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Transforming ICT: Insights from BICSI CEO John Daniels on Emerging Trends, Digital Initiatives, and Continuous Learning

• Chuck Bowser, RCDD, TECH

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Unlock the future of the ICT industry with John Daniels, CEO of BICSI, as he shares insights on emerging trends and the relentless pace of technological evolution. Discover how BICSI members, spanning industries from healthcare to aerospace, are transforming the landscape with innovative solutions. Join us as John discusses the significance of continuous learning and how BICSI supports designers, installers, and project managers in staying ahead of the curve.

Get an insider's look at Bixie's groundbreaking digital transformation initiatives in response to the pandemic. Hear about their shift to virtual formats, the modernization of their infrastructure, and revamped membership programs. Learn how these strategic efforts are enhancing the digital experiences of ICT professionals worldwide and optimizing Continuing Education Credit (CEC) policies to ensure global scalability.

Explore BICSIs role in integrating emerging technologies into the ICT profession. John Daniels elaborates on the BICSI Learning Academy and the BICSI certification program, designed to prepare professionals for future innovations. Delve into the importance of industry standards, the relevance of specialized project management courses like RTPM, and the collaborative efforts with other associations to address licensing challenges. Plus, get a sneak peek into the much-anticipated BICSI conference in Las Vegas, promising cutting-edge insights and networking opportunities.

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Knowledge is power! Make sure to stop by the webpage to buy me a cup of coffee or support the show at https://linktr.ee/letstalkcabling . Also if you would like to be a guest on the show or have a topic for discussion send me an email at chuck@letstalkcabling.com

Chuck Bowser RCDD TECH
#CBRCDD #RCDD

Speaker 1:

Hey Wiremonkeys, welcome to another episode of let's Talk Cabling. This episode we're talking about industry trends. Welcome to the show. We tackle the tough questions submitted by installers, estimators, project managers, customers, it people. We're connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world. If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind clicking on the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is created? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, give us a five-star rating. Those simple little steps helps us take on the algorithm so we can educate, encourage and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry.

Speaker 1:

Thursday nights, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time. What are you doing? You know I do a live stream on TikTok, instagram, linkedin, youtube, everywhere. You get to ask your favorite RCDD and you know that's me. Don't try to pretend like I'm not your favorite RCDD. You have questions on installation, design, certification, anything you need, even do career path questions. But I can hear you now. But, chuck, I'm driving my truck. At Thursday night at 6 pm I'm going to get into an accident.

Speaker 1:

Relax. I record them and you can watch them at your convenience. Also, while this show is free and will always remain free, if you find value in this content, would you mind click on that QR code right there? You can become a Patreon member, you can buy a t-shirt, you can support the program so we can keep doing this.

Speaker 1:

So, as I said in the intro, I'm kind of I've said this more than once in my podcast I'm kind of sad because I'm at the end of my career and there's so much cool stuff coming down the pike. I really wish I could work in this industry another 40 years because there's so much cool stuff coming down the pike. I really wish I could work in this industry another 40 years because there's so much cool stuff coming down. So I wanted to do a show on industry trends, and who better than to talk to about then? The CEO of the leading membership organization for the ICT industry, mr John Daniels. John, welcome to the show. How are you doing today? Hey, chuck, thank you, man. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. I appreciate you coming on today. Great intro. Yeah, I've said it once or twice. So for the few people, the four people in the industry, who doesn't know who you are or who Bixie is. Why don't you go ahead and tell us who you and Bixie are?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, I'll spend the least amount of time on me, because Bixie is what's most important. I'm John Daniels, ceo of Bixie. Of course, I've been in the industry or been at Bixie since January 1st of 2020.

Speaker 1:

Right before.

Speaker 3:

COVID Right before the pandemic and I had this you know misfortunate opportunity to close the building on March, the 18th of 2020. But I've learned a lot since I've been here. I came from primarily the healthcare industry, working in IT and healthcare as a chief information officer and helping hospitals and health systems around the world adopt technology in a way that improves patient quality, patient safety, patient care, patient experience and all of that. So a lot of experience doing that. But my core was IT and working in IT, learning how to do cable plants, leading cable plant projects, terminating fiber and copper cabling myself.

