IBcon – Where Facilities and IT Converge!

IBcon is not your traditional BAS conference! It is the largest gathering of authorities with international case studies on the topic of open architected, interoperable and integrated IP centric smart, connected, high performance and intelligent buildings.

Young:  A lot! In many respects I really think we have ‘jumped the chasm’
(www.realcomm.com/advisory/advisory.asp?AdvisoryID=570) for this new generation of Smart, Connected, High Performance, Intelligent Buildings. Where 2-3 years ago we were simply talking about how great it would be if all the buildings were smart and there were a few early adopters leading the charge, it seems that in the last 6-9 months the dam has broken and many organizations are now connecting their buildings to the network.

Young:  We’ve been on the phone a lot in preparation for IBcon and have been hearing about things like 4,000 IP addresses in every mall -- for starters!, 500M data points being collected each day from a corporate campus, 37B data points being collected from a retailer each week, a casino owner with more than 1M devices on the network, an office portfolio owner that is adding up to 200 buildings to the network over the next 12 months and another mall owner that says we better hurry up with IPv6 because he is going to put every electro/mechanical device on the network and we need more IP addresses! I have simply never seen this type of activity before.

Young:  In my opinion, we are entering the high-velocity chaos phase. This is a point in time where, for whatever reason, a number of people jump in and decide this is the time to connect and automate their buildings. While this is good on the surface, we need to learn from lessons past. Despite our willingness to move forward at breakneck speed, we need to slow down enough to make sure that we minimize our mistakes. There are a lot of people with IT experience and a lot of people with BAS experience, but a smaller number with both skill sets. Those who are making the decision to move forward on smart, connected, high performance, intelligent buildings that are open, interoperable, open architected and IP centric need to make sure they ask tough questions of their partners, making sure they have the skill sets to deliver on this new generation of smart buildings.

Young:  Yes, we need to make sure we do not just focus on the energy issues associated with automated buildings. While energy is a major issue on everyone’s mind, we cannot leave the other very important benefits out of the discussion. Operational efficiency, energy efficiency, sustainability and occupant satisfaction are the major four legs of the chair with financial optimization being the seat. After all, financial justification has and will always be the most compelling and sustainable driver for converting a building from dumb to smart. You have to consider all of these aspects from the onset; otherwise if you only consider your energy strategy, you are going to find yourself rethinking everything a few years from now.

1. We are no longer talking about IF we can do this; we are talking about HOW
2. We are going very deep into the conversation for those that are ready
3. We are talking about the five points: operations, energy, sustainability, occupant satisfaction and ultimately financial optimization
4. It’s no longer the same 3-4 case studies; there are so many new ones it’s hard to choose
5. If you are in this space, you need to see first-hand, the velocity of what’s happening -- you need to be at IBcon this June in Orlando.