Wouldn’t it be nice if for one week each year, all building technology players gather in one town, for one purpose, under one roof, focused on a common set of industry-building activities?

Wouldn’t it be nice if all of the issues and products related to building system technologies are discussed and presented during such a week? An event where vendors could show their wares to integrators, where integrators could see and compare technologies, applications, products, software, and tools pertaining to all aspects of building systems from security, lighting, and energy, HVAC, IT, cabling, displays and so much more.

Wouldn’t it then be nice if such a collection of stakeholders could attract, during that same week building owners, developers, architects and consultants to learn from this powerful industry the benefits and ways that they may procure the products, technologies, services and solutions needed for the implementation of the dream of intelligent buildings?

Oh, wouldn’t it be nice to do it all in one place at one time instead of having to spend multiple weeks traveling to other less focused shows and then be able to devote the rest of the year doing what you do best – conduct business and make money.

The cries are being heard over and over in what is clearly a growing industry, with too many tradeshows and conferences organized by literally dozens of well meaning organizations and corporations, anxious to promote their technology, their products and their solutions.

Let’s dissect the needs of the future of this industry, and maybe we can come to a sensible conclusion:

Scope

We need to understand and accept the future of buildings: The many facets of building systems (HVAC, security, etc.) are converging with each other, and building systems are converging with IT. The question of how, when and who does what may still be in debate, but this inevitability is absolute, and a week-long gathering of true building technology stakeholders must include all of the disciplines, not just a subset.

Objectivity

While we accept the need for individuals and organizations to have biases, an event that brings the industry together must be objective in its content, and must do what it can to balance the objective educational content, with a healthy platform for discussion, while providing a mechanism for vendors to present their offerings in a tradeshow for business development.

Open

An event that will unite the industry must be open, open to all perspectives, open to all potentially valuable ideas, technologies and solutions balanced with objectivity and business development strategies. The event should not exclude any idea, any perspective, or any technology that could be of benefit to building owners.

Community

An event that gathers the industry must be responsible for nurturing the community of people that makes up the industry. As convergence evolves, many individuals from differing areas will become players. From networking to recognition of achievements, the event must facilitate this most basic need to belong.

Subjects

An event that focuses on an emerging market must bring focus to key subjects that are likely to drive the industry forward. Trends in technology development and adoption must be presented as well as barriers that will impact the growth of the market. Key subjects will change from year to year; they must be fresh, current and relevant. This year, for example, a significant subject is Energy and the drive for efficient and sustainable buildings.

Global

While we all typically work in a local market, we now live in a global environment, especially when it relates to technology. The Internet on which the future of building systems will be based is after all, a very global and borderless beast. It would be foolish for us to evolve our ideas of building system without an understanding of the problems and solutions found in far corners of this world.

Business $$$

At the end of the day we are in business to make money. An all-encompassing event should attract and satisfy the whole industry, to allow it to grow and present the value proposition of this industry to building owners, developers and operators who are desperately looking for a single voice and a complete set of solutions to answer their problems.

From BuilConn to ConnectivityWeek

In fact, such a week exists today.

What started as a vision for the future of buildings in Dallas in 2003, BuilConn, now in its fifth year, has evolved into ConnectivityWeek which includes BuilConn and other relevant conferences. The concept of ConnectivityWeek was created to draw together not just building convergence players, but all of the stakeholders in the device-centric world that is becoming the future of the Internet, in which buildings will play a significant role.

From the very first BuilConn, Clasma the organizers, have been very open about inviting all perspectives to come and be part of the event. It was at the first BuilConn that the first objective panel discussion was held with LONWORKS, BACnet and Web services; a panel discussion that convinced many of the attendees that which standard is not as important as having synergistic standards.

The Scope of ConnectivityWeek 2007

ConnectivityWeek 2007 in the U.S. is May 22-24 in Chicago, IL, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, (by O’Hare Airport).

At the time of writing, the ConnectivityWeek 2007 is planned to have the following components:

• Visionary Keynotes: Plenary sessions at BuilConn have always been special, presenting visionary thought leaders. In 2007, the plenary will include not-to-be-missed keynotes and a mega-panel of experts.

• BuilConn: Designed to cover building connectivity and applications, BuilConn is focused on IP convergence, gateways, standards and the businesses that are evolving around these subjects.

