CONTI joins the ET Group team; together we’re focused on human-centric workplace design.
ET Group acquires CONTI Electronics Ltd.’s audiovisual design and integration business assets, including the CONTI and Forte brands.
September 30, 2022
ET Group (“ET Group”), a Toronto-based audiovisual technology consulting company and CONTI Electronics Ltd. (“CONTI”), a Vancouver-based audiovisual technology consulting and integration company, today announced that ET Group has completed the acquisition of CONTI’s audiovisual design and integration business assets, including the CONTI and Forte brands.
Founded in Vancouver in 1973, CONTI provides audiovisual consulting, design, installation and support services for audiovisual projects. For its corporate, restaurant, and retail clients, CONTI will now have access to a larger national network of services and support. All CONTI’s government AVSO clients will continue to engage with CONTI and the contracting relationship will remain unchanged.
The Forte brand is the technology consulting division of CONTI, founded in 2019 to provide a high quality, human-centred approach to technology design. Together CONTI and Forte have created a unique approach to workplace technology design and integration that is very much aligned with the same ideals pioneered within ET Group. CONTI and Forte employees will now join ET Group and continue to support clients across Canada.
“We are very pleased to welcome the CONTI team into ET Group.” said Dirk Propfe, President & CEO at ET Group. “CONTI has had a long-standing presence in the industry and is viewed as a leader in the audiovisual technology space. ET Group’s acquisition of CONTI will allow us to extend our geographic reach and will give us access to CONTI’s expert talent who will help to further strengthen our human-centric design capabilities.”
“The workplace technology industry is a dynamic industry, particularly today with the shift to hybrid work,” said Colby Harder, President of CONTI and Forte. “We are ecstatic about what this means for us, our clients, and the Canadian AV industry. Our partnership with ET Group will allow us to enhance our national coverage, provide a wider range of the industry’s best managed services, and access ET Group’s global HybridX workspace services to help our clients navigate new ways of working.”
The agreement was finalized on September 7, 2022, and each company has been notifying its respective key stakeholders, clients, and vendors to provide information about the acquisition. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
About ET Group
ET Group – a division of Pistil Enterprises Ltd. – is a Toronto-based audiovisual technology company focused on providing workplace technology solutions in North America. Alongside its design and integration expertise, ET Group provides top-tier service and support, as well as learning experiences to coach clients on new hybrid work practices. For 45 years, the company has helped its clients tackle their evolving and complex communication and collaboration challenges by providing workplace technology solutions that support their unique needs. The company has offices in Toronto and Calgary. For more information visit etgroup.ca.
About CONTI AV Design
Founded in 1973, Conti AV Design provides unique hybrid work and future of work consulting services to global clients. Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Conti specializes in consulting, design, product, installation, and support services for audiovisual, phone and unified communications, and security systems. For more information visit conti.ca.
For ET Group
Erin Fahey, Calgary
403-671-5255 efahey@etgroup.ca
For CONTI
Clayton Creed, Vancouver
604-734-0606 claytonc@conti.ca
RECAP: The rise of self-managed organizations at IDS2020
With our world rapidly evolving, the way we work together is beginning to fail us. We are encountering complex challenges that require new ways of working, innovating, and designing solutions.
Traditional hierarchical paradigms were designed for organizations of the past, born during the industrial revolution. Today, they are still the most predominant view of business leaders around the globe. The rapid advancement of our society, culture, and technology has caused massive shifts for how new generations of workers want and need to work together.
“I was incredibly disillusioned with corporations and having worked in organizations that stifled my own creativity and others, I said there has to be a different way. I began collecting different practices and ways of working that could help us.”
Dirk Propfe, CEO, ET Group
Progressive business leaders have recognized this reality and have discovered that creating networks of self-managed teams may hold the answer to unlocking the potential that helps us to design a better future.
ET Group has been on a journey adopting self-management and new ways of working for the last 3 years. During this time we removed a traditional power hierarchy and implemented self-managed practices, processes, and principles that radically changed the way our company works together.
What happened at IDS2020?
In January, we were invited by the Interior Design Show 2020 to bring together a Future of Work panel with 5 business leaders whose organizations are on the journey of self-management.
They shared key insights that can help organizations shift the way they’re working along with helping them understand why their organizations are making the move, how they’re bringing the concept to life, and the impact it creates on design and innovation.
We are sharing the 1 hour recording of the IDS2020 panel in hopes that the insights can inspire your organization to begin a journey of its own.
“The biggest shift from a traditional organization to a self managed organisation is that we don’t have a person boss. Instead there is a purpose boss. For The Moment our purpose is to empower people to lead change and co-create a thriving human future. That is a big purpose but as long as we are working towards, we maintain alignment.”
