Beyond Beyond 2025: Recap

Chuck shares his eye-opening experience at BICSI Beyond 2025 in Las Vegas, revealing industry shifts and technological developments that will impact ICT professionals. The conference highlighted alarming workforce demographics and showcased emerging technologies that could transform how cable installation is performed.

• Introduction to Challenge Coins as special recognition tokens for major contributors to the podcast
• Recording of interviews with John Daniels (BICSI CEO), Chuck Wilson, and Matt Affel from the JATC
• Participation in multiple committee meetings including the new ICT Lifecycle Management Training Committee
• Updates on industry standards including revisions to the N1, N2, and N3 documents
• Insights from Matthew Griffin's keynote about AI's impact on ICT, including cable-pulling robots
• Industry statistics showing 67% of low voltage workers are over 40 and only 13% under 30
• Revelation of 9.9 million job vacancies in the low voltage industry
• Exhibit hall highlights including new cable testing technology from Trend Networks

If you enjoy this content, please consider becoming a Patreon member to support the podcast. Your contributions help me represent your interests at industry events and committees while creating valuable content for the ICT community.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Let's Talk Cabling
• 3:55 Chuck's Bixie Beyond 2025 Experience
• 8:40 Challenge Coins and Special Recognition
• 15:01 Podcast Interviews at Bixie
• 19:26 Committee Meetings and Future Industry Plans
• 26:46 Exhibit Hall Highlights and New Technology
• 30:18 AI's Impact on the Low Voltage Industry
• 37:33 Closing Thoughts and Networking Invitation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Wednesday night, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time. That can only mean one thing Live after hours with Chuck Mouser RCDD your favorite, your favorite, rcdd. Welcome to let's Talk Cabling, your gateway to the world of ICT. Get ready to dive deep into knowledge and power. You know I'm your favorite. Don't even try to pretend like I'm not. Don't even try to pretend like I'm not. Don't even try to pretend like I'm not. And you have the left corner. You have the RCDD. Exactly, exactly. So tonight's show is going to be a tiny bit different. I do have a couple questions that were left over from last week's show, but tonight I really want to talk about my experience at Bixie Beyond 2025 in Las Vegas.

Speaker 1: 1:07

Okay, but you know we always got to start every session off with what are you drinking? What are you drinking? Tell me in the chat box. Chuck is drinking Cola Zevia, cola Zevia, kaelin. What are you drinking, george? What are you drinking? Right? What are you guys drinking on the live stream here? Turn on the chat so you can see when people talk. Chuck, I hate when that happens. Drinking a Diet Coke, diet Coke Very good Acronym Challenge.

Speaker 1: 1:35

I have recently gotten into distribution after three years of being in the field. Excellent, welcome, vinny. You have any questions? You got your personal RCDD in the house. Always feel free to reach out to me. Send me a DM friend request. What do you do on whatever we do on TikTok? I can never remember. I can never remember. I will help you any way I can.

Speaker 1: 1:58

Acronym challenge Acronym challenge. Today's acronym challenge is PBX challenge. Today's acronym challenge is PBX PBX. Go ahead and put it in the chat box. What does PBX mean? I'll give you a hint. It doesn't have to do cabling. It does not have anything to do with cabling. It has something to do with telephony. What does the acronym PBX mean? Okay, okay, I'll give you guys a few more seconds if nobody gives me the answer. I will give you the answer in five, four, three, two, one. Private Branch Exchange. It's a telephone system, a big one, too big one. So so let's get on with the show.

Speaker 1: 2:46

Okay, lots of cool things coming up. Did I open up the wrong, the wrong notes? Yes, I did open up the wrong notes. Isn't that funny? That is just hilarious. I opened up the wrong notes, so let's do this.

Speaker 1: 3:07

I want to talk about Bixie Beyond in Las Vegas 2025. Let me go ahead and see if I can't find my other notes. I can't believe I messed those up. How could I do that, chuck? How could you mess that up? Oh, there, it is. There it is.

Speaker 1: 3:22

So first thing I want to talk about is have you ever heard I was just talking to ed about this just a few seconds ago ed's one of the guys in the tiktok feed have you ever heard about a challenge coin? Do you know what a challenge coin is? Okay, so the reason I bring this up is because I recently had 25 challenge coins made up gold challenge coins to give to people who are either big donors to the show or they made a huge impact in the show. Only at 25, and they're all individually numbered on the back 1 through 25, and I've given out probably about half of them. You can't buy these. You cannot buy these. I have to give them to you, and so they're really to commemorate people who've really made a big impact in the show.

