From London to Las Vegas, quarter two of 2023 included a whirlwind of conferences for the smart building world. Our team had the opportunity to participate in a handful of conferences, as an attendee and as a sponsor and speaker. We’ve included a recap highlighting the conferences and their key takeaways.
Realcomm/IBCON:
The Realcomm/IBCON Conference took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, in June. Aptitude was a sponsor of the Smart Building Integrator Summit roundtable, a ‘pre-conference’ event. As part of this, our Design & Pre-construction Director Chris Andrews was a panelist for the ‘Smart building design with the end in mind’ session along with three other speakers. “What I found interesting is that I sat on a panel of experts that included cyber security, a software architect, and an infrastructure designer. We were presenting to a room full of experts that literally control the temperature of the room,” said Andrews. “And we were discussing how it is imperative for each of our disciplines to collaboratively coordinate our efforts in order to complete a successful design. Just five years ago that would have been four independently working disciplines with no consideration of each other.”
NECA-BICSI Summit:
The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) and the Building Industry Consulting Service International (BICSI) joined forces to host the NECA-BICSI Summit in Denver, Colorado, in June. “This was a trade show that was meant to introduce electrical contractors to the scopes typically performed by low-voltage technicians. It highlighted the current and future use of ‘Fault Managed Power’ and introduced us to the new Article 726 in the National Electrical Code, Class 4 Fault-Managed Power Systems,” said Andrews.
InfoComm:
The InfoComm Show took place in Orlando, Florida, in June. InfoComm is the largest professional audiovisual trade show in North America with thousands of products for audio, conferencing and collaboration, video, streaming, control, digital signage, enterprise IT, security, and more. “One of the interesting highlights at the show was fantastic see-through displays for digital advertising and information,” said Brian Reynolds, Aptitude Operations Director. “I think that we will start to see more innovation in how AV is used to convey information in creative ways like this.”
HealthSpaces:
HealthSpaces, an invite-only gathering for the nation’s top healthcare providers and healthcare construction and facility leaders, took place in Frisco, Texas, in June. Healthcare and East Region Operations Director John Cooper and Midwest Operations Director Derek Seitz represented Aptitude at the event. “Having a chance to meet one-on-one with large healthcare facility and design leaders allowed us to understand their specific digital building strategies and challenges, as well as hearing firsthand the need for Aptitude in the market to focus on these systems to ensure the strategy becomes a reality on their design and construction projects,” said Seitz.
Digital Construction Week:
Digital Construction Week took place at ExCeL London in May. As the United Kingdom’s only event dedicated to digital construction, engineering, design, manufacturing, and operations, it focuses on the tools that are shaping the future of built environments. Aptitude Managing Director Sam Holt spoke on a panel discussing smart building sustainability along with Fexillon CEO Kieran Beggan (@Fexillon). “Sustainability is arguably one of the preeminent responsibilities facing our generation,” said Holt. “Finding greener, more efficient paths to operate our most critical environments requires multiple industries coming together to co-innovate to solve the sustainability challenges we face. Digital Construction Week was a great example of how different industries are beginning to work together.”