Speaker 1:

I actually had the opportunity to do that, I did only once or twice, because I just wanted to learn how to do it.

Speaker 3:

So I talked to contractors into hey, I want to come in while you guys are doing this animal of the night and I just want to watch you do it, and then they would teach me how to do some of that. And then I also did some Cisco certifications. I did a Cisco CCNA certification at one point early in my career, carried that for about three or four years, didn't renew it because it was hard. I hear that about that certification. It was very hard, but it was. It taught me a lot, so that's really helped prepare me to come work at bixi, I think right, in addition to my military background.

Speaker 3:

But thank you for your service. Yeah, thank you for your service to the industry. Uh, bixi is a non-profit professional association, right. So our, our focus is on our mission, which is to advance the ICT profession, right, and all of those people that work in the profession, like yourself and others that are out there the designers, the installers, the project managers that are working across the industry, across all verticals within the industry. You know we talk about health care, all verticals within the industry. You know we talk about health care. Our members are working in health care. Other industries include finance, hospitality, retail space, for that matter, I don't know if you came to.

Speaker 1:

I did, that was cool. The data centers on the moon yeah, of course you know that spawned the meme. How are we going to? Is that single mode or multi-mode?

Speaker 3:

That's a great question. We'll have to ask Chris when he comes back. But space and including NASA, we've got folks that members that work at NASA and are part of the Artemis program and so forth. So a lot of our members are covering all facets of the ICT profession, of the ICT community, from design, like I said, the installations, project management, and Bixie's role is to help support them, help educate them and help them succeed to advance the industry. So that's really what Bixie's about Nice.

Speaker 1:

You know I interface with I don't know thousands of people a year because I'm in my day job and I'm an instructor. I've seen you a few times on social.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, I always yeah well, that's a whole different game there and I always ask people at the very beginning do I have any RCDDs or Bixie Technician installers? And because that would help as an instructor, it helps me to make sure I put the questions at the right level, right, I don't want to ask RCDD questions if they're all installers and vice versa. And then I say, tell me if you're credentialed. And then, if it's not credentialed, is it on your radar? And almost every time half of them are saying yes, it's on my radar. And then every once in a blue moon I'll get somebody say what's RCDD? What's Bixie? I'm like, have you been living under a rock? You can't be in this industry for more than two days and not have heard of.

Speaker 3:

Bixie. Yeah, I'm surprised not as many people know about Bixie because, frankly, I didn't know about Bixie before I came to work here, before this job opportunity came available, and it's a goldmine. I mean, it's the world's best kept secret, I think, because of all the resources and the opportunity that this industry or this organization has brought to the industry, right. So so I'm maybe call call both of us an evangelist. We're trying to get the word out there. We do appreciate all you're doing to get the word out there. So you're right, bixie is a, is a is a good for now, a well-kept secret. But we don't want it to be a secret. We want to get the word out there.

Speaker 1:

Yes, that's why I'm out there telling everybody you know, look, get certified, get educated. And that's another battle I fight all the time too. There are some facets of technicians out there who don't want to get certified, and I think it's mostly because they have bad memories of school and test-taking and all that stuff. But that's a subject for a different show. Let's not go down that rabbit hole. It is a different subject. So you heard my intro. The industry is changing rapidly. I mean, you've got single pair of Ethernet, you've got fault managed power systems and all this cool stuff coming down the pike. How's Bixie adapting to all of this?

Speaker 3:

I would say we're adapting quite well. Frankly, we've put out about 16 new publications just in the last year with updates on the various best practices and the standards that we're updating as well, so we're adapting pretty well. I think we could do even better. What I'd like to see us to be able to do is to maybe increase the frequency of those updates, because of how fast the industry is evolving and it's evolving extremely fast, and we were talking about the data center on the moon. I mean, holy cow, it wasn't until January of this year that we had our first data center on the moon and they're going to be launching the second one this year as well, by the end of the year they say. So the industry is evolving fast and I'd like to see us be able to adapt to that faster, have more frequent updates, and we just have to figure out how to do that.

