Written by: Javier Ojeda, Chapter Regional VP, Atlantic with editorial contribution by Andrew Penner
Last day of the AEE World 2023 in Orlando!
While the final day of World 2023, participants have one more chance to nourish their minds with technical sessions. The Friday sessions are tricky. Some conference participants are in transit home on Friday so in order to ensure healthy attendance, session chairs need to carefully curate their material. All 12 tracks were represented. For the last technical session of the year, tracks focused on the following broad topics:
- Energy Security
- Innovations on Performance Contracting
- Renewables: Wind, solar, and Tidal!
- Implementation of ISO 50001
- Low Carbon Fuels
- Energy Auditing
- Building decarbonization
- CHP and Microgrids
- Women powering a resilient and sustainable energy future
- The last set of Energy Basics
- Electric and Utility Rates
- Financing for Community decarbonization
Closing Session
The closing session is bitter-sweet for most. Bitter because it signals the end of the conference and the AEE community is tight – as has been expressed in some of our previous blogs. Sweet because the team at AEE has a knack for producing compelling and engaging closing key-note speakers.
Before getting to the key-note, the AEE makes their annual Hall of Fame inductions. This year, AEE added a single member to the Hall – Hossam Kassab. Hossam joins an illustrious group. Interested in seeing who makes up the Hall of Fame? You can review the whole list here: Hall of Fame.
Finally onto the keynote speaker: the one and only Frank Abagnale!
Earlier in the week, a few of us were talking about what Frank might speak about, considering that this conference has an emphasis on energy efficiency and decarbonization – not something you might associate with the Frank Abagnale story. Some ideas were thinking out of the box, and identify/cyber security (turned out to be a great guess!). His speech in fact left everybody speechless in the hall. Some very important insights:
- Cybersecurity for our business, and ourselves and our families, must be one of our very top priorities
- Over 200 Billion dollars are lost in Scams each year, never to be recovered, due in the majority of the cases to people being careless
- Tools to recognize scams are available or free to everyone o The more we care, the more difficult will be to hackers to obtain our personal information
Until Next we Meet…
So ended AEE World 2023. We have lots to be thankful for from this organization. They provide for us a platform to network and learn, influence and advocate, and to build a community. This organization represents opportunity for many and those of us who are privileged would be wise to remember that.
As we all departed Orlando for our homes and places of business, we should turn our eye on 2024 (yes, it’s never too early). Unsure why you should make AEE World a priority? The following should get you started in self evaluating your value proposition.
AEE World 2024 is headed to Nashville, TN – September 25-27, 2024. Once everyone takes a collective breath, staff will begin to engage with AEE members concerning the submission of abstracts, the booking of Expo real estate, the commitment of sponsors, and so much more.
The AEE provides for us the framework for community. It is up to us to ensure that that community remains vibrant.