom, made right here in the USA. It's impressive to see how each group does it, and even more impressive to see the level of product they offer into the acoustical world.

Riley Pope

As a second-time attendee, what are you personally looking forward to the most at this year's Catalyst Connect?

Aaron Duncan

You know what? I'm gonna say this, last year the energy level was so high. We had some music, an MC announcing what was going on in different areas. I hope we do that again this year, I haven't connected fully with the marketing team, but I'm sure they'll dial it up again. But honestly, the presentations, Andrew Polte's gonna have a great one for IAC. Ben Hickey's gonna talk about wood products, and he's a great presenter, I would not miss that. Ben Vause is going to do a phenomenal job demystifying some of the acoustics world. And then probably Eric Wolfram is a must-see, for Riverbank Labs, anybody who visits and listens to any of his presentations will always take something away. I don't care if you've been in the industry one year or twenty-five, he will educate you, and he does it in such a great way, delivery is phenomenal. So hats off to Eric Wolfram and his presentation, which is at the end of the day. I'd encourage everybody to get there early, grab a plate, head over to any table, and have a conversation. I'll be there presenting, well, not presenting any CEUs this year, but at the table for Sound Seal. So come see me, say hello.

Riley Pope

Well, perfect. Aaron, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it. Looking forward to seeing you in Columbus.

Aaron Duncan

I'll see you October 14th.

Riley Pope

And now we're joined by Eric Wolfram, Laboratory Manager at Riverbank Acoustical Laboratories. Eric, your presentations have been very popular over the years. Tell us a little bit about why that might be, and what we might expect from you this year at Catalyst Connect.

Eric Wolfram

Well, we've seen just an explosion of interest in acoustics generally throughout the architecture industry. Sometimes I feel like in the past fifteen years, acoustics went from being something we in the trade had to convince architects was important, to today being a hot topic in architecture, and we've seen that ramp up almost exponentially over the past ten years especially. People are very interested in it, very fascinated by it. Our presentations have served as an introduction to concepts, what the acoustical classifications are, what they mean, how they're tested, and then common questions or issues people might run into. We've kind of tailored it around introductory education of acoustical concepts.

Riley Pope

Excellent. So for an organization like Riverbank Acoustical Laboratories, shows like Catalyst Connect are a bit different. Can you tell us a little bit about how you view these types of events, what you go into a show like this wanting to get out of it?

Eric Wolfram

Yeah, so we're sort of the odd duck in the Catalyst portfolio, and I say that in the nicest way possible. We have a completely different customer base than any of the other Catalyst brands. We serve acoustical product manufacturers around the world, we test for over 400 different companies, and some of them are competitors of Catalyst brands. So we've proven over the past several years that we're completely unbiased, we test for the Catalyst brands and we test for other companies in the industry. So Catalyst Connect is a great opportunity for me to connect with acoustical consultants and influencers in the architecture industry, to hear what their needs are, what their concerns are, and to see how I can help.

Riley Pope

Excellent, Eric. Well, thanks so much for joining us. We're all looking forward to seeing you in October in Columbus. Have a safe trip, and we'll see you out there.

Eric Wolfram

All right, thank you.

Riley Pope

And now we're joined by Ben Hickey. Ben is the director of sales for both Kinetics and RealAcoustix. Ben, why don't you give us a little information about yourself, and we'll dive in?

Ben Hickey

Yeah, thanks for having me. I started back in 2019 with Kinetics Noise Control, specifically in the room acoustics division, then branched into the home market about a year later during the fun of COVID. This past year I joined the RealAcoustix team, and I'm working within their sales division to help further the prowess of the wood products and offerings that they have.

Riley Pope

Well, you're on the schedule to present this year at Catalyst Connect. Could you tell us a little bit about what attendees might expect to hear from you at your session?

Ben Hickey

Yeah, that's going to be more focused on biophilic design, and the wood product in general. So while it's listed as a RealAcoustix presentation, I think it flows for all of the wood brands that Catalyst has under its banner. We'll be talking a lot about how wood products can help with both absorption, and the diffusion and scattering they're known for.

Riley Pope

We're kind of diving back into the RealAcoustix brand specifically, is there anything that team is looking forward to showcasing this year at Catalyst Connect?