Speaker 1:

As you said, more frequent Me. I'm thinking, yes, yes, but I heard the collective sigh of my audience members oh great, now I got to go buy another thing and I keep telling people all the time look, our industry literally changes at the speed of light. I mean literally changes at the speed of light. So do you want to buy a document that's already 18 months old, that doesn't even talk about some new technology that the installers are putting in the field? So it's kind of a double edged sword. You do need to have both of them.

Speaker 3:

Well, we don't want to overwhelm technicians, we don't want to overwhelm the designers, so we've got to be mindful of that.

Speaker 3:

So how can we balance publishing updates as frequently as possible without overwhelming the folks that we have to factor into how we go about increasing our update frequencies and making sure that we don't overwhelm. I think that's another reason why we do a lot of events. I think this year alone, this fiscal year alone, we probably will have done about 150 different events around the world, including our fall and winter conferences, all of our virtual ICT forums and face-to-face ICT forums. We just did one in Houston last week, which was a huge success in collaboration with RE+, the Renewable Energy Association, the VILTs, all of the webinars, all of our BICSI-endorsed events that are happening around the world. The month of May, this month, is just saturated with events around the world In Australia, in the Middle East, in South America. In fact, I'm going to Bogota next week to facilitate a panel discussion for that group down there and we're going to be making a major announcement once I'm down there. But that'll come later. I don't want to spill the beans yet.

Speaker 1:

I have noticed over the last five years or so that Bixie has been pushing a lot more on the international stuff and I'm glad to see that because they're doing cabling everywhere. It's a great organization, so why not be international? But that makes it because you're talking about changing the publications frequently, that puts a lot more work on the volunteers.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we, oh my goodness, we're so reliant on the volunteers, the 500-plus volunteers that work across our 30 volunteer groups that are out there working. It's a lot of work for them and you think about, and they have day jobs, and they have day jobs exactly. So you think about the TDMM that just came out that we launched at the Winter Conference. Right, I got mine already. The award yes, good, I saw that. Actually the award that was given to the TDMM Editorial Review.

Speaker 1:

Board the Presidential Eagle Award. The Presidential Eagle Award right.

Speaker 3:

And when I looked at how much work went into just the TDMM alone 60,000 lines of content that wasn't just reviewed one time, I mean they went over it and over it and over it multiple times to make sure that they got it right. It's a lot of work and a lot of workload to put on top of the volunteers. So you know, again, that's another factor that goes into how frequently do we want to do these updates, because these folks do have daytime jobs, right.

Speaker 1:

That's why you need more volunteers, which that's covered under a different interview with somebody else coming out later on.

Speaker 3:

Good, good, emphasizing, because we definitely need more volunteers and we're open to anybody that wants to work with us. We are what they call an ANSI standards development organization SDO Acronym challenge SDO SDO, that's right. Asd, I think. Sdo, that's right, we are. Asd, I think, is an acronym that they use as well. Accredited Standards Developer right. So we are an accredited standards developer and, as such, we can't discriminate between Bixie members and non-Bixie members when it comes to volunteering to write the best practices, and it's not just Bixie members that are using these standards or using the best practices. So our invitation is open to the world. Anybody working in the ICT industry that knows about cabling standards and data center standards and that sort of thing, we welcome them to the table, whether they're a member of Bixie or not. And so, yes, spread the word, let folks know that we need volunteers and we're always open to having folks share with us their expert knowledge and expertise to make these standards work for the industry.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, our industry is. I make this analogy all the time. Our industry is like a bicycle there are people who are front wheels, there are people who are back wheels, there's people who are seat, there's people who are handlebar, there's the frame. There's nobody who's an expert in everything in this industry. I consider myself a general. I'm like the general doc. When you go in because you've got to cough, I'm the one that says, okay, now you need to go see the specialist. I'm a good generalist and that's why I'm glad to see I've sat in a lot of the it. But I do go to every winter conference. I always go and sit in them because I want to stay plugged in and see what's going on and stuff.

Speaker 3:

And here's the great news, chuck there's a place for you as well in this whole standard volunteer organization, and you've pretty much carved out your space here with let's Talk Cabling, so that's very helpful, but there is room for everybody, and I love that analogy, because there's always Feel free to use it, but if you do use it you've got to give me credit.

