February 26, 2021 – By the time you read this, Electrical Business Magazine will have launched EBPowerCon: the Cybershow & Expo for you: Canadian electrical professionals.

The event’s ultimate goal is to educate and empower you on technology and trends, and the opportunities that arise from them.

And, with the help of our amazing sponsors, EBPowerCon is completely free to attend whenever you want, from wherever you are… for however often you wish.

(If you missed Launch Day, don’t worry. Once you’ve registered, come back to get caught up on anything you may have missed. PLUS… we’ve added even more sessions since this article published in the magazine, with special guests Adrian Thomas, Schneider Electric Canada; Steven Lupo, Trilliant; Stephen Koskoletos, ABB; Eric Tucker, Procore; and Martin Stephenson, Signify. STILL MORE coming March 22!)

Without further ado, let’s see what happened on Launch Day.

Be it hardware or software, the construction industry is seeing unprecedented investment in tech these days, and the pandemic is definitely accelerating its adoption. And, like everything else in this 21st Century, data is everywhere.

Admittedly, the concept of data (its collection, its use) is often foreign to me, which is why I appreciated my session with DAVID BURCZYK, “Jobsite data: how we get it, and how we make it useful”.

Back in the day, when 3D technology was coming into its own, I was surprised to learn that it was not the architecture community that fully saw its potential, but contractors who realized the data can be used to create a virtual prototype for constructing things.

I’ve been keen on having a discussion with ERIC HOLLISTER since last fall, when we published news of two Hilti innovations: the Jaibot drilling robot and EXO-O1 exoskeleton.

During our conversation “Robotics and augmented humans… they’re here, right now!”, we discussed how and why these technologies came to be. And there are a few reasons.

Besides assisting our existing workforce, these innovations also help showcase the construction industry as an advanced, forward-thinking sector, which should make it more appealing to the journeymen of tomorrow.

If you look at JO-ANNE BAILEY’s presentation “Closing the deal with leasing”, you could be forgiven for thinking “One of these things is not like the other”.

But that’s one of things that sold me on including her in our line-up. Until she and I started talking, I had no idea you could even lease a job.

Here’s how it works: you’re pitching a client on, say, a lighting retrofit, and the bill will come out to $50K. To your client, that might seem a little steep, a little frightening.

At that point, you suggest to your client that he consider leasing the project… and organizations like Jo-Anne’s do just that: they arrange a lease for the project with set terms and predictable monthly payments to make it easy for the client to say “Yes” to the work.

LUKE KRUEGER caught my attention when I learned of how Calgary’s ICwhatUC’s augmented video technology is being used by public utilities for servicing their customers. I knew we had to explore this further.

In our session “The future of service calls: augmented video/augmented reality”, Luke explained that ICwhatUC’s primary purpose is to eliminate unnecessary truck rolls for service calls, but also for checking in on jobsites.

ICwhatUC is phone-agnostic, and requires no special app. It connects users’ phone cameras in real-time while you’re speaking with each other… and you can mark-up things on your screen.

This technology is a great productivity tool, and can even be monetized.

GAVIN DALY wins the prize for presentation with the longest title, “Upgrade your service offering to prepare clients for safety and security”.

That said, his session did a great job at showcasing numerous safety & security solutions for which electrical contractors are well-positioned to deliver for their clients.

The solutions Gavin discusses are not pandemic-specific, which means they can find additional uses when we get back to normal.

Get caught up

All of these sessions are available now as on-demand videos at EBPowerCon. Registration is free, and you can come and go as you please.

Stay informed!

We continually post updates about our sessions and speakers in our weekly newsletter (sign up at EBMag.com), LinkedIn (the Electrical Business Network) and Twitter (@EBMag) and, of course, at ebpowercon.ca.

CHECK OUT the full feature—along with other great content—in the February 2021 edition of Electrical Business Magazine. Even more back issues are located in our Digital Archive.