ESI’s Paul Oswald addresses the Skills Gap and the concept of People are a company’s most important asset. IoT has replaced the previous industry M2M buzzword, and some new technological concept will soon replace IoT, but people will remain — and represent the real and sustaining value of any company.
Technology changes rapidly and sometimes radically. Technology is not and end-game. People must create value for customers with each new technology — to make buildings run better. Attracting new talent is critical. We spend too little time developing the next-gen talent and a lot of tribal knowledge is leaving the industry. This is not about technical training. Companies need to add talent development to their business models and use the IoT (sexy) technology to entice new talent to their organizations.
Day 2 @ 2014 Niagara Summit: Cyber Security Panel, Author Don Tapscott, & M2M
Day 2’s General Session began by directing the Niagara Community’s focus to the serious issue of cyber security. “Security is a journey, not a destination.” PBS NewsHour Senior Correspondent Jeffery Brown moderated a formidable team of security experts: Marty Edwards, ICS-CERT; Fred Gordy, McKenney’s; Shane Riggio, VP IT Macerich; and Kevin Staggs, CISSP, Senior Engineering Fellow, ATL, Honeywell Automation and Control. Unfortunately, our buildings and building networks are highly vulnerable — and the bad guys are getting better. Some important takeaways: Get the cyber security conversation started; make security part of the organizational and building DNA; seriously budget for security, send people to training, and then evaluate your first experience; rotate your system around and view it as an “evil bit,” and prepare your worst case scenario answers now — so, if an attack does happen, you control the message and certainly know who is responsible to respond; regulations tend to create a culture of minimum compliance; and finally, effective cyber security requires good security citizenship — awareness and and concern from everyone in the chain at every level.
Day Two Niagara Summit Highlights from Eric Stromquist on Vimeo.
Day 2’s second speaker was the amazing Don Tapscott, Thinkers50’s 4th most influential living management thinker, Co-author of both Wikinomics and Macrowikinomics, and author of the Grown Up Digital. Perhaps Tapscott’s most provocative insight was from his most recent and relative e-book entitled Radical Openness: Four Unexpected Principles for Success. We are at a turning point in history, experiencing the transformation of the physical world. So, get off the burning platform; and with great optimism, realize and accept that the future is something yet to achieve!
The 3rd presentation was by Machina Research, Global advisors on M2M, the Internet of Things, and Big Data. Machina provided the results of the Niagara Community survey and IoT market intelligence and strategic emerging market insights.
Stay tuned for more on 2014 Niagara Summit!
Niagara Summit 2014 Awards: Call for Entries
Niagara Summit 2014 Awards: Call for Entries! Since the last Summit, have you launched a new product that is based on or interfaces with the Niagara framework? Have you completed a Niagara-based project that exemplifies innovation, creativity and collaboration?
If so, we hope that you will submit an entry for two new awards that Tridium will be presenting at the Niagara Summit to customers for exemplary industry achievement. The finalists for the “2014 Top New Niagara Product” and the “2014 Niagara Innovator of the Year” awards will be announced during the keynote address on Monday, April 28th. The Niagara Community will vote to select the winners during the Summit. The award winners will be presented during the closing Gala Dinner on Tuesday, April 29th.
Entries are due by April 14, 2014. Please download the New Product entry form here and the Innovator of the Year entry form here.
Please submit completed forms to NiagaraSummit@tridium.com by 5:00pm EST, April 14, 2014.
Therese Sullivan Talks Smart Buildings, Google, and System Integration
Why did Google really buy Nest? What skills does the controls system integrator of the future look like? Who will win the race to the large space?
To answer some of these questions Ken and I tracked down Therese Sullivan, who explores these types of topics on her blog BuildingContext.me
Stay tuned to Controltrends for more of Therese Sullivan, and be sure to check her out at Building Context.