Speaker 1:

I've got to help get the board of let's Talk Cabling out there.

Speaker 3:

Always branding, always branding, you got it. But, like you said, there's a place for everybody in this whole ecosystem of pulling these standards and best practices together and I just I enjoy the glow that comes out of these you know, off the faces of these people that are working on the standards program, especially when they get accolades, like the Presidential Legal Award, or when our publications win industry awards, which you might hear about that again at some point in the future because we may have just won another award, but I'm going to hold off on announcing that. Of course we'll let we'll let Clark take care of that for us, but there's, yeah, there's definitely a place for everybody.

Speaker 1:

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Speaker 2:

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Speaker 1:

So you heard me talk about the beginning, about how everything is changing. What is Bixie doing to address these changes? Coming down the pike.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I saw that question in advance and there's so much going on and so much that we're doing to prepare for that I had to take some notes. So give me just a minute to sort of walk through what those are right.

Speaker 1:

I like when I ask tough questions and people got to refer to their notes.

Speaker 3:

Well, it's a fun question. It's a great question because there's a lot going on and it's hard to capture it all in a short little podcast, right? So what I want to try to do is encapsulate it as best I can by just giving a high level sort of overview of what we're doing. Right. So, right now I would say we got a lot of things baking in the oven, right, so we're building a new bicycle. I guess you could say Kind of building a new bicycle Faster, stronger. Yes, actually yes.

Speaker 3:

So we've learned a lot in terms of lessons that came out of the pandemic and what we had to go through there. Because, if you remember, bixie at the time was 100%, pretty much in person. All of our events, all of our courses, all of our training and everything else was pretty much virtually 100% in person. Well, like I told you, I shut the office down on March the 18th because of COVID, right, so that meant no classes in the academy, that meant no more conferences, at least until we got through it, and the team had to pivot like on a dime to convert everything to virtual classes, right, and they did. They did phenomenally well at doing that. So we learned a lot of lessons from that. We get a lot of feedback from credential holders and from our members, and I think over the past couple of years we've taken a deliberate look at the history of Bixie as well as sort of the landscape of where we find ourselves in today, post pandemic. And when I say we look at the landscape, there are six things that I think we realized after doing that assessment.

Speaker 3:

Bixie has to become globally scalable right, we have to be able to scale everything that we do globally and it's got to be fast, right. So we've got to do things that give us that scalability. We've got to be able to respond rapidly to opportunities. Like you said, the technologies are evolving at lightning speed it seems like daily sometimes. So we have to be able to respond to that, and I think over the past 50 years of Bixie's history, it hasn't been able to adapt or respond as rapidly as the technology is evolving. And of course, I'm not saying anything bad about Bixby, of course, because Bixby's done a phenomenal job over the past 50 years. But in doing so, we also, in order to be able to respond rapidly, in order to be able to scale globally, we need to look at our processes, we need to look at our data governance and how we manage the organization, how we manage the enterprise, to better support and achieve our mission. We've also had to look at how do we create some efficiency in order to give us the ability to respond rapidly and scale.

Speaker 3:

How do we elevate the digital experience, because digital isn't going away. Digital experiences will be around for a long time, if not forever. We need to enhance that digital experience, not only in the touch points, where people take education classes online or do webinars or virtual ICT forums, but also how they interact with Bixie online, how do they purchase services, how do they apply for their certifications and how do they sign up for classes. We've got to make that much, much better and improve that digital experience. So I think that's about five or six things, but those are the things that we're focused on.

Speaker 3:

So now, coming out of that assessment, we're currently undergoing what I would describe as a multi-phase, multi-year digital transformation project across the enterprise to help us modernize our infrastructure. So, while technology has been advancing, vixie's technology hasn't necessarily advanced as quickly, so we're trying to fix that. So we've got a lot of things going on internally to improve how we support our mission, how we support the ICT professionals that are out there. How do we redesign things to make it more enjoyable, to improve that experience? Right? So we're looking at revamping our membership programs to increase the value of the membership programs. So there'll be some information about that coming out sometime in the next few months. That's for individual members and corporate members, right?

