September 2, 2015 - Building Automation
By Ken Sinclair
I am extremely pleased with the industry support I am receiving helping me define "the possible of connected buildings" because this clear definition of the possible is helping us define the transformational changes we all need to make.
Change is a slow process. There is an ancient Chinese proverb that goes: "When the wind of change blows, some people build walls, others build windmills."
We have all been talking about change for a long time; from our 2008 mission statement:
“AutomatedBuildings.com is committed to the continuance of our existing work plus the creation and nurturing of a community of change agents, to lead those who will accept change and convince those who resist. We have a long, long way to go to move out of the deeply rooted vendor centric unconnected world of traditional marketing of our products and services. We need to define the services and recognize the transaction and the performance we can deliver. We need to ‘Give our customers the ability to do something new, that they couldn't do before, but would have wanted to do; if only they knew they had the ability to do it.’ Imagine every single possible bit of information at your fingertips, perfectly contextualized, and perfectly personalized. This may never be realized, but the journey to find perfection will be the change we seek.
“Our community of change agents needs to continue to educate customers and especially those who have never been our customers, with all types of events and in all forms of media. Connection and Interoperability becomes the driver. The overwhelming operational requirement to have all buildings connected to the smart grid is a great example. The technology is here, we just need to create ways for our industry to be the ones that figure out how to use technology to sell solutions.”
This was written in 2008 and is a bit dusty, but still good in principle and not widely achieved. We need to focus on making change a priority. Please help me on this crusade.
Very pleased to be doing our 17th Education Sessions at AHR Expo 2016 in Orlando. It is themed "Transformational Change for Building Automation." Pleased to be joined by these industry experts to help us all better understand the change upon us:
• Jim Sinopoli PE, RCDD Principal Smart Buildings
• Paul Oswald, Managing Director, CBRE | ESI
• Brad White, P.Eng, MASc SES consulting principal
Hosted by Ken Sinclair, editor/owner/founder, www.AutomatedBuildings.com
First Session: Transformational Change for Building Automation. “The possible is presently impossible without transformative change.”
Second session: Transforming Skill Sets to Lead and Manage Change. An education session and discussion, led by industry experts, about how we need to approach the engagement of our only true asset, our people, and make transformative change part of their and our lives and use the resulting feedback to create self learning cultures for our companies.
Third Session: Data Analytics / Occupant Engagement and the Road to Self-Managing Buildings. An education session, led by industry experts, exploring data-driven decision making and introducing the new value added with Occupant Engagement in increasing comfort and productivity. Discussion of the evolving new industry measured variables of "satisfaction" and "happiness" now with feedback from social media and data analytics. This session will also explore what we might find on the road to self-managed buildings.
Please be part of our fourth annual Connection Community Collaboratory, in Orlando. It is not a meeting, it is an education session and discussion led by industry experts about how we need to approach creating and selling connection to the world. An open, fun collaboratory atmosphere. Come learn and share your opinions.
We are extremely pleased that the folks at AHR Expo provide AutomatedBuildings.com the annual venue and industry provides their people and support for our free education sessions. Thanks to all — you truly understand a collaboratory. Click here for more information, date and time.
Our September issue speaks well to the tranformative change now occurring in our industry. The following comment from an interview with one of our advertisers captures the mood.
“This event series is about creating an atmosphere that promotes going above and beyond the ordinary, to bring smart, profound change to the industry,” said Trevor Palmer, Distech Controls’ Vice President, Products & Marketing. “As we embark on the journey towards converged BMS, this event will explore the ways in which one can leverage their IT infrastructure and benefit from convergence now and in the future.”
Our collection of articles and columns reinforces that change evolves from the definition of the possible.
Ken Sinclair is the founder, owner, and publisher of an online resource called AutomatedBuildings.com. He writes a monthly column for FacilitiesNet.com about what is new in the Internet of Things (IOT) for building automation.