Speaker 1: 4:12

It's called a challenge coin, so challenge coins have the roots in the military. They have the roots in first responders, and think of it as like a special token that somebody can give you for things like showing your courage or meeting a big milestone. It's not an official award. It's more like a personal badge in your pocket. And the roots, going back into the military, is if somebody gives you their unit challenge coin, you're supposed to keep it on you all the time. And if you're at a bar drinking and they challenge you that's why it's called a challenge coin to see if you have your coin on.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Whoever doesn't have their coin has to buy the, has to buy the beer. That's where it gets its name from. Well, I'm sorry, I'm never going to challenge you, make you buy beer, that's I'm not going to do that. It's not what I do, but it's a pocket reminder of pride or camaraderie or belonging. That's why, like I said, people I get into are really appreciative of it. It's a great way to strengthen bonds because everybody who carries one has pretty much the same story. It's not legal tender, you can't go spend it at a store, but if you have one, you know. If you don't, you probably know somebody who has one Again. So, like I said, there's only 25 of them, only 25 of them.

Speaker 1: 5:27

And the reason I bring that up is because I brought like six or seven of them with me to Bixie, because I have several people at Bixie that are major donors to the podcast, and when I say major donors, I'm talking about over $500. Over $500. Now they didn't necessarily all give it at once. You know, if you go to Patreon and you support the podcast and you do $10 a month, $20 a month, you will hit that $500. And if you hit that $500, before I run out of the $25, you will get a special let's Talk Cabling Challenge coin. You will get a special let's Talk Cabling challenge coin. And then the other ones are given to people who have huge impact on the show.

Speaker 1: 6:10

I've had a couple guests who've been on several times. I gave one of them to John Daniels. In case you don't know who John Daniels is, he is the CEO of Bixie. Because of John, there's such a good working relationship between the podcast and Bixie. Okay, so I gave one to John Daniels and the funny thing is is right after I gave him that coin, he gave me a challenge coin. He gave me a Bixie challenge coin. A Bixie challenge coin. It's very cool and I really like it because on the back I'll read it to you it says presented by the chief executive officer for integrity, service and excellence. Isn't that cool? Isn't that cool. Here's something that's even more cool. There's only been three or four of these challenge coins given out by Bixie Only three or four, and there's only one in the United States. Guess who got that one? Yes, that is so cool. So, yes, I got that right.

Speaker 1: 7:18

Now let's talk about some things that happened at Bixie Beyond. I was able to record a couple of episodes, a couple of episodes. One of them was with John Daniels, right, and so with John Daniels, what we did was we talked about why did they change the format of the Fall Bixie Conference to Bixie Beyond 2025, right, we 2025. The second part of this show is we highlighted what some of those differences are and then we finish it up with takeaways for the people who attend the podcast can get. Then we also did a lightning round. So it's a pretty cool interview.

Speaker 1: 8:02

It's recorded. I'm going to put it in the queue. It probably won't publish, probably for about four to five weeks, because I got other episodes already recorded ahead of it. So, and then I got to get that push out, so it'll probably be about a month or so before that, right, and then the second interview. Sorry, the second interview that I did, excuse me, was with Chuck Wilson. Chuck Wilson, because you don't know who he is. He's the owner of Wilson Technologies, literally right down the street.

Speaker 1: 8:37

If you're an avid, avid audience member, you probably remember that I did an episode where I drove a ground rod in for the podcast studio. Chuck Wilson was in that video. His company came over because they had the four prong Earthmaker and we did the video on how to use an Earthmaker, how to drive a ground rod in, okay. So I had him on the show and we talked about, we did the top five myths. Top five myths that you'll hear about attending a Bixie conference, right. You know, here are the five ones that we covered Bixie's only for RCDDs and design people. We busted that myth. Bixie's too expensive. It's hard to justify for the return on investment. We busted that myth. But it's all sales pitches. Chuck Busted that myth. Newcomers always fill out a place. We busted that myth too.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Every Bixie conference they do a first-timers or newcomers meeting that you can attend, meeting that you can attend, right. And basically it tells you you know how all of the exhibits work. It gives you advice, like you know, wear good shoes, drink lots of water, stuff like that. You know, the funny thing is I am a veteran of probably I have to go on my Bixie account and actually look. But I want to say I've probably been to 15, 20 or so Bixie conferences. I've never attended the first-timers conference. So I went and attended the first-timers conference because I wanted to see what they talked about. So that way if somebody asks me what's in the first-timers conference, I can answer that question. That's why I went there. If somebody asks me what's in the first-timers conference, I can answer that question. That's why I went there, and you probably again, if you're an avid audience member.

Speaker 1: 10:30

You saw that I put out two videos this week, two recap videos, the second one. I actually do a scan in the new-timers thing and you could see there was literally 150 to 200 people in that room, all first timers. It was such a cool thing to see that that many people were first timers. Yeah, you're not going to feel out of place because there's a lot of other people and this community we welcome new people. The funny thing was right, I walked into the room. I got there just like 90 seconds before they started and the only open spot was this table all the way over on the other side. So I walk around and I sit down at the table and of course I'm wearing my badge right. My badge is actually back there. It's got like I don't know seven, eight, nine ribbons on it and I sit down and there's a couple other guys sitting there.

Speaker 1: 11:21

We kind of introduced ourselves and I said, yeah, full honesty, this is not my first Bixie conference. I said this is my first first-timers conference but not my first Bixie conference, right, and I said I just wanted to see what it's like, so that way if somebody asks me questions I can answer those questions. And one of the guys looks at me and goes, hey, you're the RCDD with the podcast, aren't you? I was like, yes, I am. Thank you, man, your content's really helped me and it's inspired me and stuff. So I had about two dozen of those conversations with people.