Speaker 3:

So we're going to be making some changes there. We're looking at our CEC program policy. We're going to be making some pretty significant changes there as well to give folks more opportunities to get CECs rather than how it's done today, right? So we're trying to enhance that and improve that as well. And then we're looking at our conferences and events. Like I told you, we've probably this year done the most conferences and events since the pandemic, which is about 150 in total if you count everything. That's a lot of work, right? So we want to try to. We're taking a holistic look at our whole conference and event strategy and the recommendations coming out of that we're not expecting until later in the summer, but once we get those it's going to be focused on how we elevate the conference experience and the event experience for everybody that participates with Bixie. So we got a lot going on a lot in the hopper.

Speaker 1:

And how many employees does Bixie have, because that sounds like a lot of stuff.

Speaker 3:

Well, right now not enough, and some of the directors in the organization will tell you and tell me that we need more people all the time because there's a lot going on. But again, that's another reason why we're looking at the infrastructure. We're trying to automate. As much as we can do is some process redesign, not only internally, but certainly at the point where our customers, our members, touch Bixie and engage with Bixie, right. So we're looking at redesigning all of that and I think it's safe to say that within the next couple of years you're going to see some significant changes with respect to how Bixie engages the world.

Speaker 1:

And I'm glad that Bixie is changing, because you know my dad always used to say, just because that's the way granddad always did, it doesn't mean that's the way you should do it, son. And because you talked about Bixie 50 years ago, it was a totally different environment 50 years ago and today's environment. You know, you've got the virtual instructor-led training, the VILT right. You've got the conferences. We'll talk about the Vegas conference. I'm going to ask you questions about that there. But you know you do have to adapt and change because otherwise you become stagnant and people quit plugging in. So can you discuss some initiatives that Bixie is launching to stay ahead of all these trends?

Speaker 3:

So I think I've pretty much covered most of the stuff that we're doing already, right? So we're looking at the frequency of updates on our standards and publications. We're looking at modernizing our infrastructure. We're looking at modernizing our membership program, modernizing the continuing education credit program. We're expanding the affiliate program. I haven't said much about our affiliate program, but we're up to one, two, three affiliates officially today and there may be some new affiliate announcements coming up in the near future.

Speaker 3:

So we're expanding the affiliate program and trying to be more deliberate and more impactful with how we engage with our affiliate partners, if you will, around the world. So that's a change that's sort of built into our digital transformation project as well. So we're trying to again scale up and create some scalability so that we can add more and more affiliates over time. And again, it all feeds into the Bixie mission, which is advancing the profession, and it's not just the profession in the US, it's everybody who works in the industry around the world, and there's a lot of people around the world that work in the industry. We're serving, I think, members across about 100 different countries right now. We're serving, I think, members across about 100 different countries. Right now. There are countries around the world that recognize BICC standards and BICC best practices.

Speaker 1:

So we're very fortunate about that, but we obviously want to continue that expansion. That's actually a great segue, because how does BICC influence those global standards like the ISO, iec and stuff? How do you guys influence them?

Speaker 3:

And so that's the beauty of Bixie, being an accredited standards developer, being accredited by ANSI. Ansi is a very well-established and a most credible accreditation organization. Right? So they're all about consensus-based standards. Right so they're all about consensus based standards, and not just in the US. While their focus is a lot on supporting the standards requirements of the US and promoting standards within all industries in the US, but they're also international. They do have international requirements for standards.

Speaker 3:

Oh I didn't know that. Yeah, so they have requirements for those ASDs that want to develop international standards and they want to be accredited by ANSI. They have to follow the requirements of ANSI in order to be considered international standards. Bicsi does that right. So our standards is an international standards program, so we work with ANSI in that respect.

Speaker 3:

Standards is an international standards program, so we work with ANSI in that respect. But we're also a member of the US Technical Advisory Group, which is a group under ANSI that works with the International Organization for Standards, iso, so we work with ISO as well. In fact, we just recently got involved in a brand new project that will result in a brand new ISO standard. It's never been never been a standard on this before, and BICSI has been asked to participate in that with other associations, and so we're in the process of working with other international delegations, like Japan and Germany and France and others, pulling this standard together. Now that's about a three-year process, so it may be a couple of years or three years before we see the final product, but it's one of those ways that we're contributing to the adoption of standards and the development of standards that are internationally applicable and that organizations around the world can use, to again create a standard ecosystem, if you will, for the ICT professional, whether they're working in the US or outside the US.

