Elevate Your ICT Career in 2025: Attend an Industry Event

Kickstart 2025 with a powerful resolve to elevate your career in the ICT industry. This episode promises insights into setting impactful career-focused New Year's resolutions and the importance of continuous learning. We spotlight essential industry events like the BICSI Winter Conference and TechFest, where attendees can discover new educational opportunities and expand their professional networks. Personally, I'm excited to attend the BICSI conference and can't wait to meet fellow listeners there.

Join us as Ray Klein shares the benefits of attending TechFest, the annual event by Tech Knowledge Worldwide. This year, Nashville serves as the backdrop for a gathering that promises to be rich with valuable insights and networking opportunities. The episode dives into the unique community-focused spirit of TechFest, highlighting its commitment to fostering knowledge and collaboration across all career stages. The early bird rate available until February 1st makes this a must-attend event for those looking to make meaningful connections and gain industry insights.

Explore the dynamic environment of TechFest, where community collaboration stands at the forefront. We delve into how mutual support can lift the entire industry, encouraging a "community over competition" mindset. Listen in as we discuss the potential for managed service providers to grow through shared business models and innovative practices like Hardware as a Service. The episode captures the vibrant networking atmosphere at TechFest, where industry newcomers and veterans alike can learn, connect, and thrive.

Chapters

• 0:00 Industry Events and New Year's Goals
• 9:57 TechFest
• 19:59 Community Collaboration in Technology Industry
• 24:22 Networking Opportunities at TechFest

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey Wiremonkeys, welcome to the first episode of 2025. Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by installers, apprentices, technicians, project managers, estimators, customers, even IT personnel. We are connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world. If you're watching this show on YouTube and you like this content, would you mind clicking the subscribe button and hit the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating? Those simple little steps helps us take on the algorithm to help us educate, encourage and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Wednesday nights, 6 pm. What are you doing? You know I do a live stream on TikTok Instagram. Well, tiktok for now. Youtube, linkedin, everywhere we get to ask your favorite RCDD questions on installation, certification, design, estimation, project management. I even do career path questions, but I can hear you now. But, chuck, I'm driving my truck home at 6 pm. I don't want to get into an accident. Relax, I record them and you can watch them at your convenience on our website at letstalkcablingcom. And finally, while this show is free and will always remain free, if you find value in this content. Would you click? Would you go to the QR code right? Where is that? There? It is the QR code right there. You can buy me a cup of coffee, you can schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me after hours, of course, and you can also make donations to the podcast as well.

Speaker 1: 1:55

So this episode I'm breaking in our series. We're doing a series on estimating and tonight's episode was supposed to be about the work breakdown structure WBS. That'll be next week, but I really wanted to talk about starting the year off with a bang 2025. Now most of my regular audience members will realize that Chuck took a little bit of a break. I think I stopped the podcast episodes mid-December, if I remember right. Can I be honest with you? I needed a break.

Speaker 1: 2:29

People don't realize how much energy goes into content creation, especially at the level that I'm doing. I do a live stream every week, I do an episode every week. All the social media posts, all this stuff. I was burnt out, burnt out totally. So my wife and I, we decided to take a two week camping vacation. We took our travel trailer and we went to three different state parks in Florida and I sat by many a campfire, even saw some bald eagles at one of the campsites here in Florida. So and then after that was obviously Christmas, and I'm just now getting wound back up, and that got me to thinking.

Speaker 1: 3:06

You know, everybody likes to do New Year's resolutions. How about doing a New Year's resolution for your career? You heard me right? Yes, a lot of people in our industry are not good at furthering themselves through education. You know, they wait until somebody teaches them something or they just don't. It's a nine-to-five job.

Speaker 1: 3:28

But if you want to go far in the ICT industry because we move at the speed of light you have to be a constant learner. A constant learner, and you have to do that. You've got to attend CEC classes. You've got to attend manufacturer training and industry events. So Q1, I might start doing this once a quarter, I don't know, I'll think about that.

Speaker 1: 3:51

But Q1, there's two really good events that you really want to make sure that you attend. First is going to be the Bixie Winter Conference and then the second one is going to be TechFest. Now I've got a special guest. Come on to talk to me about TechFest. We'll talk to him in a minute and I meant to send out some invitations to Bixie to come on and talk about the Winter Conference, but with the holiday season and vacation and Chuck just being lazy and just not doing anything, it slipped off my plate. So the Winter Conference is coming up, and the beautiful thing about the Winter Conference is it's going to be Sunday, february 2nd, until Thursday, whatever that is after that. So if you've never been to a Big C Conference before now, I will be at the conference.

