Yesterday I moderated a panel on ‘From Blueprint To Bottom Line: Unlocking Roi In Smart Buildings’ at WORKTECH‘s Smarter Technologies 25 Conference at WeWork Waterloo offices. We explored common challenges hindering investment, such as resistance to change and the difficulty in demonstrating clear ROI. Panellists emphasised the importance of establishing a clear strategy, understanding user needs, and involving stakeholders in defining success metrics.

Solutions discussed included leveraging existing systems and focusing on how technology can improve both operational efficiency and the user experience, aligning with ESG and sustainability goals. Ultimately, the discussion highlighted the need for better collaboration and communication across teams to effectively unlock investment in smart building technologies.

Hopefully, some news on DBC project initiatives being launched and other event partnerships when I get back from a short break. In the meatime, I have included a couple of AI summaries of the panel session below and you can listen to an AI-generated discussion of the session I have posted on LinkedIn.

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As mentioned on LinkedIn, last year I facilitated a round table with mostly Developer/Owner/Operator participants that I wrote-up for Smart Buildings Mag (see here). That discussion and surrounding outreach shaped not only the 5 other gatherings I subsequently curated, but also much of what I wrote about on LinkedIn.

To kick things off this year, I am facilitating a Round Table on Smart Enablement kindly hosted by the folks at LMG (lmgiq.com) on Tuesday 6th February. In this post, I try and explain a little about who, what, how and why.

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As mentioned earlier this week on LinkedIn, we are probably too far into January now to be saying Happy New Year and sorry for silence over last few weeks, but I have been busy behind the scenes looking at what is worth exploring this year. Last year, I was mostly focused on Smart Building Retrofit and you can see write-ups from 3 of the 6 events I curated last year over on Smart Buildings Mag (including one at their Smart Buildings Show). This post explains some of what as been going on behind the scenes and what’s coming next.

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As mentioned in an earlier post, the Arcadis team gave a presentation on the increasing number of physical and digital accreditation schemes for buildings at the Smart Buildings Show in 2021. I was hoping to run another panel at a smart building conference early next year possibly connected to this, but sadly that is not going to happen now. And, so, instead I decided to share it on LinkedIn instead (see here). Maybe, this could be the basis for an article without having to put on a panel.

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Really enjoyed this article by author and workplace strategy consultant Corinne Murray. I was reminded by something Sandra Gritti at employee engagement specialists Leesman said about their ongoing research showing that 60% of employees rate the work experience of their homes higher than their offices. If I heard that correctly, it could in effect point to a 60% glut of office space. That sounds like ‘ahelluvalotta’ square meterage/footage.

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Another post that is not really about PoE, but a reflection on how prompting a conversation about it might have provided a moment of clarity about role I could play having done so.

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I recently prompted a conversation about smart building technology deployment strategies that at times appeared to prompt a “Oh No It Isn’t – Oh Yes It Is” pantomime like back and forth, or at least on LinkedIn. That totally missed the point of my original post (see here and here) and ended up with me playing both agony aunt and punchbag to different stakeholders involved during facilitating the exchange (I hope among playing other more productive roles). This one is really a reflection on one way I go about looking at what is going on in the smart buildings technology space with this business model environment lens from the folks at lean startup specialists Strategyzer (see more in it here). As well as what I am seeing by using it, and how that has all the makings of an interesting panel discussion.

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This is another bookmark post, this time for my round-up in Smart Building Magazine (SBM) of the Why is Retrofit Not Taken More Seriously in the Climate Change Conversation? panel I curated and moderated at their Smart Buildings Show last month. It is third round-up in what could be seen as series on SBM about events I curated this year (see here). Rather than repeat the talking points from the previous ones I have tried to highlight those I think worth exploring further. Hopefully more news on that soon, probably in the New Year now, but in the meantime you can read the article on SBM here and the announcement on LinkedIn here that links to the participants.

My recent post on whether Power Over Ethernet (P0E) is all it is cracked up to be sparked what at times felt like a pantomime conversation (oh, no is it isn’t vs oh, yes it is). That included questioning my motivation for asking it along with lengthy character assassination and even whether my asking the question in the first place might all be a bit moot i.e., if the 5G Mesh product from Wirepas due for release next year comes to pass. That’s one to keep an eye on along with other 5G announcements next year, which gives me time to try and understand what problem 5G Mesh helps solve to add to a growing list of other homework from Brahm Lategan at the MiX consultancy e.g., Unified Name Space, N3uron industrial IoT system architectures, etc (hopefully more on these soon).

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I recently joined a PropTech WhatsApp group and asked what events they recommended and why, some of which I have included above along with others I have been to and have been recommended to me. I am not advocating any of them although I did moderate a panel as the Smart Buildings Show this year. I have highlighted them because of an observation I made in the WhatsApp group about how much ground PropTech covers including if and how lines blur with related areas like WorkTech, as well as if some are sub-sets, e.g. ConTech and Smart Buildings technologies.

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