Speaker 2:

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Speaker 1:

So what role do you see Bixie playing in the integration of emerging technologies?

Speaker 3:

Well, for me it's relatively obvious, but I made a few notes here that again, I want to make sure I cover it all, because there's a lot and this is not all-inclusive at all. I'll say that Bixie plays a critical role in the integration of these emerging technologies into the ICT profession because of all the things that we do as a professional association, starting with education and training. Obviously, our education and training platform, the Big C Learning Academy, is the perfect platform to to integrate those emerging technologies into our curriculum, into our virtual ICT forums, into our webinars, our instructor-led training classes and our conferences and events. Right, I mean, if you look at the topics that we talk about for our conferences, especially the one coming up, we're touching on all of those topics in some form or fashion by the professionals who are actually experts in those particular areas. Right, we're bringing them to the conference and giving them the opportunity to teach us and help us understand what these emerging technologies are doing. So that's, first and foremost is our education and training and, of course, the BICCES certification program, the ICT Certification Institute, plays a big role in that as well. So not only are we trying to train and educate people on what these emerging technologies are over time, these emerging technologies, as they're integrated into the ICT profession and the work that our professionals do, that knowledge, those skill sets and those things will be baked into our certification program so that, at some point, folks will be able to demonstrate their knowledge by getting the certifications that are certifying them on the skills and competencies that we publish, right? So certification is one of those. The other things that we do is, you know, we don't work in a vacuum. We're not the only association out there and we try to work collaboratively with as many associations as we can possibly create capacity, for there's a lot of them. We can't work with everyone to the level that we'd like to, but we are working with quite a few. I just mentioned a little bit ago that we just had a virtual ICT forum at the RE Plus conference in Houston last week, right? So that's a collaboration. That we just had a virtual ICT forum at the RE Plus conference in Houston last week, right? So that's a collaboration that we're working with them on. We have an MOU with Emerge Alliance, which is what's MOU? Emerge? A memorandum of understanding? Okay, okay, yep, we have an MOU, memorandum of understanding with Emerge Alliance. Emerge Alliance is.

Speaker 3:

Emerge Alliance is an association that brings together organizations who are working in the energy space Not necessarily renewable energy, like RE Plus is, but they're part of that ecosystem, right. And so they're working on a concept where you create a micro power grid, a micro grid where power, like computing you know, I have edge data centers, edge computing, what have you? They're working on the concept of a power grid where you also have power at have edge data centers, edge computing, what have you? They're working on the concept of a power grid where you also have power at the edge as well, right? And the source of that power can come from multiple different sources, renewable energy being one of those, commercial power being another one, and what have you. But there's so much happening and beginning to happen in that space alone that I think that's relevant to our members, and so that's why we're working with the Emerge Alliance to figure out how we can work together.

Speaker 3:

Emerge Alliance is working to try to create what they call Vanguard standards for how this microgrid and some of the fault managed power technologies and capabilities fit into, sort of the ICT ecosystem, and so we're working with them, again, beginning with the education piece, to educate our members and their members on how these technologies and what we're doing on the ICT side and what's happening on the power side merge together right. So eMERGE Alliance that's one collaboration that we're working on. We also collaborate with organizations like the electrical associations, neca. We've done some work with NECA before. We're doing some work with IEC Lots of collaborations. So again, we recognize that we're not the only ones.

Speaker 1:

It's a better product when you collaborate.

Speaker 1:

I mean when all the organizations are talking to each other, then you're all synchronized Absolutely. And from somebody in the field there's value. Well, not necessarily the field, the field or a project manager or an estimator. There's value there because then you don't have three different people telling you to do three different things. Because as an estimator, you might get a bid where they might say CAT 7K, well, cat 7 is not in the ANSI standards. So you know, if there's some collaboration, it will help eliminate some of those issues.