Speaker 1: 4:37

If you see me, come up to me, shake my hand, especially if I'm with my boss, because I'm actually there attending as my day job, not for the podcast. If you see me walking around with my boss, come up, shake my hands and say hey, chuck, I really appreciate what you're doing. I have a limited number of stickers and I will pass them out as I go along Limited supplies. If I don't have any, if I give them all, I might have to get your email address, maybe send you some, but I'm going to have a limited supply because I'm really there, not as the podcast. Oh, and before I forget, the Cable Skills Challenge. They are still accepting applications up to Friday, january 10th, that's this coming Friday. You literally have five days from the airing of this podcast to actually apply to be the Cable Skills Challenge.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Are you the best? Because I will be there. I'm not a judge. I'm trying to figure out how to become a judge for that because I just think I'd be cool and I know several people that are in it this year. But are you as good as them? Are you as good as TJ? That's what inquiring minds want to know. Are you as good as TJ? Tj's won multiple times. He's tied for the most number of wins as Cable Skills Challenge and I do believe he's applied this year. So get your application in and see the Skills Challenge.

Speaker 1: 5:56

And I do have an event that I got to attend Sunday morning for my day job, but there will be some other things happening.

Speaker 1: 6:03

See, before.

Speaker 1: 6:03

The conference technically doesn't kick off until Tuesday morning, but they're going to have some pre-conference masterclasses.

Speaker 1: 6:10

I'm going to see if I can't attend maybe one or two of these.

Speaker 1: 6:12

Now there are additional costs to the conference fees, but they're usually well worth it. For example, on Sunday, the two that I really want to try to attend is the masterclass on the National Electrical Code issues for the low designer and also the PoE Lighting and Automation Boot Camp. The problem I have is they're both at the exact same time. Now I looked at the PoE Boot Camp and I see that my top buddy, todd, and Matt Affle are instructing, that Maybe I might come on the show and do an interview and kind of give us a recap of what they talked about and that way I can go to the code one, the code master class, because there's some big changes coming down the pike. You know, as far as the NEC and low voltage, now they also have another one, fundamentals on passive optical lands, and then in the Sunday on the afternoon they're going to have several that you can attend designing POE lighting and automation, field testing and installed fiber, standard specifications and processes and technology for technology's business sake.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Yeah that's a mouthful yes. So then that's Sunday. Monday they're going to have this. I really wish I could go to this, but I don't have $500 to spend on. They're going to have a Big C education tour where they're going to go to the Orlando International Airport Terminal C Technology Tour and you should really go read the description on that. They get some really advanced stuff there. I really wish I could attend that one. And then the other classes that they're going to have include implementation and case uses for optical lands, operations, management for data centers and edge environments and optimizing ICT, job site performance tools, techniques and testing. Then in the afternoon they're going to have some other stuff going on as well some more master classes. Then in the afternoon they're going to have some other stuff going on as well some more master classes. They've got a Designing AV Systems using the Bixie 007 Standard and a master class on the Digital Divide Fiber to the Outside Plant Design. All those are really really great classes. I just wish I had the time and the energy to go to all of them, because you're really going to see a lot of stuff. Oh, there's other things too. They've got the RCDD Lounge, the First Time Attendee Orientation lots of great things to get.

Speaker 1: 8:28

So Tuesday is when it actually kicks off. And Tuesday one of the things I want to attend is the Women in Bixie Breakfast presentation and that's going to be a presentation called Closing the Chapter on Gender Inequality in the Digital World, in a Fireside Chat with Daniel Gutwain I hope I pronounced his name correctly, because I've got a lot of friends who are women in Big Sync, so I really want to be there to support them. And then they kick off Tuesday with the call to order and the opening remarks and they're going to have a very cool, a very cool keynote speaker Backing Up to the Moon the Future of Disaster Recovery. I wonder. I didn't read the description on that, but I wonder if that's a continuation to last year's presentation about putting data centers on the moon. I should go read the description and see what it actually says, right. And then they got some other presentations Now, the ones on Tuesday, the general sessions you don't have to pay extra to attend, so I'm going to attend everyone I can. Some ones that really catch my interest the fault managed power systems, applications and advantages and challenges. And powering passive optical networks this really to catch my, my interest there. Then in the afternoon they're going to have some other ones as well.