Ben Hickey

We're always happy to show our flagship product, the GUD Panel, Geometric Uniform Diffuser. It's two and a half to three times more effective in diffusion and scattering than just about any other product on the market. It's a Richard Lenz original design, and it's one of our most proud components that we offer. We're happy to show it, as well as some of the deep-dive products that are highly technical and effective for the audience that's going to be in front of us.

Riley Pope

I've been asking this question to a lot of people, but what are you looking forward to most about Catalyst Connect? What separates it from a typical industry conference?

Ben Hickey

Yeah, I think especially from last year, we had a lot of great interaction with new faces, it was the first year we ever had it. If anybody's going to walk away from something, hopefully it's the knowledge of a product they maybe didn't know existed that may treat some of their technical issues. I always like to fulfill a problem and give a solution to that issue. So I think they're going to find we have a lot of technical prowess between both brands, Kinetics and RealAcoustix, and usually something that's going to offer a solution to any kind of noise problem they have.

Riley Pope

Well, thanks so much for joining us, Ben. We're looking forward to seeing you at the show.

Ben Hickey

Thanks, Riley, appreciate it.

Riley Pope

And now we're joined by Jeremy Cantor, Group President here at Catalyst Acoustics Group. Jeremy, you oversee several of the brands across the Catalyst Acoustics family. From your perspective, what makes Catalyst Connect different than the typical industry conference someone might be attending?

Jeremy Cantor

What makes Catalyst Connect very different from other events in the acoustical industry is that it's focused solely on Catalyst. So what's happening at this event is we're taking all of our Catalyst companies and bringing all of our expertise into one room for our external partners, whether that's manufacturers, reps, acoustical consultants, or contractors, we want you at Catalyst Connect. It's your opportunity to ask questions of our different brands, gain more insight through educational experiences. And this year we're hosting it at Kinetics in Dublin, Ohio, you'll be able to see our facility and walk it, see how we make fabric wrap panels, see how we're rolling out our rim floor with kit pads in it. We want to make sure you understand the quality in this product being made, and that we're doing it right here in the United States, which is really exciting as well. So we're excited to have everybody at Catalyst Connect, and I'm excited as a first-timer to be there.

Riley Pope

Yeah, you kind of flowed right into my next question, it's also going to be my first time at the show this year. So as a fellow first-timer, what are you looking forward to most?

Jeremy Cantor

As always, I'm looking forward to meeting our partners. The only reason we have a job, all of us who work for Catalyst, is because we have great partners who get out there every day of the week and sell our products. When we have industry events like this specific to Catalyst, we bring everyone together in one location, it's such an amazing way to capture everybody at one time and learn from them. What we can be doing better, what's working, it's a really good opportunity for all of our people at Catalyst to get great feedback, and also have a little fun along the way, because we get to see our partners who become our family. At Catalyst, we're all about family, and we have such tenure with some of our partners, some have been with us on the manufacturer's rep side for fifteen, twenty, twenty-five years. When we get to bring them all into one place, it's special. So I'm excited.

Riley Pope

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Jeremy, and we're looking forward to seeing you in October.

Jeremy Cantor

Awesome. You too. Thanks, Riley.

Riley Pope

All right, now we are joined by Andrew Polte of IAC. Andrew is one of our presenters here this year at Catalyst Connect. Andrew, could you tell us a little bit about what your presentation is covering, and what got you interested in this topic?

Andrew Polte

Hi Riley, thank you for having me on this show, I appreciate it. The presentation I'll be giving at Catalyst Connect this year is Precision Acoustic Test Chamber Technologies and Applications. It's a bit of a long-winded way of saying "test facilities," and what that covers is acoustic test chambers, including anechoic chambers, reverberation rooms, and general predictable-field acoustic test facilities. It's a really interesting topic, I've talked about it quite a few times before, that's my specialty, testing facilities. So I'm really looking forward to it, answering questions, and hopefully we'll get a good amount of attendees.

Riley Pope

That's awesome. You just mentioned you've kind of covered this topic before, are there any questions that come up regularly once you're done with your presentation, that people might expect answered during this one?