Speaker 3:

So that's a detail that I don't know. I don't have the meat that you have and the depth in those standards, but I'm learning. I hear it all the time. You're absolutely right. Another area that we are involved in again, it involves collaboration and we are involved in again it involves collaboration, but working with other associations around policy and doing some policy advocacy type work. So we're part of an organization called the Connected Technologies Industry Consortium Yep, I got it, I remembered it. So CTIC Connected Technologies Industry Consortium and it's a group of organizations manufacturers, vendors, associations that are tracking various different policy actions that are taking place around the country in the US, in particular in the states where in the past we've talked a lot about licensing and how licensing might affect ICT professionals and installers and so forth.

Speaker 3:

That's a hot topic right now On low voltage, especially in low energy solutions.

Speaker 1:

You want to start an argument on the Internet. There's a few topics you can go to that will do that, and that's one of them. That is one of them right there.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and we recognize that right. So that's one of them. That is one of them right there. Yeah, and we recognize that right. So that's why we're working to try to understand what the impact that has with the convergence of these two trades electrical trade and the ICT integrator with respect to low energy solutions and connecting those two together. So we're working in that consortium to be a part of those discussions and to help influence the education that happens in that space. We're working with the Professional Certification Coalition on the work that they're doing to protect the integrity of, and the importance of, professional certifications, which is obviously near and dear to Bixie's heart. So we're involved in that coalition.

Speaker 3:

There's other initiatives that are taking place that we're trying to participate in as much as we can. For example, there's a bill that's been introduced that we hope passes, that will allow the college 529 savings plans to be used to pay for certifications, professional trade certifications, right, professional trade certifications. So it's things like that that we're also doing to try to again promote the industry and support the ICT professionals. So it's a big role that Bixie plays and we want to do more in that area. From an international perspective, I already talked about our international standards program. But we talked about our standards and we talked a little bit about our publications, our manuals right, our technical manuals. So that's another area where we're able to use that to disseminate, develop and disseminate best practices or leading practices in the industry. So that's a critical role that we play as well. They're not accredited standards like our standards are, but they're still just as valuable. And you know, I think about the field guides.

Speaker 1:

You're talking about the ITSIM.

Speaker 3:

I'm talking about the ITSIM.

Speaker 1:

And that's the Information Transport Systems Installations, methods, manual.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, you got that right.

Speaker 1:

I tell people all the time because you know a lot of people get confused with all the documents that Bixie puts out and I tell them look, if you want to design something, you want the TDMM. So the TDMM will tell you you've got to put in plywood in the closet. The IDSM tells you okay, well, you have to use toggle bolts with fender washers, galvanized screws. So it tells you how to do it. That's the difference between those two documents.

Speaker 3:

I'm glad you know that. Actually, I do understand. I've learned so much since I've come to Bixie and I definitely know the distinction between our products that support the designers, support the installers and support the project managers we call that our program triangle and those three legs. Without one of those three legs the profession wouldn't be going anywhere.

Speaker 1:

Right, because your future project managers and estimators are today's technicians, Exactly exactly.

Speaker 3:

So I've learned a lot to know that the program triangle is very important to Big C and to the industry. So we're going to keep promoting.

Speaker 1:

Our entry is horrible about hiring project managers from outside the entry. Now there's a train of thought that says well, if you're a project manager, you're managing widgets. It doesn't matter if it's P's on assembly line or if it's jacks in the floor, but the project manager, the crew out in the field, has to respect the project manager. And they don't respect the project manager if he doesn't know the difference between Cat 5E, cat 6, cat6a or Y295. There's a big disconnect there, so it's better to groom from within. Which kind of does that whole triangle thing?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and it takes a certain understanding of this particular industry in order to successfully manage these industry projects, the ICT projects. I think about ITIL. I mean, I grew up as a IT guy computer science background, chief information officer for hospitals, health systems or what have you and we relied a lot on ITIL, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library right, so that was full of processes and we used that a lot to help manage our projects that we were implementing and installing across our hospital enterprises Right. So you're absolutely right and I think that's why Bixie's project management courses and credentials and publications are so critical to the industry, because, while you may know project management really, really well, you've also got to have knowledge of the industry and the technology and the solutions and things that we do in order to really make sure that those are implemented successfully and that's why Bixie has the registered telecommunications project management credential.