Speaker 1: 9:47

Back to the future with network cabling extended distance with Copper Cable, because that's a hot topic right now. People are trying to breach that 100 meter mark for structured cabling. The funny thing is I have an episode on this. I've got two-thirds of it recorded. I've got to record the third section. I've got somebody from Fluke, I've got somebody from Game Changer Cable. I've got two thirds of it recorded. I got to record the third section and I've got somebody from fluke, I've got somebody from game changer cable and I got to do the third portion of that and get there. Corey, get that put it. I'm going to make that a goal to get that published Q1 this year.

Speaker 1: 10:13

So they got lots of great things going on. Probably probably my two favorite things is going to be the cable skills challenge, whether it's the speed challenge or the actual challenge themselves. Get to talk to my friends Hopefully I get to see some repeat people there and then also the awards banquet on Thursday or Wednesday night. So I will be there. If you're going to be there, let me know in the comments. Shoot me a message on one of my social media platforms and say, chuck, I'm going to be a Bixie because I would love to meet up with you.

Speaker 3: 10:39

Let's take a short break. Are you looking to grow your low-voltage business? At Bowman Vision Media, we don't just market to the low-voltage industry. We come from it With decades of experience. We uniquely understand your business and how to help it grow. From social media to content creation we deliver marketing that works as hard as you do. Creation we deliver marketing that works as hard as you do. And while you're leveling up, check out the 49 Volts podcast, your go-to source for industry insights and expert interviews.

Speaker 1: 11:19

Visit bowmanvisionmediacom to learn more and subscribe to the 49 Volts podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen. Now the second thing we're going to have is in Q1, is an event called TechFest. Techfest. Techfest is an event that they do every year by a group called Tech Knowledge Worldwide, and I'm bringing on a special guest who's been on the show before to talk about why you should attend and what you are going to get out of attending this event. So welcome to the show, mr Ray Klein from TKW. How you doing, my friend?

Speaker 4: 11:52

Chuck, how are you guy? How are you?

Speaker 1: 11:54

I'm doing fantastic man Been real busy this weekend. Got back from vacation and yesterday I replaced the tarp on our greenhouse that the hurricane ripped off. And then today I built two more walls of what I call my 20-year chicken coop. 20-year chicken coop.

Speaker 4: 12:11

Okay.

Speaker 1: 12:11

Well see, chicken coops are notoriously made out of thin and wood that they typically last like five years. I'm making a chicken coop out of four by fours.

Speaker 4: 12:20

Okay.

Speaker 1: 12:21

Yeah, and I had to move this. Just to give you an idea how heavy these things are. I had to move the because I built the walls over by my barn, so I had to take them over to the chicken area. I had to transport each wall one by one with my tractor. I couldn't even pick them up. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, it's the 20-year chicken tractor.

Speaker 4: 12:38

Yes, oh man. Oh, that's great. I mean I I think you got to build things stronger down there anyway because all the hurricanes that could potentially come ripping through, so it makes sense.

Speaker 1: 12:46

The funny thing is it's not necessarily the hurricanes, it's the rain and the UV.

Speaker 4: 12:53

Oh yeah, uv.

Speaker 1: 12:54

That will destroy stuff faster, because we only get hurricanes. I mean, I may get one hurricane every other year, okay, but for me it's more about rain and UV. So yeah, this thing could be made out of cypress wood. Let's not talk about farms. We didn't come here to talk about farms.

Speaker 4: 13:10

We could. I mean, you would be the expert. I would not be, but we could talk about them all day.

Speaker 1: 13:15

Oh, I am not an expert. I am an expert about knowledge in this industry and getting people to get knowledge in this industry.

Speaker 1: 13:25

So TechFest you've done it three times that I'm aware of. Maybe one other time that I might have missed One was at Cable Connections in South Carolina, last year was in Nashville, this year we're in Nashville again. So I know how the TechFest stands out from other industry events and why somebody should attend, but what are your thoughts on it? I've had a couple people ask me already hey, that thing in February or the thing in April, how much does it cost to join that group and why should I go? If that person didn't meet you, what would you tell them?

