You Don’t Need to Be an Engineer to Belong in AV

Ekta Shetty on curiosity, growth and leadership in professional AV

Careers in professional AV do not always begin with an engineering degree or a carefully mapped-out plan.

For Ekta Shetty, Senior Sales Director at Shure, the journey began with a background in management and a genuine curiosity about technology.

Speaking with the Rise AV community, Ekta reflected on the experiences that shaped her career, the mentors who influenced her along the way and the importance of creating space for more women to build careers in AV.

Learning the ropes from the ground up

Ekta's first role in Dubai was with an interior design company. Her career would soon take her much closer to the technology itself, working with a systems integrator and gaining hands-on exposure to AV installations.

She remembers working on meeting rooms, pulling cables, managing multiple vendors, supporting university projects and selling service contracts.

It was an experience that gave her an understanding of the industry well beyond products and specifications.

Her next step came when the systems integration company she worked for developed its own vendor brand, giving her the chance to move into channel management. That transition would become an important turning point.

Curiosity became a career advantage

While working at Visionaire and representing Arrive Systems, Ekta repeatedly found herself competing against Barco solutions including ClickShare. Instead of simply accepting a lost project, she wanted to understand why customers were choosing the competing technology.

She reached out directly to a senior leader at Barco and started asking questions about the market and the business.

“I'm losing projects. They might be doing something right.”

That curiosity eventually led to an opportunity to join Barco as Channel Manager.

It is a simple moment in her career story, but an important leadership lesson: asking the right question can sometimes open an entirely new direction.

Building markets before AI

Ekta also recalls an era of business development that looked very different from today.

There was no ChatGPT or Claude to quickly identify potential partners or map out a market.

“We had to go on Google and search for the top system integrators in Kenya or Qatar, make a list of ten, take a demo unit and create demand.”

The only woman in the room

Earlier in her career, Ekta was often the only woman in the room.

Therefore, mentorship and representation matter to her.

She remembers Anita Gupta, formerly Visionaire, as one of the women who showed what leadership in AV could look like.

“She has been an amazing iron lady in the AV industry that everybody was proud of.”

Leadership built through experience

Ekta's story is ultimately less about a single breakthrough and more about continued progression, learning the technology, understanding customers, creating markets, building partner relationships and remaining willing to take on something bigger.

And throughout that journey, she has remained conscious of what it means to be a woman building a leadership career in AV.

“I'm proud of being a woman. I've been absolutely honored to have amazing leaders who believed in me.”

For the next generation of women in AV

Curiosity, courage, consistency, mentorship and ambition are recurring themes in Ekta’s advice to those building a career in the industry. Keep asking questions, enter rooms where you may be different, build expertise through experience, learn from people who believe in you and allow your role to grow with you.

There is no single route into AV. Technical knowledge can be learned. Markets can be understood. Leadership develops over time.

“You don't need to be an engineer to be in the AV industry. You've just got to be passionate and have a curious soul who wants to know what technology is all about.”