REPORT | ASHRAE MEETING AGE OF CONNECTION Taking over as ASHRAE President, Charles E Gulledge III heralded a collaborative future at the ASHRAE virtual meeting. Tim Dwyer reports The renovation of ASHRAEs HQ is still on target for a late-2020 opening T Charles E Gulledge III heralded Industry 4.0 he ASHRAE summer conference was to be held in Austin, Texas, in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic meant this years series of seminars and speeches were held online. Opening the conference, ASHRAE executive vicepresident Jeff Littleton told the audience that the resilience and dedication of members had endured, and that activities were continuing, practically unabated. In his address, he highlighted ASHRAEs successes aside from concerted actions in responding to the pandemic including thousands of hours of online learning; numerous publications and standards; and hundreds of learned meetings. With more than 55,750 members, Littleton noted that membership remained resilient, but there was underlying caution of financial adjustments in the coming year to see ASHRAE through a short-term coronavirus economy. The ambitious ASHRAE HQ renovation, which had, so far, attracted more than $10m of company and individual support, was still on target for an opening in late 2020, added Littleton. He celebrated the 46 years of contribution to ASHRAE by Steve Comstock, who built the institutions powerhouse publication and education business from the ground up. Comstock, who retired from ASHRAE on 2 July, has been a driving force in maintaining active links between ASHRAE and CIBSE, and has played a key part in all the joint meetings between the organisations. At this years summer conference, Charles (Chuck) E Gulledge III also took over as ASHRAE President. In his presidential speech, Gulledge offered a vision of a future world based on a clear set of practical and to a large degree extant working practices that he believed would be transformational for members, the industry and the wider community. He heralded Industry 4.0 and the Age of Connection, and said digital maturity and collaborative working could deliver a rich harvest that enables differentiation from the competition, recognition of innovators, improved profit margins, and maturation of a digital savvy workforce, as well as value. Gulledge imagined a world where work silos disappeared and collaboration provided engagement with all stakeholders from project inception onwards. Digital intelligence amplifying human intelligence would relieve the exhaustive and repetitive to enable the analytical and strategic. Projects will move to connected platforms so the building process will connect virtually, using cloud resources for universal access and contribution, he said, outlining the steps to make this the new reality: Lean processes to create better customer experiences lean integrated project delivery (Lean IPD) was created for this purpose. Such an integrated process changes the timing and order of engagement. Who will build what now precedes how it will be built. In all phases, nothing is done until it should be done. Embracing digital technology will empower the design, construction and operation of buildings. Gulledge gave several examples of digital technology that will power Industry 4.0: The common data environment (CDE) to provide the framework for information Digital maturity and collaborative working could deliver a rich harvest that enables differentiation from the competition 18 August 2020 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE August 2020 p18-19 Ashrae meeting.indd 18 24/07/2020 15:51