Expanding the team and making an impact

Young Engineers Network Chair Greg Smith provides an update on the Network’s latest developments, including new appointments and a speaker session at the Smart Buildings Show.

Since our last Young Engineers Network (YEN) meeting, the team has expanded and some real progress and great steps have been made by a host of people. We have appointed members to lead our new working groups; Yousaf Waheed will lead our Social and Events group for the North and Midlands, Ryan Kidd is looking after the corresponding group for the South and Lucy Gale heads up our Marketing and Communications group. You will hearing more from Yousaf, Ryan and Lucy in due course, but firstly it gives me great pleasure to announce our first national event which our North and South teams have made a great effort to pull together.

One of our avenues of improvement for the BCIA YEN this term was training. Our aim is for relevant training to be made available to all, as well as reaching engineers with information about products and services that they otherwise may not be aware of. BACnet is a widely used protocol which is both well used but also, potentially, misunderstood by many. The BCIA YEN is delighted to be hosting a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accredited session at the forthcoming Smart Buildings Show, with Andy Camsell, BCIA Technical Consultant and Trainer, delivering a talk on Understanding Smart Communication using BACnet.

CPD sessions are a fantastic resource, as not only do they tick the CPD box, they also come with the added advantage of logged time towards your own development. Many of you will be aware, but for those that aren’t, it’s well worth having a look into CPD – you might find you’ve already started your portfolio with other courses you have attended.

Ryan Kidd has done a great job of heading up the South Social and Events team and has been heavily involved in organising Andy’s session. So, this is a great opportunity for me to introduce Ryan – over to you, Ryan!

Ryan Kidd, BCIA YEN Lead, South

Thank you, Greg, it has certainly been a busy couple of months behind the scenes, but before we get into that, allow me to introduce myself.

As Greg has mentioned I head up the UK South team within the BCIA YEN, which isn’t too far of a stretch from my day to day job as the UK South Sales Manager at Sontay.

I graduated from the University of Lincoln with my sights set on the technology industry, and from there I landed a job in the world of BEMS working at Sontay and have since been chipping away to learn as much as possible about our industry. I have a keen interest in Low Power Wide Area Networking LoRaWAN, – I am convinced it is going to change the world! Outside of work I enjoy cycling and am actively involved in helping to build trails for the local biking community.

Anyway, back to the BCIA YEN! Between the UK South and UK North-Mids teams, we have been busy pulling the strings together to organise this year’s national BCIA YEN event at the Smart Buildings Show. We have worked with the Sontay Academy/Marketing Department to help bring you a BACnet CPD, YEN information and a dedicated stand where we look forward to meeting you all. Whilst I have played a part in getting this event put together, it has very much been a team effort from everyone behind the scenes at YEN to make it happen, so a big thank you goes to everyone who has been involved.

So, whatever your reason for visiting the Smart Buildings Show on 18-19 October, please do come down and say hello. We look forward to seeing you there!