Speaker 4: 14:04

So TKW is a free community, so you know there's no cost to be a part of our community. But the cost to attend TechFest right now, until February 1st, is $249. You know we have an early bird special. It's 50% off because you know we're still in planning phases, right, even though the event is in April. We are still bringing in sponsors, we're still bringing in vendors, we're still bringing in, you know, speakers and you know we want to give people that discount because of the unknown factor, right at this point we're not a fully booked show yet, but we're getting there. So we want to give people that discount. But you know some great things are coming and you know discount, but some great things are coming and I'm really appreciative to be able to talk about it with you today.

Speaker 1: 14:48

Same here. I love talking about anything where people can go to learn more about the industry. I mean, you said it's $249, it's 50% off until you hit that date. I forgot what the date was February 1st. February 1st, yeah, and then it goes to $500, right?

Speaker 4: 15:04

Yeah, it's like you know 499 or 495, something like that, but 500 bucks.

Speaker 1: 15:08

It's a two day event, that's still a great deal.

Speaker 4: 15:12

Yeah, and you know so. This is what we're doing this year. That is completely different than you know. Any other event out there is doing it. So you know we're not branding this as a trade show this year. This is an educated. Brandon calls it an. What does Brandon call it? He calls it an educational symposium. He keeps throwing that word around. I think it's hilarious, but the reality of it is. It's true, right, like you could. There's so many trade shows and I think even the landscape of trade shows is changing so much right now I don't think they're attended as much as they have been, but what we're doing is so different and we're really proud of what we're putting out there this year. So the focus is purely on education this year. So for that 249, you get the ability to come out and hear some amazing speakers like yourself. Thank you for coming out and speaking again. We're really looking forward to it.

Speaker 4: 16:01

On industry-specific topics, and this year it's not about having vendors having booths. Yes, there will be booths. Vendors will be at the booths, but the point of the booth that they're going to have is live demonstration and instructions on how to use their products, how to actually get the tools and the products that they sell in the hands of the people in our community, to get that back and forth feedback and to really learn how to use those tools properly. And we've got some really exciting vendors that already signed up. You know Vertical Cable is coming, which is amazing. Sorry, vertical Cable is coming. Cable and Connections will be back again this year, so they'll be there with a bunch of their stuff. Trend Networks is coming and Tren always brings all of their- All of the test equipment.

Speaker 2: 16:49

They have all of the test equipment, all of the test equipment.

Speaker 4: 16:52

And now they've got a fiber splicer. So they're going to teach people how to splice fiber while they're there, which is going to be pretty exciting. And for right now, the biggest one that I can talk about is PDK ProData Key. So PDK for all of your listeners that are in access control out there. In order to become PDK certified you have to take a $600 course and you know that includes some equipment and you know a six to eight hour training course.

Speaker 4: 17:21

Pdk has put together a training course for our event and our venue where they can get that same certification for the cost of the ticket. So that $249 ticket, if you purchase it before February, we'll get you in as long as you enroll to register for that PDK course. So you'll take a four-hour course while you're at the event and walk away certified in PDK. And I know that you and I are working on it right now, but we're also looking at getting every one of the trainings and all of the speaking engagements for continuing education credits. So that is huge. I mean just the value alone for that price tag. It pays for itself over and over again.

Speaker 1: 18:03

Yeah, you did a social media post. I think it was yesterday or maybe the day before, I don't know. The last two days have been a blur with all the building I've been doing and it was a flyer announcing TechFest and then me being the keynote speaker, and so I took that and I forwarded to my Facebook page and put it out there and I had like two or three people already hit me with it Does this have CECs? Does this have CECs? Does this have CECs? Yeah, I saw, yeah, yeah. So yes, we are. We are in the process of working on the getting CECs for it. Yeah, but that's, that's one of those unknown things. We got to submit the application and hopefully the application is meets the approval of Bixie, and they say yes, boom. But I've usually never had a problem getting stuff certified for CEC.

Speaker 4: 18:48

Yeah, it's something cool, right. I mean, how many again we're not calling this a trade show, but how many trade shows do you go to where you can meet people in all forms and verticals of the technology industries and get continuing education credits and get trained in so many different verticals from the manufacturers that are providing those platforms? I mean it's amazing.

