Forum discussion

Proposed focus areas for the Summit in Chicago

Hi! We're putting together a pre-summit survey to collect input from everyone who's signed up for the Summit; we'll use that to prep the agenda for our get-together July 9-10.

Based on our last few phone calls, here's a list of topics on our radar. If there are others you'd like to see added to the survey, or if you have more thoughts about any of these, please respond here. It would be good to be input here by the end of April so we can use it to firm up the list of topics for the survey. 

We can also unpack and start talking about any of these topic here (online), of course!

Thanks! Nadav

  • Overhyped technologies—how to not waste time when the client gets excited about cool ideas that aren’t ready for prime time.
  • Performance metrics: Carbon/energy/cost; IAQ/Daylight. Which are most useful/meaningful?
  • Dealing with architecture clients who want to do their own energy modeling (usually have to unwind them).
  • How to balance time between internal issues in the firm and external focus on design solutions and technologies?
  • How to collaborate and share information between firms: case studies, best practice guides?
  • Industry advocacy such as policy, codes, standards that we could advocate for as a group
  • To innovate or replicate MEP solutions from project to project? pros and cons 
    • Cost pressure to re-use systems
    • Pressure to innovate for innovation’s sake and for marketing
  • How to make the case for clients: “How to make the best use of your engineer” guidebook?
  • How to serve owners that don’t have skills/resources on their facilities teams to manage cutting edge systems?
  • Water-energy nexus. 
  • Mass Timber--MEP coordination issues. 
  • Phone-a-friend—how can we best become resources for each other? 
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Thu, 04/18/2019 - 16:42

Nadav ---   Seems like there are three broad buckets of topics here.  I am not sure if we will have three sessions or not, but I would encourage you to group and refine the topics around something like:   TECHNICAL / DESIGN TOPICS – ISSUES WITH INNOVATIVE MEP SYSTEM SOLUTIONS
  • Overhyped technologies—how to not waste time when the client gets excited about cool ideas that aren’t ready for prime time.
  • To innovate or replicate MEP solutions from project to project? pros and cons 
  • How to serve owners that don’t have skills/resources on their facilities teams to manage cutting edge systems?
  • Water-energy nexus. 
  • Mass Timber--MEP coordination issues. 
POLICY / INDUSTRY TOPICS – SHARING BEST PRACTICES BETWEEN FIRMS
  • Performance metrics: Carbon/energy/cost; IAQ/Daylight. Which are most useful/meaningful?
  • How to collaborate and share information between firms: case studies, best practice guides?
  • Industry advocacy such as policy, codes, standards that we could advocate for as a group
  • Phone-a-friend—how can we best become resources for each other? 
PRACTICE TOPICS – MANAGING CLIENTS
  • Dealing with architecture clients who want to do their own energy modeling (usually have to unwind them).
  • How to balance time between internal issues in the firm and external focus on design solutions and technologies?
  • How to make the case for clients: “How to make the best use of your engineer” guidebook?
Erik

Fri, 04/26/2019 - 18:08

Thanks, Erik! I think the grouping you proposed is really helpful. What do others think? Anything missing from here that should be on the survey as a candidate for inclusion in the agenda?  Any other thoughts on how we might combine some of these, or which ones to keep separate to maintain specific focus?  What would be most useful to come away from this Summit with? (Other than new and closer, friends, of course!)

Fri, 04/26/2019 - 20:03

Hi Nadav, I like Erik's idea to organize the issues.  But, beyond creating categories and picking our topics of interest, I also think we should take some time before and during the Summit to talk about setting goals and priorities.  For example, if we all agree that fighting Climate Change is our highest priority, we could use that as a lens to prioritize our efforts.

Sat, 04/27/2019 - 01:18

I think the three categories are great!  i do think we have to many topics and maybe a pre-summit survey would allow you to prioritize the topics.  My guess is that we can handle no more than a 2-3 topics within each of the three categories.  Depending on how many attend we can probably break into three groups to deal with the topics for each session?

Sat, 04/27/2019 - 12:17

Great suggestions, Jacob and Don. Yes, we've been planning on doing a survey to get everyone's preferences factored in.  And I love the idea of talking goals and priorities, both before and during the Summit. We can add to the agenda for Monday's call, to get that started!

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