Andrew Polte

I do get a few questions that come up more often than not. One of the most frequent is about the test facility itself, as far as size, test chambers can be tabletop-small units, or they can be gigantic, large-room-size that can fit a Class 8 semi-truck with a trailer in it. So it really depends on the product you're testing, both size and shape. It also depends on the frequency you need to measure accurately, specifically low frequencies, the depth of the walls is very dependent on the cutoff frequency of the room. Most commonly you'll see a 100 Hz or 200 Hz cutoff frequency, and that determines the depth, and also the distance from the microphones to where your product is being measured, which is important in determining size as well.

Riley Pope

Andrew, I know last year you were an attendee of the show, and this year you're a presenter. What are you most looking forward to, coming back for the show this year?

Andrew Polte

Well, I'm really looking forward to presenting, I'm excited about that. Last year was a really big success, we had a lot of attendees, and there was a lot of good communication, a lot of crosstalk between the different brands within Catalyst as well. It was really great to get together with everyone and talk to them, and see some of the local influencers and reps in the area. And I'd highly recommend the factory tour as well at this year's Catalyst Connect, it's going to be exciting, you'll get to learn and answer a lot of questions. I'm really looking forward to that, in addition to talking to all the folks local to the Columbus area, and giving the presentation.

Riley Pope

Well, great. Thank you so much, Andrew, for joining us, I really appreciate it. Looking forward to your presentation this year, and we'll see you in Columbus.

Andrew Polte

Thank you, Riley. It's been great.

Riley Pope

And now we're joined by Eric McNeal, Channel Alliance Manager at Catalyst Acoustics Group. Eric, you were very influential in the creation of this event. Coming into the second year of the show, with that perspective in mind, can you tell us a little bit about your viewpoint of the impact an event like this could have on those attending?

Eric McNeal

Absolutely. The idea was basically to be able to showcase Catalyst as a whole company, because a lot of our key partners, not just the industry, didn't really understand Catalyst and what we bring to the table. Being a company that has ten brands under it now, they didn't really understand how we were going to market, and that we actually have responsibility for all these brands, because they were so agnostic, people didn't really see that there was a parent organization giving breath and life to these ten brands that kind of stood on their own.

This year it's going to be in Ohio, so we want to bring out the key influencers in that market and the surrounding markets that will allow our invest partners to mingle and get to know them. And in some cases they've got premier customers they want to bring in, they can invite them to the show to walk the floor and get a clearer understanding of how much Catalyst actually does to support not just our brands, but at our partner level, because we also want to be a voice for our partners. At the same time, it's one of our criteria for being best-in-channel, to be able to bring additional value-adds to our partners.

Riley Pope

Yeah, and I think you could give good insight into this as well, if there was someone on the fence of attending themselves, or maybe pushing their team to attend, what would you say to encourage them that coming to this show is worth the trip?

Eric McNeal

Yeah, absolutely, I definitely have a great story. Joe Florer, from McMillan James, I'm sure he doesn't mind me sharing this, I really told Joe: look, this is an opportunity for you to showcase McMillan James in an environment that's going to be filled with influencers you may not even know about, but you can now introduce McMillan James, right, as the voice of McMillan James, one of the key partner leaders in the organization, for what your company actually does and can do to support some of the projects you're not even spec'd on at this point. But now you can at least be a voice, or a fly on the wall, to hear what's going on in the space. And we have the CEUs there too. So at the end of the day, Joe came up to me at the end of last year's show and said, "Hey Eric, I'm glad I came." I met a lot of great people, I've got some contacts now to reach out to, and it was definitely worth my time being here. That's the same thing I've talked about with some of the partners from our invest-partner perspective who are coming out this year and wanted to bring customers out. At the end of the day, you have an opportunity to showcase who you are in that Ohio market and surrounding areas, to your customers and to those constituents there, that will show your value to them.

And going forward, hopefully you'll get meetings and opportunities now to be spec'd on projects that maybe weren't even a possibility before the show.

Riley Pope

Well, Eric, I appreciate you joining us, excited for year two, excited to have you back in Columbus. We're looking forward to seeing you in October.

Eric McNeal

Absolutely. Looking forward to it. Thanks, Riley.

