About AVaStar

AVaStar exists because every AV conversation in this industry starts with someone who has something to sell.

Venues sign contracts they don’t fully understand. Meeting planners approve proposals they can’t evaluate. And the one party that could give them an honest answer, an advisor with no equipment to move and no crews to staff, didn’t exist.

AVaStar was founded in 2018 to fill that gap. Not as a vendor with a consulting arm. Not as a technology company with an advisory offering bolted on. As an independent consulting firm whose only product is expertise and whose only incentive is the client’s success. The industry has changed significantly since 2018, and the need for independent AV advice has only grown.

That independence isn’t a positioning choice. It’s the business model. AVaStar owns no equipment, employs no production crews, and holds no vendor contracts. It’s constitutionally impossible for us to have a conflict of interest, and that’s by design.

Who We Serve

AVaStar works with two groups of people who share the same problem: they’re responsible for AV outcomes without having anyone on their side who can give them a straight answer.

Meeting planners who manage events without an in-house AV expert, navigating vendor proposals and contracts with no independent check on what they’re being told.

Venue operators who inherited an AV program they didn’t build, running on equipment they didn’t spec, managed by a vendor or a team they can’t fully evaluate.

Both groups deserve an advisor with no stake in what they buy or who they hire. That’s what AVaStar is.

Jeff Loether

President

Jeff spent a decade at Marriott in Corporate Architecture and Construction before founding Electro-Media Design in 1990, where he has led more than 1,300 AV and acoustical design projects across the globe. He brings that depth of technical and operational expertise to every AVaStar engagement, setting the strategic direction for the firm and ensuring the advice clients receive is grounded in real-world experience at the highest level of the industry.

Eric Bracht

Managing Director & Principal Consultant

Eric ran hotel AV departments within Marriott’s portfolio for 17 years, ultimately serving as Director of Event Technology at Orlando World Center Marriott, one of the largest convention hotels in the United States. He owns AVaStar’s client relationships, consulting delivery, and platform management, and is the primary point of contact for most engagements.

Steve Oliver

Advisor

Steve brings deep industry connections and external relationships that extend AVaStar’s reach across the meetings and events community.

Jolene Rheault

Chief Communications Officer

Jolene brings 19 years of marketing and communications leadership across hospitality, audiovisual, and technology. Her background spans digital strategy, branding, public relations, content development, and HubSpot-driven automation systems — with an early career in QA and automation engineering for clients including Nintendo, HBO, and Sesame Street that gave her an unusually technical foundation for a marketing leader. At AVaStar, she owns the firm's digital presence, content pipeline, campaign strategy, and marketing infrastructure, ensuring the platform's expertise reaches the planners and venue operators who need it most.