Erika Bailey, Innovation Designer, The Moment
Who are the panelists?
The panelists are part of organizations that are on the journey of self-management. They are passionate about the future of work, new ways of working, and designing their organizations to enable the highest potential of people.
- Innovation Designer, Erika Bailey, The Moment
- CEO & Talent Attractor, Dirk Propfe, ET Group
- Source & Lawyer, Peter Aprile, Counter Tax Lawyers
- Paralegal, Joyce Zoka, Counter Tax Lawyers
- Author and Scale Coach for Founder CEOs, Brent Lowe
Podcast appearance: the shift to self-managed organizations
Dirk Propfe joined the MacKay CEO Forums CEO Edge Podcast to share ET Group’s journey shifting to self-management and the radical change its had on our people.
The CEO Edge Podcast brought to you by MacKay CEO Forums provides valuable insights and practical advice from Canada’s top CEOs and trusted advisors.
Link to the podcast
ETG wins Business Excellence Award at the NSCA Leadership & Business Conference
I recently had the pleasure of attending the NSCA Business and Leadership Conference in Dallas, Texas.
The annual conference in its 20th year, is well known for being an industry leading event. I was not only attending as a participant, but also had the privilege of accepting an award on behalf of ET Group.
The NSCA conference incorporates their annual Excellence in Business Awards. The award criteria is broken up into six different categories and looks for companies that are leading the industry, and providing solutions to industry challenges. This year, ET Group was nominated and successful in winning an award in the Differentiating Strategies category.
In the last year, we have identified a major shift in the industry, and wanted to refocus our offerings to our clients. We understood that it wasn’t just about offering a product. We wanted to provide our clients with exceptional value. Advice and consulting became part of our offering. Our new approach weaves people, space and technology together.
This shift for us, has required our employees to be strategic. They partner with the client and really embed themselves into the organization’s culture to truly understand their needs, and where we can provide the most value. Changing how we work with clients, required us to change as an organization and adapt our own internal processes.
To achieve a real change within our own organization, we adopted design thinking, different participatory leadership approaches, moved to a self management model, decentralized decision making and encourage an advice process. We work in teams and have a work from anywhere culture. We noticed that it was also the little cultural nuances that mattered. We ensure staff take all of their vacation entitlement, understanding how important this is for our overall culture. In our customers eyes we are viewed as relevant and progressive.
The results of our commitment internally to adopt the principles we were presenting to our clients was amazing. We have been able to grow our revenue by thirty percent, have a happier and healthier organizational culture and offer our clients value, in ways that we have personally experienced.
Although the journey hasn’t always been the most comfortable, I know, personally I have reverted to old habits, but I am fortunate to work with a team that keeps me accountable and is committed to making this work. Winning this award is a fantastic accomplishment for ET Group and our entire team, and I feel honoured to have attended on behalf of the organization to accept this award.
Brad Flowers
Principal at ET Group
ET Group Practices What They Preach With a Move to a New, Innovative Space Powered by Collaboration Technology and Audio Visual Solutions
January 5, 2012 (Toronto, Canada) – ET Group, pioneers in sound and vision communication and experts in audio visual collaboration technology solutions, announced today that they have relocated to a larger, more innovative space minutes from the core of downtown Toronto at 29 Booth Avenue. Significant growth in the last few years made the move necessary, both to accommodate the company’s practical needs and to showcase to clients its cutting edge collaboration technologies.
“It was really important to have the functionality to exhibit our industry best-practices and cutting edge capabilities to clients and stakeholders,” said Paul Gragtmans, a Partner at ET Group and the head of marketing. “Our new location at 29 Booth Avenue is conveniently located for senior executives to stop by for a demonstration; experiencing our solutions first-hand shortens the learning curve to adoption and demonstrates the limitless possibilities of collaboration technology.”
ET Group’s new space is exemplary because:
- It brings the best of all collaboration technologies together, integrated into a seamless solution that meets the company’s unique needs. This same model is customizable for clients.
- It makes strategic use of room design and furniture with the available collaboration technology.
- A variety of workspaces have been optimized, for departmental collaboration, individual use, formal group meetings, impromptu brainstorming, video conferencing and more. It includes Internet connectivity for audio, video and whiteboarding technology.
- It seamlessly accommodates the changing ways in which people work.
ET Group is now located at 29 Booth Avenue in the vibrant Leslieville community, a trendy, people-friendly neighborhood that is fast becoming a Toronto gem.
“It was important to consider our clients’ collaboration technology needs in building this new space,” said Paul Gragtmans. “But it was just as important to accommodate our staff; the building is a retrofitted factory, with a beautiful loft space. We also built showers so that members of our team can enjoy the nearby parks, running trails and waterfront during their lunch break and after work. “