Riley Pope

All right, everyone, we are joined now by Ben Vause, Director of Sales – Building Acoustics at Kinetics Noise Control. Ben, last year we know you had a speaking session at CAGCon, specifically this year, what are you covering, and what brought about this topic? Tell us a little bit about what we might expect from that.

Ben Vause

Yeah, last year we introduced a new CEU course that we'd redeveloped, called Building Acoustics: Beyond STC and IIC. We take a deeper dive into the building code standards developed with STC, sound transmission class, and IIC, impact insulation class. Those are the two main noise isolation standards developed by ASTM, and they've gotten into the International Building Code. Those are the two big standards my market group focuses on. So we take some time and go through that in a CEU course with AIA accreditation, and really dive into the application details, and why it's important that design professionals include these components when designing spaces, whether it's a hospital, a hotel, or a multifamily apartment building, and what the standards really mean, and how to ascertain how the design is going to impact the user experience in the space. We're going to do the same presentation, we've refined it a little, haven't changed a whole lot, but we've got a year of it under our belts, so we're doing the same presentation this time around with a little more polish on it, I guess.

Riley Pope

Thanks so much, you gave us a lot of good information there, but if there's maybe just one or two components of what you're going to cover in the CEU that someone needs to file away in anticipation, what might that be?

Ben Vause

Yeah, really, the key takeaway we want everybody to have is that STC and IIC are metrics, they're the standard, but there's a lot of nuance in those standards that impacts the user experience in a space. So relying simply on a single number doesn't always get you the result you're really looking for. We want people to walk away with a good understanding of what that nuance really is, and how we can help guide them when they're developing and designing their projects.

Riley Pope

Excellent. Well, Ben, thank you so much for joining us, I know many people are looking forward to your session, and looking forward to seeing how the show goes. Thanks so much, and we'll talk to you next time.

Ben Vause

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

Riley Pope

And now we're joined by James Thomas. James is the National Sales Manager at Noise Barriers. James, we have you down for a session this year, could you tell us a little bit about what you plan to cover?

James Thomas

Absolutely. I'm super excited to be presenting a CEU course regarding our acoustic doors, specifically, we're going to dive into the testing and standards of acoustic performance, places where acoustic doors matter, and the benefits of a good acoustic door system. I think a participant in this course is going to come away learning quite a few different new things, and maybe hone in on some things they thought they already knew.

Riley Pope

I appreciate you diving in there a little bit, we have lots of speaking sessions that day, pretty action-packed. Could you give a little more insight on what someone might walk away with after attending your session?

James Thomas

Absolutely. Specifically, we'd love every participant to be able to explain how excessive noise can negatively impact their health and well-being. We'd like them to be able to identify key characteristics of an acoustic door, and evaluate appropriate use cases across commercial, institutional, and educational project types they might come into. And then at the very end, we'll dive into some of the LEED and WELL standards regarding acoustical products, and the safety and sustainability goals.

Riley Pope

Very neat, I think that's going to be a very interesting topic that day. Well, you're one of the Catalyst Connect pros, this is your second year here at the show. As a second-year attendee, what are you most looking forward to this year?

James Thomas

I'm excited to be in Ohio, seeing our plant at Kinetics is probably what I'm looking forward to most. I've interacted with a lot of the sister-company folks at Kinetics, individuals and sales members, but I'm excited to go see their facility and get a tour of how they do business, and what standards they use in their shop, maybe we can bring some of those things back to Noise Barriers.

Riley Pope

Very cool, I appreciate that plug for the Kinetics tour, that's going to be an exciting thing at the show as well, I hope everybody can make time to do that. Well, James, thanks so much for joining us, appreciate it. We're looking forward to seeing you in Columbus, we'll see you in October.

James Thomas

Awesome, thanks so much, Riley.

Riley Pope

Okay everyone, and now we're joined by Mike Merry. Mike is the sales director at Frasch. Mike, Frasch is known for being a pretty cutting-edge company in this space, is there anything new you're showcasing this year at Catalyst Connect that we might want to know about?

