The Ride Along: Part Two | 622 | Rolling Through Conversations, Ideas and Inspiration from CEDIA Expo and CIX 2025

This week on the show, you’re going to ride along with me from the incredibly comfortable and stylish VW ID.Buzz, which served as the mobile podcast studio at CEDIA Expo / CIX this September in Denver, Colorado. This is part two of The Ride Along Series recorded live at CEDIA Expo/ CIX.

CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) is the global trade association for home technology professionals, specializing in smart home, automation, audio-visual, networking, and integrated systems. Its mission is to advance the home technology industry through education, certification, advocacy, and networking. Members include integrators, designers, manufacturers, and consultants who shape the connected environments we live and work in.

CEDIA Expo is the industry’s largest annual event for residential technology professionals. With hundreds of exhibitors, educational sessions, live demos, and global networking opportunities, it’s where new ideas and innovations in smart home and AV integration take center stage.

The Commercial Integrator Expo (CIX), co-located with CEDIA Expo, focuses on commercial integration technologies—from conferencing and IT infrastructure to building automation and emerging AV solutions—bringing together commercial integrators, IT pros, designers, and tech managers.

Designer Resources

Pacific Sales Kitchen and Home. Where excellence meets expertise.

Design Hardware – A stunning and vast collection of jewelry for the home!

TimberTech – Real wood beauty without the upkeep

LOME-AI.com, simple, inexpensive, text to video harnessing the power of AI to grow your firm, beautifully.

This road trip was a blast, and I’m excited to share these conversations with you.

Designing Sound: Caitlin Stewart on Leon Speakers’ Mission to Lead by Design

Caitlin Stewart of Leon Speakers joins Convo By Design to talk about design-first thinking in an audio-driven world. From Ann Arbor to the global design stage, Leon Speakers has carved out a unique identity—not as a technology company, but as a design company that happens to make exceptional audio and concealment solutions. Caitlin shares how Leon engages the architecture and design community, cultivates relevance in a shifting industry, and builds partnerships that challenge conventions of form, function, and beauty.

• Background & Role: Caitlin’s work as Director of Sales for residential at Leon Speakers, leading account managers and shaping residential market growth.
• Leon’s Identity: Founded in 1997, Leon is entering its 30th year as a design-first company—blending sound, aesthetics, and concealment with creativity.
• Design Integration: How Leon’s “Lead by Design, Leave Nothing Unfinished” philosophy drives the balance of form and function.
• Relevance in the Industry: Shifting influence from general contractors to architects and designers, and Leon’s effort to stay essential in conversations that shape environments.
• Inspiration & Missed Opportunities: Why designers need exposure to products at shows like CEDIA and ICFF, and the challenges of communicating AV in relevant, non-technical language.
• Partnership with A&D Community: Meeting designers where they are, co-designing products, and listening to their needs around fixtures, finishes, and materiality.
• Industry Challenges: Designers often photoshop out tech in portfolio images—highlighting the need for intentional, beautiful integration of AV.
• Educational Outreach: Designer visits to Leon’s Ann Arbor factory, engaging directly with materiality and finishes to bridge the language gap.
• Innovation at Leon: Hand-woven acoustic treatments, creative concealment solutions, evolving product frames for video walls, and form-function collaboration.
• Partnership Opportunities: Caitlin’s advice to designers—start casual, s