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Haystack Connect, the signature event for the Project Haystack Community, starts in two weeks. The conference provides a unique, open-forum for professionals involved in automation, control, and the Internet of Things to learn and share the latest technologies and techniques for connecting systems and utilizing device data in applications including intelligent buildings, energy management, remote monitoring, and other IoT devices and applications.

This will be the second year in a row that this event will be held virtually. However, this year the Project Haystack team decided to step outside of a traditional online event schedule to host the conference as a virtual series. Automated Buildings reached out to Co-Executive Directors Nick Gayeski, Richard McElhinney, and Alex Rohweder to hear more.

There have been some significant changes to this event since last year. What should attendees expect?

Nick Gayeski:  For Project Haystack, the top priority is always having a high-quality program so that’s something that attendees can still expect. We saw that holding this as a virtual event and making registration free last year reduced barriers to attendance. And with that, we had record attendance and were able to expand the worldwide reach of this event. So, it definitely made sense to keep registration free again this go around.

Alex Rohweder: One of the main differences for 2022 will be the days and times. Each day will consist of a 90-minute session, which we think is the perfect amount of time for attendees to focus and engage. We will still have three days in a row to start—that will be September 13-15. But instead of stopping there, we will continue the program with additional days on September 28, October 12, and November 9.

Richard McElhinney: Since the pandemic, people have embraced the virtual world—and virtual events—in a whole new way. But we also know that more people are back in their offices now and it’s more difficult to sit for hours at a time at long virtual events. We wanted to adapt this year to make it easy for people to attend—and I think we have.
 

You mentioned Haystack Connect’s high-quality program. Your final schedule was recently released—can you give us the highlights reel?

Alex Rohweder: We would love to and there are certainly a lot of highlights! We’ve got a great mix of speakers with diverse backgrounds. Project Haystack ultimately delivers value to many different stakeholders engaged in smart infrastructure, for us it was important to provide those different perspectives. This includes for example high profile end customers and major manufacturers leveraging Haystack in their products. 

Richard McElhinney: We are also excited to have Gabe Fiero speak about intensified collaboration between the Haystack standard and the BRICK standard - we truly believe that collaboration and interoperability between leading data standards is an essential value we need to provide to the industry.

Nick Gayeski: The thing all the presentations will have in common is the educational value they bring to the table. We are lucky to have a talented and insightful community, ready and willing to share their knowledge with one another.

Do you foresee Haystack remaining a virtual event long-term?

Richard McElhinney: Haystack Connect was always an every-other-year event, so there is room and options to do both. It’s important to us to keep adapting. Haystack Connect is a unique, valuable event, and part of that is that it keeps growing and evolving to best meet the needs of the community.

Nick Gayeski: I agree, the ability of Haystack Connect and its program to adapt to meet the needs of its audience, as well as those of the greater community of innovators in the buildings industry, is definitely a major strength of the event and a great benefit to everyone who attends.

Alex Rohweder: The virtual events has been great for Project Haystack. But there is also a need to get back to some of the networking and interactions that only an in-person event can provide. There is value to be had in both types of events and for us, we like the idea of these working in combination. That being said, this virtual series will help lead up to an in-person Haystack Connect in May 2023 where we look forward to continuing to move Project Haystack forward.