Loved the BIG-NYC Building Intelligence Group's "Technology Building Operators Want" event last night! As a board member of NAIOP NYC I was happy to see we were an affiliate sponsor of sorts.
The panel included:
🔸 Jonathan Wilcox Director of Engineering at One Vanderbilt, SL Green Realty Corp.
🔸 Sean Brigandi Senior Director of Data Centre Infrastructure & Strategy, RBC
🔸 Fikret Markovic, Facilities Director, CBRE
🔸 John Boniberger, Director, Engineering and Operations, Rudin
🔸 Gabriel Peschiera (moderator): CEO, Numa Products
We got to hear the speakers’ ideas about the technologies that building operators need to improve their day-to-day operations and achieve their goals.
My take-aways:
The main building intelligence goals for facility managers seem to be standardizing property systems throughout a portfolio and, mainly, environmental/temperature control for the workers.
They shared some of the types of apps/software they are using, such as Antrum and Comfy for environmental or air control and Clara for machine learning or AI to automatically adjust air flow. They mentioned that it is important to really understand the product you are buying - it’s best to talk to the installation person, rather than the sales rep.
Someone from the audience questioned if they use the technology for LL97 compliance but the general consensus from the panel was that the focus right now is mostly on environmental control.
In terms of staffing, many staff come from Local Union 94 (operating engineers for buildings requiring maintenance of heating and air conditioning systems) but they may bring different levels of experience. There seemed to be a perception among the panelists that younger staff seem to embrace the new technologies more.
After the panel discussion, the audience broke out into little groups to talk amongst themselves. My table had such variety including an air temperature control start-up, a full PropTech start-up, an FM company for non-profits, a VDC Manager for a large CM, a 3-D modeling company and a data analyst.
Was great seeing BIG-NYC’s Mahmoud Shouman, P.Eng., SmartScore AP, Turner’s Ayse P., CTBUH NYC’s Chair Ilkay Can-Standard and JBB’s Maxinne Leighton, PhD, Assoc. AIA.
The event was catered with an amazing spread of delicious Arabic food - and even a French wine tasting. Really, our industry needs to take advantage of NYC’s wonderfully diverse cuisine more often!
Bravo, BIG-NYC - I am looking forward to your next event!
#BIGNYC #BuikdingIntelligenceGroup #Proptech #CRE #CREproptech #AI #MachineLearning #Buildingtechnology