Speaker 1:

Exactly Because that's a big question I get all the time, chuck should I get the PMP or should I get the RTPM? Well, my first question is do you plan on staying in the ICT industry? If you plan on staying in the ICT, then RTPM, because they're both project management certifications, but the RTPM is fine-tuned specifically for our industry. If you're not going to stay in the industry, then go PMP route, but if you're going to stay in this industry, rtpm is the way to go.

Speaker 3:

I agree 100% and I would take it a little bit further and say if you're going to be a project management professional, regardless of what industry you're in, it's probably good to have the PMP. But I would do both the PMP and the RTPM if I could.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but if they're going to stay in the industry, I would say go to the RTPM first, because it's a good foundation to build for the PMP. Because a lot of people when they read the project management, the PMBOK, when they read that book, they're like oh my gosh, oh my gosh. It's kind of like the first chapter in a TDMM right, the principles of transmission. Yeah, I call that the weed-out chapter Because people want to start it for the RCD and they read that chapter like oh my gosh. I was like it gets easier.

Speaker 3:

Just get past that first chapter. And how many volumes is the TDMM Chuck?

Speaker 1:

Two, exactly 2,200 pages. That's a lot. It is a lot, and that's another recommendation. I tell people all the time too, when they ask me they're thinking about getting that credential. Get it now. Yeah, because when the 16th comes out it's going to have more pages than the 15th. Yeah, mine on the 8th edition. I don't want to show how old I am. We did have two manuals. The first was the 8th edition, that's when I got my RCD.

Speaker 1:

I got it off the 8th edition. Now I don't know how you guys get so many pages in that binder. It's like the drawer where you open up and it springs out. It's kind of like trying to get all that paper in there. I think we use a press. It's kind of like trying to get all that paper in there. I think we use a press. Yeah, there you go. Let's have a fun conversation now. Let's have a fun conversation All right, bixie Vegas when.

Speaker 3:

Where Bixie Vegas? Yes, we're going to be in Las Vegas from the 15th to the 19th of September. It's going to be a great conference. We've got something new coming up that I think attendees will enjoy. Might have a little something to do with the sphere, but we'll see when we get there. So I don't want to spill the beans too early on that one, but we've got a lot of exciting things coming up for the conference.

Speaker 1:

Is the Vegas conference bigger or smaller in size or attendees to the winter conference?

Speaker 3:

I would say they're comparable. I would say they're comparable because there's a group of folks that obviously don't want to travel across the country they may not want to travel across the country or maybe the time of the year works out best for them. But there's a lot of folks that go to both conferences but they usually have different audiences but it's about the same. So I would say they're comparable.

Speaker 1:

So would you recommend the fall conference to installers, technicians, as well as project managers, estimators, if they have the means and wherewithal to attend.

Speaker 3:

I would recommend both. I don't know that I would recommend one over the other for them, although I would say the Winter Conference is pretty exciting from an installer perspective because of the cabling skills challenge that we do at the Winter Conference. We don't have the cabling skills challenge at the Fall Conference, but there's a lot of education that the installers and techs could learn from and gain in terms of their skills and understanding of perhaps what it takes to move beyond the tech and installation. You know, take the career path to the next level, to design or project management or something like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Thank you for taking the time, john, to sit down with me, and I'm glad to hear that you actually listen to the podcast, and I heard you say knowledge is power, so I'm going to clip that out. That might show up on the podcast sometime. It did. And knowledge is power, oh absolutely Think about it.

Speaker 3:

Knowledge really is power and we appreciate everything that you do, chuck, for the industry and certainly for Bixie, and helping us get the word out, and always happy to have you here at the headquarters. I always like to come down.

Speaker 4:

It's not that far of a drive for me, it's not. You're like in the backyard. Yes, thank you so much. Thanks a lot, chuck, thank you. That's it for this episode of today's podcast. We hope you were able to learn something. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future content. Also, leave a rating so we can help even more people learn about telecommunications. Until next time, be safe.

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Chuck Bowser RCDD TECH

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