Spread the word
In her first blog as BCIA President, Stacey Lucas discusses her journey to this prestigious position and how she hopes to raise the awareness of the building controls industry as a whole.
Welcome to my first blog since taking over the role of BCIA President from Graeme Rees, who has done a fantastic job in increasing member engagement and setting us onto a clear path as an organisation carrying recognition, respect and influence in the building controls industry.
I am of course very proud to also become the first female President of the BCIA and to also welcome Jen Vickers as the new Vice-President. Jen’s experience and knowledge of the industry has already been of great value to the BCIA and I look forward to working with her to achieve our aims for the next few years.
One of the things I love about the building controls industry is the diversity in roles, skills and people that come together to bring life to buildings. There are many routes that people have taken into our industry – whether by choice or by coincidence – it is an industry that never fails to fascinate.
A fortunate accident
My own journey into building controls was a fortunate accident! The company I was working for went bust and a role at Sontay became available in the Customer Service Team. I gave it a go and soon became immersed in an industry that I had known nothing about. Sontay gave me the opportunity to work my way up and use many of the skills I had trained for. I also found myself fascinated by the technical aspect and whilst working in sales found I wanted to answer technical queries myself and understand project schematics. I then took on responsibility for Marketing using my previous work experience along with Technical Support and Despatch to encompass all of the customer facing operational parts of the business to become the Commercial & Marketing Director.
One of my goals as President is to raise awareness not just of the association but the wider sector itself. I had no knowledge of the industry when I joined and I’m sure that is the same for most other “muggles” outside of the industry. If people don’t know we exist, then how can we be at the forefront of any agenda? The industry and the association is full of fantastic companies doing amazing things and we need to make everybody aware of the benefits we can all bring. Now is such an opportune moment where the stars are aligned for our industry. Both the net-zero agenda and energy crisis can utilise what we do to help with the solution. By raising the profile of the industry we can ensure that the benefits we can bring are as high up on the list as heat pumps are for methods in reducing energy consumption. All of these things will also help us to become the career of choice for many more people!
Learning from others
Aside from raising the profile of what we do, there are many other benefits from being part of the association like networking and learning from others in the industry, being part of the working groups to understand the working practices and dynamics of the various types of members, and seeing the true voice of all being listened to and the outcomes of actions made in those groups. I love to learn and there are regularly training opportunities at member events too.
I have found my personal journey with the BCIA really enriching. It sounds cliched but it has helped me grow in knowledge, skills and confidence over the years I have been involved, resulting in first the Vice President and now the President role! I have learned so much from my interactions with the association and looked forward to being an advocate for the association to external and internal stakeholders in my presidency.