In this episode of the Smart Buildings Academy Podcast we are going to answer the listener questions we have gathered over the past several months. We will also be taking live questions from any of our listener/viewers as well.

Estimating building automation work can be very difficult.

You have so many moving parts and pieces that can affect your project cost.

In this Smart Buildings Academy Podcast series, we are going to dive deep into the topic of estimating.

This multipart series will discuss:

• Estimating Techniques
• Takeoffs
• Bill of Material Generation
• Cost category identification

If you're looking to learn how to estimate I encourage you to watch/listen to this new series.

In this episode of the Smart Buildings Academy, we are going to discuss how to identify energy and sustainability centered buyers.

It should be no surprise that building owners are focused on sustainability and energy.

Between regulations, incentives, and utility costs organizations are increasingly establishing energy and carbon guidelines for their facilities.

This presents a great opportunity for solution minded organizations to pursue these opportunities. In this episode we will discuss a framework to identify these customers and opportunities.

This will involve a live screenshare where we target specific customers and research these opportunities.

In this episode of the Smart Buildings Academy Podcast we continue our multipart series on cyber security. 

In today's episode we are going to dive deeper into reconnaissance, which is the first phase of a cyber security attack.

Here we will be looking deeper into techniques and tools that are used to actively and passively gather information on potential targets. 

We will explore how to protect your building automation system and your BAS employees from this initial phase of attack. 

As always please ask any questions you have. 

Cyber Security is not that hard.

Over the next several episodes we are going to be exploring cyber security concepts and tying them to building automation.

My hope is that by the end of this series you will have an understanding of cyber security theory and processes.

This is meant to be an interactive episode so be sure to tune in and ask questions as we explore this topic.

In this episode of the Smart Buildings Academy Podcast, we interview Saheel Chandrani with ABB.

I'm really excited for two reasons.

One, ABB is discussing my favorite topic, workforce! You can have the best technology but without a clear plan to develop and support the workforce nothing else you do matters.

The other reason I'm excited is because you, our audience, and I get to be on the front row seat of a new building automation solution release.

I think you will find Saheel to be very down to earth and transparent.

Nick Sanchez is the next generation of BAS technicians. 

The traditional strategy of hiring someone else's employees has failed. This strategy simply cannot produce the amount of talented employees you need to run your building automation business.

But where do you find folks like Nick? 

And how do you train folks like Nick?

In this episode of the Smart Buildings Academy Podcast I chat with Nick about how he got into the BAS industry, his experience with BAS training, and how he went from knowing nothing about this industry to a BAS tech in less than 3 months.

So you have a customer who might be interested in a retrofit, what next? 

One of the most common ways to start the retrofit sales process is to perform a site audit. To be clear, this is not a ASHRAE energy audit or a IPMVP pre-audit.

This audit exists to ensure you have an accurate understanding of what needs to be done in order to perform a site retrofit.

In this episode of the Smart Buildings Academy Podcast we discuss:

• What a retrofit site audit is
• How to perform a retrofit site audit
• The exact steps you need to do on every site audit

We are entering a retrofit market.

Those of you who have built your entire business around capital projects and construction work need to prepare.

There is a lot of opportunity in the market that will potentially be missed by people who are not prepared for it.

In this episode of the Smart Buildings Academy Podcast we discuss:

• What a retrofit market is
• Why I believe we will see a major retrofit market
• How you can be prepared to address this market and win more work

In this episode of the Smart Buildings Podcast we are going to explore Measurement and Verification together.

We are going to look at:

• Different types of energy audits and how to do them
• The different measurement and verification methods and how to do them
• General strategies for incorporating M&V and Audits into existing and new construction.