Speaker 1: 19:14

Yeah, that's one of the advantages of the group with TKW is because you have a bunch of people. It's funny because when I teach a class, I tell people all the time that the low-voltage industry is like a bicycle there's people that have the front wheel, people that have the back wheel, people that crank, people that have the steering wheel and you look at low voltage, we're the same way. There's some people who do voice and data cabling, some people do access control, some people do fire alarms, some people do AV, but very few people do everything. And that's one thing I love about the TKW community is if somebody's starting to venture into some area that they don't know, they can get into Slack channel and say, hey, I'm doing this, what should I watch out for? And everybody will chime in and and and give that person the information needed to be successful. I really liked that about the group.

Speaker 4: 19:58

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 19:59

But another thing I've noticed too, and I don't think I've ever voiced this outside of my head thing I've noticed too and I don't think I've ever voiced this outside of my head. Sometimes it's you don't want to be inside my head because I'm telling you sometimes the stuff that I could be talking to somebody and I'm thinking about 14 different things at the same time. That's my ADHD going on in my head.

Speaker 1: 20:15

Same right, same so, but one of the things I've never voiced, though, is yes, there's a wide breadth of people in different verticals, but you also have people at different stages of their career, from people from being newcomers, people being seasoned veterans, people who are business owners, like Pierce and a few other people in the ICT industry. How's TechFest going to cater to those types of professionals?

Speaker 4: 20:38

Yeah. So I mean, the best part about it is we're catering this for you. Know that full gamut right. Whether or not you are somebody that's never picked up a tool and are just interested, we've got stuff for you. If you are a seasoned veteran, you can always learn something new, and that's part of, like some of the skills challenges that we're going to be doing teaching people new skills, putting pairing you with other people in the industry that are already really knowledgeable, that want to train you on these things.

Speaker 4: 21:06

And if you're just somebody that's a jack of all trades, maybe you want to learn something new, like me personally. My business does no access control. I have an MSP and anytime I do any access control for my customers, I sub it out to somebody else in TKW to do all that work. But why would I not, at the cost of the ticket, go get certified in PDK and no access control for myself? So now I'm going to have that skill and there's going to be something for everyone. As long as you're into technology, there's always something you can learn.

Speaker 1: 21:37

You know I should have you and a couple other subject matter experts on to talk about MSPs and recurring revenue. Yep, I don't think I've ever talked about that on my podcast in four years because I'm so used to doing the structured cable thing. Yeah, it's outside my comfort zone. Yep, yeah.

Speaker 4: 21:56

And you know I don't want to take away from TKW but my own business, libertas. My entire business is built on hardware as a service right? So wireless networking and that recurring monthly revenue that that can provide. And you know, being in that MSP space, honestly, if I didn't have that I don't think my business and many other businesses would have survived during COVID if not for that building of that monthly recurring revenue. And we've had conversations upon conversations within the community about that in our business groups, had conversations upon conversations within the community about that in our business groups. And at the first tech fest I actually gave a presentation on my hardware as a service model and a lot of guys in the community use my model to help build their recurring revenue. Yeah, so it's nice. And again, how many times can you find a group of people that share their business?

Speaker 4: 22:42

secrets and share their knowledge and say listen, here is the platform that I built. It's been very successful for me and it has built my business. Here it is, take it, go run with it and be successful, because there's enough in this industry for everybody.

Speaker 1: 22:56

There's no business mindset, and I get it. I understand it that you don't want your competitors finding out how you price things and how you do business, because then they can replicate it and then you got additional competition. But, as you just said, you know there's enough room at the table for everybody. There truly is. And you know rising tide raises all boats. You've heard me say that on multiple occasions. So why not? Why not lift up everybody?

Speaker 3: 23:25

Hey friends, I want to tell you about a great organization, tech Knowledge Worldwide, an active community of tech professionals dedicated to elevating our industry and each other. It's the real deal and I'm grateful to be part of this community. Their annual tech conference is coming up April 23rd and 24th in Nashville, tennessee, and will feature amazing speakers, workshops and even Bixie continuing education credits. Stay up to date and lock in your spot now at techfestorg. That's T-E-K-F-E-S-T dot org. T-k-f-e-s-t dot org. I encourage all my low voltage followers to consider joining to see if they want a seat at TKW's table too. All are welcome to learn, grow and see what putting community over competition can do. Go to techfestorg for more information.