• Demand Response: Fast becoming a major application of building technologies. Utilities, ESCOs, Federal/State Energy Initiatives are presenting immediate money making opportunities for BAS players.

• GridWise Expo: At the crossroads of technology and energy, this DOE initiative is developing a generation-to-consumption view of automating electricity usage; the opportunities in buildings are huge.

• Energy & Sustainability: As one of the most promising application of building technologies, BuilConn 2007 will highlight the opportunities and future of alternative energy for BAS players.

• Wireless Connectivity: As standards, products and experiences evolve, the use of wireless will become widespread in the coming years. Wi-tivity, as part of ConnectivityWeek focuses on this key area.

• ZigBee Expo: With the deployment of ZigBee in buildings, and new products becoming available, the ZigBee Expo—showcase within ConnectivityWeek—will highlight key products for commercial buildings.

• M2M: While sometimes complex to grasp, the world of machine-to-machine introduces new ways we can view connected devices--as enablers of valuable services rather than just sellers of better widgets.

• ibX Forum: With Intelligent Buildings as our quest, ibX discusses and highlights the value of IB, organized in partnership with i&i limited, an organization with over 25 years experience studying IB worldwide.

• Connected Signage: A new field very much part of tomorrow’s buildings, is the integration of digital signage with building systems including emergency annunciation to weather reports and advertising.

• IP Security: A key subject for building technology players is security systems within facilities. IP is enabling significant opportunities for this integration for integrators; a track is dedicated to this subject.

• Cisco Connected Roundtable: From the watershed 2006 event in Palm Springs, the Roundtable will be expanded to bring together the players realizing Cisco’s vision of connected buildings.

• Building Information Modeling: BIM will revolutionize buildings; it proposes modeling of objects (doors, rooms, controls, energy, etc.) to replicate the building as digital data used from design to operations.

• Installing Connected Buildings: With a focus on how to install devices in connected buildings, this track will educate electrical and mechanical installers from a business and technical perspectives.

• Procuring Connected Buildings: In a conference track targeted at building owners, experts will run workshops on how owners should look to design, build and operate connected buildings.

• Retro-Commissioning: Recent studies indicate that retrospective and continuous commissioning can result in 15-30% increase efficiency in building. This track will be focused on this subject.

• Network & Data Standards: From LONWORKS to BACnet and oBIX, BuilConn is the event to get the most up-to-date and objective status reports from new technology to deployment tools, stories and strategies.

• Around the World: From speakers at BuilConn events in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, these conference sessions will compare the progress and adoption of convergence. Much can be gained here.

• Buildy: For the fourth year, the Buildy awards will be presented by the industry to the leaders of the industry in key categories: Visionaries, Best Product, Best Initiative, Best Project and Best Building.

• IBB: The Interoperability Blues Band is the social highlight of the industry, a jam-session where adversarial groups, competitors and friends alike find a common chord to sing the “blues”.

Open Invitation

Nowhere else in the industry’s calendar, anywhere in the world is there a single event that brings together such a relevant range of topics for serious building technology players.

Individuals or organizations who feel their specialty or perspective is not adequately covered in the outlined list would be most welcome to present their view to be included in the agenda of ConnectivityWeek.

Clasma hereby invites all stakeholders in the building technology world to not just attend the event, but to truly become part of it, to build the complete ecosystem that building owners are looking for.

Key to this is an invitation to a new breed of player in the buildings technology industry, one that has been hinted at in numerous articles over the past couple of years, and a discipline that is starting to emerge in recent BuilConn events. Some call this a system architect; others call this role an enterprise integrator, while some call this a super integrator or FMSI (facility management master integrator). BuilConn at ConnectivityWeek is the natural gathering and learning place for these new players, at the intersection of IT and buildings.

Technology organizations, trade organizations and vendors are all invited to ConnectivityWeek to present objective perspectives, education, best practices and discuss how their experience can be harnessed by the industry and building owners for the betterment of facilities and the industry that makes it happen.

Information on the above will be being developed over January and February 2007, please watch www.builconn.com/2007/na for more information, or contact Anto Budiardjo at antob@clasma.com.

The above article is available as a pdf at www.builconn.com/2007/na/downloads/Industry-PowWow.pdf

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