Our NSCA board member Q&As help you get to know our Board of Directors. Meet Dale Bottcher, CRO at AVI-SPL and NSCA president.
Throughout this year, we’re sitting down with every NSCA board member to ask them questions so you can better understand their goals and how they’re working for you.
Next on our list is Dale Bottcher, chief revenue officer at AVI-SPL and NSCA president.
Meet Dale Bottcher, NSCA President
Q: Can you describe the most rewarding parts of your role at AVI-SPL?
A: We view ourselves as a digital workplace solution provider and deal with about 22,000 projects a year and about 40,000 service engagements through our network of 70 offices globally. Before taking on the chief revenue officer role in February 2025, I held the role of executive vice president of global sales and marketing for a decade. I enjoyed being able to set the vision, lead the organization to what’s next, and help us continue to be better. We view ourselves as a leader. And while it’s fun to be the leader, it’s also a lot of work to remain the leader. I love moving all the levers to see us achieve our targets and continue to grow.
Q: What are the biggest opportunities that AVI-SPL and the industry face?
A: As part of our global strategic accounts program, we formed a customer advisory board seven years ago. To kick things off, we asked our customers to tell us how many meeting room standards they had in place. At that time, on average, each company had 22 different meeting room standards. We went through that same exercise three years ago, and that number dropped to seven. The pace of change in our space is so rapid, and technology is becoming so capable. We can’t sit still in terms of how we serve customers. We have to continue to be valuable and relevant to them. So many of our customers are looking to create a standard experience for their employees or technology users, especially as the workforce becomes more spread out. Technology serves as a way to bridge that gap. Some of the biggest opportunities we have are making complex things, like meeting room technology, easy and consistent. That also means wrapping services around it so customers don’t have to worry about it or need extra staff to support it. We also have a big opportunity to help customers reimagine their workplaces. Part of that involves metrics and analytics around space management: how people are working with technology, how they are moving around and utilizing the space, etc. Based on that, we can help them do things like develop apps to manage parking, guest check-in, wayfinding, and hot desking.
Q: What is the biggest challenge related to running an integration company right now?
A: We’re at risk if we stand still. With the simplification of technology and capability improvements around the solutions we sell, it needs less integration. Technology is very capable. Applying the custom integration approach to meeting spaces doesn’t always work anymore. We need to look at more tech-enabled spaces everywhere. There are still complex spaces; even in common areas, there is experiential technology, like large video walls that can be interacted with.
Q: How can members lean on NSCA for help in addressing these challenges?
A: What we do matters. What we do touches lives. And NSCA helps affect change and has a hand in how we serve this space. It helps companies evolve so they stay relevant. How can you run a better business? NSCA has the answers and helps move the industry forward. Sometimes integrators need help with things that seem so simple: job costing, accounting and cash flow, and go-to-market strategies. NSCA can help with all of that. It serves as a source of best practices and a guiding light.
Q: What’s a fun fact that most NSCA members don’t know about you?
A: I grew up on a 700-acre dairy farm in Boone County, IL. We milked about 100 dairy cows. We used to show cows. I love the Boone County Fair. I understand how to work hard and commit to things. Growing up on a farm, you learn that you always need a plan, but those plans can quickly change. Every day presents you with opportunities to think on your feet. It’s like Mike Tyson said: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