Mike Merry

Yeah, Riley, thanks for having me. Well, we do have some new products that we'll be showcasing at the October event. Frasch has gotten away from new product development over the last few years, due to just the growth and trying to keep up with the pace of day-to-day manufacturing. We've gotten back, since the beginning of 2026, to developing new products based on industry feedback and where we think the direction of acoustics is headed in our sphere.

Riley Pope

Awesome. Well, I think a little bit related to that, these products you're excited to showcase, how might planning for a show like Catalyst Connect differ from a more traditional industry conference someone else might be attending this year?

Mike Merry

Well, I think because it's a CAG event, right, we've got all of the brands represented there, we want to step up our game to make sure we're showcasing ourselves in the light we want to be seen in. It's a bit of friendly competition, if you will, between the other brands, so it is a bit different than what we've done previously. We also have a new approach to how we're conducting business, we've got all new leadership, so this is kind of our first chance as a leadership team to be in front of the other brands as well, along with the designers and architects who'll be in attendance. We really want to step up the game and make sure we've got quality samples, quality displays, and that we've got our A-game when we're there.

Riley Pope

Well, I've seen y'all's work before, I know it's going to be a very quality setup from you guys. Last question here, what are you looking forward to most this year at the show?

Mike Merry

I think just showcasing how we're different, not only to our sister companies, but to everybody who's going to be in attendance. We are a different organization, like I said earlier, we've grown leaps and bounds over the last few years, and to keep up with that pace, we've had a big change in structure and in how we present ourselves to the community we deal with. I think it's going to be exciting to be in front of that group, and in front of our internal sister companies, to show how we've changed and grown, and how we're different, quite honestly, going into 2027.

Riley Pope

Excellent, Mike. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and giving us a little insight into Frasch and what we can expect at Catalyst Connect this year. Looking forward to seeing you in Columbus.

Mike Merry

Same. Thanks, Riley.

Riley Pope

All right, and now we're joined by James Hou. James is the Group President at Catalyst Acoustics. James, I know you're a little new here, so this is your first time attending Catalyst Connect, what do you expect from your first time at the show, and what are you looking forward to getting out of this?

James Hou

Certainly, I think this is a very exciting opportunity for me to learn from the best in the industry. Also connecting our customers and our agents, to see what's new out there and what we can do better. And also an opportunity for us to show our latest technologies, and how we can improve their environment. So definitely looking forward to meeting our customers and connecting those dots.

Riley Pope

Yeah, and you already kind of dove into my next question here, talking about the connection you're going to receive with those in our industry, but what kind of conversations do you expect to happen, or look forward to happening, between attendees and the brands you work with on a daily basis?

James Hou

Yeah, definitely looking forward to hearing from our customers and agents on where we can help them with their current challenges, on their job site, or the current work they're doing, to see what unique aspect we can provide even further. Those kinds of details help us shape our new product development, and also help us think about how we can combine other areas to serve them better.

Riley Pope

Well, James, the show is coming up in October, so we're getting closer and closer to the time. I know we probably have a few people listening who are on the fence about making the trip, what might you tell them to encourage them to actually come to Catalyst Connect this year?

James Hou

Absolutely. I think, normally, we know what we know, but we don't know what we don't know. It's a great opportunity to go out and see what's out there, and ask questions to explore new things you might not otherwise get to find out. So definitely, I'd encourage everyone, if you have the time, join us to see the newest technology we have, and to learn from other perspectives, from the other side of the customer. It's a great opportunity to connect, learn about new technologies, and figure out how we conquer the new world together.

Riley Pope

Thanks so much, James, for joining us, I appreciate it. Looking forward to seeing you in Columbus.

James Hou

Absolutely. Thank you.

Riley Pope

Thank you for joining us on today's episode. We hope you've gained some great insider perspective on what makes Catalyst Connect such an amazing industry event. If you haven't registered yet, we encourage you to do so. Catalyst Connect is a one day event taking place on Wednesday, October 14th in Columbus, Ohio, designed for architects, contractors, designers, specifiers, and consultants. And did we mention it's completely free to attend? Visit us at catalystacoustics.com/events/connect to save your seat.

Thanks again for tuning in to Catalyst Conversations. Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss what's next, and we'll see you in Columbus.