Speaker 1: 24:22

You know, part of the thing that I really love about going to these kinds of events is just learning For more information. But the other thing I really love to do is I know I told you I wasn't a people person, but when you get me in business mode at events like that, I love networking opportunities. I love learning. You know, learning how to talk to people. Talking to people, find out what they're doing, find out what's going on. So what kind of opportunities can attendees at TechFest expect as far as networking opportunity?

Speaker 4: 25:04

Yeah. So last year we had about 250 people attend. You know that included our vendors and our partners that were there. Uh, this year our plan is somewhere between 300 and 350.

Speaker 4: 25:12

Again, we like the intimate feel. We don't want the giant. You know, again, the conferences that you can go to that have tens of thousands of people. You're just a drop in the bucket.

Speaker 4: 25:21

Um, the one thing that we're super proud of in our community is everybody knows everybody. Whether they are the CEO of Trend Networks, who came to our event last year, or they are somebody as lowly as somebody that's just starting out in the industry, we all know each other and we treat everybody with the same respect. So you know, at the end of the day you're going to run the gamut of networking opportunities, of whether you know you're in California and you don't know anybody else in the area. Well, we've got six guys from California that have been in our community that come to every one of our events, that are going to be there. You know we've got people from Texas, from you know the middle of the country and you know great old Nebraska, that'll be there.

Speaker 4: 26:02

You know, at the end of the day it doesn't matter where you're from. We're going to connect you with people that can help you and hopefully positively impact your business by getting to know these other people, because a lot of the work that happens in our community from other members comes from other members. We refer work to others in our community. I mean, it is the true meaning of networking and our community and and you know we say it all the time uh, it's community over competition all the time and it's not just just, not just words to say that's literally our lifeblood.

Speaker 1: 26:36

And I've seen it many times in Slack channels. You know I'm I'm I'm a lurker in the Slack channel. I've told you that before. You know cause I got a lot on my plate sometimes and I'm a lurker. I do read a lot of the threads and stuff and I see that happen a lot of times people helping each other all the time and again, that's. That's one of the reasons why you guys are a top tier organization helping the industry.

Speaker 4: 26:55

Thank you. I mean we're trying. I mean honestly, when we started this three, three and a half years ago, the whole mentality of community over competition and the mentality of you know if you actually help your fellow brethren or your, you know your, your fellow business. There's so much out there that you can learn from other people. It's going to make you better. And now now, instead of being a one person shop, you're now a 500 person shop, because you can use everybody in the community as part of your team and we all help each other. There's the people in our community that come into our community that think that you know they can get one over on somebody or take work from other people, and they're no longer with us. We just don't allow it and we're heavily moderated and we just don't have that. We don't have that caliber of people that come in to do catty things. They don't last because they don't find themselves a home with us. They don't last because they don't find themselves a home with us.

Speaker 1: 27:46

So let's you and I have a direct conversation to the person watching this video or listening to it on the podcast who's on the fence. They're trying to decide. Well, you know, it's 300 miles away.

Speaker 4: 27:58

Yep.

Speaker 1: 27:59

They're on the fence, they're thinking about coming, but they haven't actually committed to it yet.

Speaker 4: 28:04

So you know it's, it's really simple. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, what do you, what do you want to do to further your career and grow your business and and get to work and meet other like-minded individuals? And it's it's a tech fest. At the end of the day, it's a tech fest. You come, you meet, you'll get to meet some amazing vendors, amazing partners. They'll get to meet you, chuck, because you're going to be there. You're presenting, you know there's the talks that we have and you know I can share a little bit about that are going to be something that you will walk away with, learning a new skill. You know we've got you talking about grounding and bonding, which is a huge topic that most people don't do. You know how many racks we see get installed that don't have grounding. It's a, it's a mistake. You mean bonding? Yeah, bonding, see, it's exactly why I need the course, right?

Speaker 1: 28:58

We'll cover that in my presentation the difference between bonding and grounding. I just got an email from a guy who's a student at my day job. He's an RCDD, he's an estimator. He went to do a walk-through in a job site somewhere, meeting with the GC and the head electrician, and they were talking about the job site and then they started talking about bonding the racks, bonding the ladder rack and stuff. And because he just sat in my class, the guy says, yeah, we need the racks bonded, we need this bonded. And the electrician looks at him and goes do you have high voltage background experience? And he goes no, he goes most low voltage. People don't use the right terms. And the guy says, chuck, it's because of your class, thank you, thank you, and it's one of those keys. This is a class I've been wanting to build for a long time anyway, and even if I hope this doesn't happen, but even if for some reason, techvest doesn't get certified for CEC, I'm also simultaneously submitting my one hour presentation for CEC, so I continue giving this class afterwards as well.

