After nearly 30 years in the AV industry, I’ve seen huge transformation. We’ve evolved from being a niche support function to delivering mission-critical systems for live events, global and corporate communications, and immersive experiences. The technology has matured into mainstream, the projects have matured into essential, but I’m concerned that, as it relates to AV talent recruitment and development, many of the employers have not matured at all.
What Talent Shortage
Let’s talk about this so-called “talent shortage” in AV. It’s become the industry’s scapegoat for understaffed teams, missed opportunities, skills deficiency, and an overall lack of growth. But here’s the truth: there’s no shortage of talented people. There’s a shortage of employers willing to invest in the development of talented people.
In my role as a mentor with RISE AV, I’ve met so many driven, capable, and passionate young people. They’re energetic. They’re curious. They’re adaptable, full of energy and ideas. They want to learn. This is EXACTLY the mindset we should be looking for, but instead of developing them, we’re sidelining them because they don’t tick every box on a job spec or haven’t already done the job for 5 years. When the industry holds out for a “ready-made” candidate, we lose potential to RISE the tide, every single day.
AV Talent Recruitment
Let me be a little British (blunt): the AV industry is not suffering from a talent crisis. It’s suffering from a development crisis, and we’re the ones responsible. We’ve somehow created a culture where we wait for the “perfect candidate” to walk through the door, fully trained, fully experienced, and ready to go and then complain that they don’t exist. Meanwhile, talented early-career professionals (many from a post COVID era where learning opportunities were limited) are walking away, frustrated and ignored.
Where are the apprenticeships? Where are the entry-level pathways? Where is the hands-on mentoring that combined with vendor training, once was the only method new employees got grounding / training in AV? Where is true AV talent recruitment and development?
Mentor Means Investment
We love innovation in this industry, but innovation doesn’t happen without investment. Stop waiting for the perfect hire. Start building the perfect team. You can teach someone how to run a system or set up a show. You can’t teach someone to be motivated, to care, or to want to grow. But those people are out there — I’ve met them. And they’re ready.
So, here’s the AV talent recruitment challenge: If you’re not willing to invest in developing people, you don’t get to complain about the talent pipeline. Grow your own. Mentor them. Train them. And watch what happens.
Jane Hammersley
ane Hammersley, AV’s self-styled “Queen of Collaboration,” co-founded Blue Touch Paper with Jon Sidwick in 2023. Together they help vendors and distributors weave the six hybrid-work pillars—people, process, space, technology, data, and AI—into go-to-market strategies that actually sell. Clients engage Jane and Jon for their unique knowledge and channel insights but stay for the infectious energy and humour - the Blue Touch Paper calling card.
Jane’s track record runs deep: she championed Barco’s fledgling ClickShare in 2011, then steered Microsoft’s Surface Hub launch in 2015, each time inventing the channel playbook for a new category. She also co-wrote Brilliant Meetings (Pearson, 2009), the pocket antidote to “death by discussion.”
Today Jane can be found keynoting ISE, trading AI war stories at InfoComm, and mentoring through RISE, where she champions women advancing their AV and UC careers. Energy, insight, and a dash of humour: classic Hammersley, like a good gin, perfectly distilled.
