As you may have seen in our press announcement last year, Jim Pope – an AGT team member – became the first Crestron Diamond certified programmer in spring 2015. Jim, an audio visual industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in the government arena, achieved the highly regarded status after completing 12 years of Crestron Master Classes.
Jim’s accomplishments are being recognized once again as the Crestron Masters event takes place this week in New York. Crestron announced record-setting participation at its thirteenth Crestron Masters Program event this year, bringing nearly 700 of its premier programmers together for three days of training, testing and professional development. Jim, along with three other individuals who have now achieved the Diamond-level Master Programmer status, will be celebrated and honored at the event.
In light of the event this week, Tim Albright of AVNation conducted a compelling interview with Jim Pope and Jon Ottesen, Senior Technical Director at Crestron. In the interview, Jim, Jon and Tim discuss what it means to be Diamond status, where the A/V and programming industry was 20 years ago and where it’s heading. Jim also opens up about his passion for teaching and giving back the community that has supported him through the years.
“When you get into a room and you see 700 certified programmers – I’m just humbled by the sheer intelligence in the room to begin with,” says Jon Ottesen. “And then you get people like Jim who want to take an active part in the community. I think that’s fantastic!”
“You can’t work in the business the way that we do and not have the support of Crestron. They are vital to us.”
– Jim Pope