Speaker 4: 29:59

That's great and it's amazing, and your talk is going to be amazing and I said it, I'll be there. Front row, center, bonded to the chair, so to speak.

Speaker 1: 30:09

You said grounded to the chair. I know, I know, but see, I'm trying to correct myself now.

Speaker 4: 30:13

I mean now that we've talked about it. I'm correcting myself right now.

Speaker 4: 30:18

There you go, but we've got a guy that literally wrote the wireless standards and protocols that is coming to our event to present on wireless. His name is Sean Jackman. He's somebody that I've known for 20 plus years and he's brilliant. He was the 54th person in the world to get the Cisco accreditation that he has, so he's a CWNE, cwnp, and he has forgotten more about wireless than I will ever, ever, ever know, and he's just brilliant. He's one of the nicest guys in the world, so I'm looking forward to having him. We've got Bear Halverson, who yes, I know him.

Speaker 1: 30:51

He was on the show, right. Yeah, q4.

Speaker 4: 30:55

Yep. So Security Today podcast, he is coming out to talk about security and access control and physical security and he's amazing, I think. He think he's just he's a great presenter. I've got a couple that I can't talk about right now because they've asked me to not, but we've got somebody coming who is a huge name in the compliance industry, so he's going to give a presentation on compliancy in in in today.

Speaker 4: 31:21

Like there is nothing I think we need more in the world today than than proper compliance within our businesses. And then obviously, we've got, you know, talks on marketing and sales and strategy and building a better business and being financially responsible. Like these are all things that every person that is in this industry should know about one way or another. And it's it's just really exciting knowing the people and the caliber of people that we are attracting to come to our events. And I say it all the time I'm humbled, I'm truly humbled, by the people that are in our community, the partnerships that we've made and forged in our community and the relationships that we've got with people like you. I mean truthfully.

Speaker 1: 32:02

I see you know, one of the biggest questions I see a lot, because you know I surf social media all the time Yep, one of the questions I see recurring questions I see all the time is somebody who's really good at installing low voltage cabling and they're just now venturing out creating their own company and you know, they don't know how to market, they don't know how to sales.

Speaker 4: 32:27

That's why I really like it, because you're going to have the technical side and the marketing and the sales side and the networking event. That's a win-win-win. Yeah, and at heart we are an educational community. It's always been about educating and empowering and uplifting an industry that truly needs it, because there's so much bad work out there. We're trying to avoid all that bad work, improper work.

Speaker 4: 32:44

We want people out there doing the right things for their customers and it starts with all the things that you can learn from TechFest and the other thing that I want to share that we're not highlighting as much as we should, because we just assume people know that our organization is a 501c3 nonprofit organization and your ticket is actually funding what we do in the fall called text giving. So last year we were at Laos, a bilingual preschool. We gave them, you know, $150,000 donation of technology to their preschool. So they got cameras, access control, wireless networking. All of it was donated by members of our community and the reason we put on this event over and above, you know, training and empowering and, you know, uplifting the communities is to fund that event so that we can keep doing our charitable work. So when you purchase this ticket, it is a full tax deduction, like for your business. So you know us having that that status allows you to do that.

Speaker 1: 33:46

But they can also make a. If somebody out there, let's say they can't attend TechFest because of scheduling you know they're out of country going on a project or something they can still make a tax-deductible donation, right yeah all day, every day, it's donatetechnologyorg.

Speaker 4: 34:02

Again, we're a full 501c3. All of your donations will come with a letter of certification stating you made a donation to a taxable entity in the United States. So we're legit. Man. It's a big deal for us.

Speaker 1: 34:15

That's a big deal for the industry, not just the community. Well, I appreciate you taking the time out and coming on and talking to me on Sunday night.

Speaker 4: 34:23

Hey man, I appreciate you Any chance I get to talk to you and talk about the community. You know I'm always in, it's easy.

Speaker 1: 34:29

All right, brother man, I'll see you in April.

Speaker 4: 34:31

All right, thanks, chuck, we'll see you soon, all right.

Speaker 2: 34:34

That's it for this episode of today's podcast. We hope you were able to learn something. Make 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.