The 2025 trade show calendar kicks off in high-tech fashion with the L.A. Seminar Series. Presented by the International Cinema Technology Association (ICTA), the series runs from January 13–15 at the Universal Hilton in Universal City, California. Held in collaboration with The Cinema Foundation, a nonprofit group that collaborates with key industry non-profit players on projects that promote the cinema industry, the L.A. Seminar Series gives attendees the chance to experience the latest in cinema technology, from training software to the newest direct-view LED displays.
The 2025 L.A. Seminar Series marks the first under the leadership of Carrie Dietrich, a cinema technology professional who, in August 2024, took over from Bob Sunshine of Film Expo Group as executive director of the ICTA. A former ICTA board member and longtime attendee of the L.A. Seminar Series in a sales capacity, Dietrich promises an event that will give guests the educational programming, cutting-edge demos, and networking opportunities that the series is known for—all while expanding the scope of the event to bring a wider group of cinema technology providers into the fold. Attendees can look forward to an off-site excursion to demo the latest in audio/visual technologies, as well as a consistent series highlight, the North American Cinema Awards, honoring theaters in the Best New Build, Best Cinema Refurbishment, and Best Use of Technology categories.
When the ICTA was created in 1971, explains Dietrich, its main goal was to facilitate communication between and represent the interests of cinema technology manufacturers and dealers. Dietrich says that at the L.A. Seminar Series, ICTA members “would all put their heads together and talk about about the industry.” Dietrich credits Neil Campbell, president and CEO of Canada’s Landmark Cinemas, with making his fellow exhibitors aware of the value of attending an event dedicated exclusively to technology. “Neil started coming about 15 years ago, and he thought it was great, because you could have these in depth conversations that weren’t always possible at other shows,” says Dietrich. “This is where you come to make deals. The real decision-makers are here.” Dietrich’s appointment as executive director of the ICTA coincides with the election of a new executive committee, consisting of President Mark Mayfield of Meyer Sound, Vice President Beth Figge of Dolby, Treasurer Doug Sabin of American Cinema Equipment, and Secretary Theresa English of TK Architects, with Frank Tees of Moving iMage Technologies—and ICTA’s president from 2021–2024—staying on as an honorary director.
This new executive committee will continue pursuing the ICTA’s key priorities, one of which is educating the wider cinema community about the basics of cinema technology. Under Tees, the ICTA held a series of educational sessions at industry trade shows. Launched in October 2024, ICTA collaborated with CineTRAIN to bring the training courses online, starting with their introductory course, Fundamentals of Presentation of Technology. Making the world of cinema technology more accessible, explains Dietrich, helps the industry in the long run by fostering a spirit of collaboration and allowing nontech executives to better communicate with their technology vendors.
Increasingly, those vendors operate outside of presentation technology, and Dietrich is excited to bring some of those vendors further into the ICTA fold. “There’s a lot of cinema technology that isn’t in the auditorium, necessarily. Or it is in the auditorium, but it’s related to something besides sound and projection—call buttons in dine-in theaters, for example,” Dietrich says. Seats, ticketing, operations, concessions—every facet of the cinema experience is getting more and more technologically advanced. “Everything is smart these days,” Dietrich elaborates. “We have at least half a dozen members that provide POS [point of sale] systems. They have their own set of challenges, and I want to make sure they’re represented.” To find out more about the ICTA, visit internationalcinematechnologyassociation.com
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