June 06, 2011 – The Electricity Sector Council (ESC) recently hosted its Bright Futures 2011 conference in Toronto. EBMag’s editor, Anthony Capkun, was there to record some of the action, and post it LIVE to EBMag’s Twitter feed. Below, we’ve consolidated all those Tweets for one-stop shopping (in reverse chronological order):

ESC update: EPCOR’s Lowry says he wants employees to stay as long as they are able. “Our success is because of people”.

ESC: Flemming says companies most successful at hiring foreign workers are those who discuss strategy with their unions. yfrog.com/h7td3ggj

ESC Update: IBEW’s Flemming says union must work hand-in-hand with electric utilities to address looming labour shortages

ESC Update: Stevenson says high-performing organizations attract good employees.

ESC update: Stevenson says money & benefits can drive employee satisfaction, but not loyalty!

ESC: Stevenson says biggest HR concern is not at entry or retirement levels, but at early to mid-career levels. yfrog.com/h78izekj

ESC Update: Coming up, “Views from the Top” with Phil Flemming (IBEW), Don Lowry (EPCOR) & Cedric Stevenson (Hydro 1 Networks)

ESC Update: Noble says “we’re not building a wind farm, we’re building an economy”.

ESC Update: Lesson learned with Henvey Inlet wind farm project, a real business cannot rely on grants and programs.

ESC: Ken Noble of Nigig Power Corp. says youth on reserves have no role models. Those who could be role models leave. yfrog.com/h03g5tbj

ESC: Regarding training, Cornett says “What do you expect people to do differently after training?”

ESC: OPG’s Greg Cornett, mgr nuclear training programs, says there are 400 students attending training on any given day yfrog.com/hsz2hapj

ESC: Greg Comas of ATKO Electric discusses importance of developing Subject Matter Expert network to keep knowledge in the company

ESC: John Sowagi of OPG says electric utilities invest 6x as much as anyone in Canada on training & education

ESC: Craig Jackson of OSEA says First Nations have been consulted to death… forge friendships first, then talk power projects

ESC: Over 40, Andrea tells story of how she went from being a writer to powerline worker with NS Power yfrog.com/h0g8dmfj

ESC: CanSIA’s McDonald says Canada currently has competitive energy landscape, but we should have INTEGRATED nationwide energy strategy

ESC: Tanguay says since CGC’s market transformation initiative launched in 2007, over 15,000 residential systems certified

ESC: Cdn GeoExchange’s Tanguay says industry suffered from years of inertia. Market needs transformation to establish credibility

ESC: Irving says much hydropower potential in the North, where there aren’t enough workers, training, etc.

ESC: Irving says Canada possesses 163,000 MW of untapped hydropower potential across entire country; 25,000MW in planning stages

ESC: Cdn Hydropowers’ Irving says Canada is world’s 2nd largest hydropower generator (behind China)

ESC: Solar Thermal market is in question now that ecoEnergy program is over (as of March 2011).

ESC: CanSIA’s McDonald explains their goal is to achieve GRID PARITY. They do not want to remain a child of government.

ESC: MacLeod discusses inception & creation of National Solar PV Strategy – ceca.org/netco

ESC: Carol MacLeod of NETCO explains concerns with solar PV industry: qualifications, safety, national Canadian standards, training, etc.

ESC: CanWEA’s Levy says they need your help in updating their list of institutions offering training in wind technologies.

ESC: Building Bright Green Futures session with Carol MacLeod, Elizabeth McDonald, Tom Levy, Gregory Schmidt, Jacob Irving & Denis Tanguay

ESC Update: Suzanne Desrosiers, chief HR Officer with NB Power, says HR needs to participate in creation of smart grid vision

ESC Conference: discussion of workforce challenges facing electrical power sector in several years

EBMag is at the Electricity Sector Council’s Building Bright Futures in Canada Conference! http://tinyurl.com/4jdkuxu

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For more on the conference, check out Anthony Capkun’s Editor Greeting in the upcoming June/July 2011 edition of Electrical Business.