Speaker 1: 11:56

I was walking from my hotel room to a restaurant that I was going to meet up with some friends and somebody literally stopped me. I didn't have no branding with some friends and somebody literally stopped me. I didn't have any no branding on at all and they literally stopped me and said, hey, you're Chuck Bowser from the podcast. I'm like, yes, I am yes, right. Then. So the next myth that we did. The final myth is you know well, you sit in lectures, you know for three or four days and then when you come home Monday, you forget everything. We busted that myth and then we did a lightning round of five additional questions. So make sure you watch out for those two episodes. Chuck Wilson, by the way, also with the Chuck Wilson interview, chuck is the subject matter expert in charge for the N1, the N2, and the N3. I'll talk more about that later on because it's going to be really critical there.

Speaker 1: 12:48

And then another episode that I recorded while I was there. I was only there literally for three days. I was, you know, walking around all over the place. So I did an interview with Matt Affel. Matt Affel, he's a professor, has been on the podcast. It's been a while since he's been on there but he's the assistant director of the JATC in Las Vegas.

Speaker 1: 13:12

Jatc in Las Vegas Let me know if you know what the that's an acronym challenge for it. What does JATC mean, right? So he's the assistant director there. He does a lot of speaking at Bixie Vince and their training facility is in Las Vegas. So I reached out to him and said, hey, can I come to the JATC Because I would love to make a couple shorts. Okay, for the thing he goes. Yeah, absolutely, come on over. So I went over there to meet with him at the JATC and as we were recording shorts, I quickly realized there's more here than just for shorts. So I'm making the entire episode out of it. The joint apprenticeship training council, uh training facility at in las vegas. They do low voltage, high voltage, they do security, access control, welding. It became it's going to become its own episode. Now I'm going to apologize in advance. Apologize in advance because when I was recording it I recorded in vertical format, because I'm thinking in my head I'm making shorts, so I'm going to have to figure out how to put a background behind that. But it's going to be a really, really good interview.

Speaker 1: 14:20

I also lined up another interview with some really cool innovating peers in my industry. So these people reached out to me and they have a temp service, temporary labor, and they asked me hey, can we meet with you at Bixie? We would love to talk to you about some stuff. And I said, yeah, sure we could do that. So I told them I'd meet them at the exhibit exhibit hall and I met them at the exhibit hall. And the cool thing is, this is a company. The three people that I met want the um. These guys are in their mid twenties to mid thirties and they are on fire for the industry on fire. F I R? E on fire for this industry on fire. F-i-r-e on fire for this industry. And, if you know me, my podcast is geared to attracting those kinds of people to the industry. Yeah, so I'm gonna do some things with them.

Speaker 1: 15:21

They asked me to be, uh, be involved in a couple things. I don't want to put that out there because I don't know if they want that out there or not, but I shot them an email. Well, I wrote the email yesterday on the plane ride coming home. I don't think it actually went until hey meows in the house reporting in from 30,000 feet. There you go, very cool. It's a shame we didn't get to meet, anyways.

Speaker 1: 15:43

So I shot them an email and I'm inviting those three people to be a member of my expert council, my expert council. I've been bad about this. I haven't really talked about the expert council in a while, but the expert council is a group of people, because no man can know everything about our industry. No man can know everything about everything in this industry. So I have certain people that if I get a question like Phil Cleansmith, if somebody asked me a question about outside plant, I can answer some questions. But Phil Cleansmith, who's a member of my expert council, he literally wrote the book. I mean literally the Bixie outside plant design reference manual. He wrote it. So he's on my expert council. So I'm going to ask these three guys I haven't seen if they responded yet or not. I haven't checked my email today because I was teaching today. That's why I didn't get to stay at the whole entire Bixie conference. I had to come home early. So I'm going to extend an offer to them to be members of my expert council.

Speaker 1: 16:44

Now you might be thinking well, chuck, they're only 25 to 35. What can they be experts at? Remember, I'm trying to reach that age group. I'm trying to reach that age group, and so I'm you. I'm going to expect them to help me figure out ways to resonate with that age group. I really look. I really hope they say yes, I truly do.

Speaker 1: 17:08

And then I also attended. I mean, I also attended. I had lunch with a good friend of mine, steve cows from AM. You know if you again, if you've been, if you've been an audience member, you've seen him on the show many times and uh, so him and I got to talking and we're going to, he's going to come on the show and we're going to talk about the nuances of testing extended length cable. So there's, you know this whole thing game changer cable, extended distances by other manufacturers, all that stuff out there. Well, once you go outside of the ANSI allowable limits of 100 meters or 320 feet, most certifiers are going to tell you fail. So we're going to talk about those limits. We're also going to talk about quality of extended cabling right, because you've got to watch about DCRU and a bunch of other stuff. So him and I agreed to do that podcast and we just got it scheduled and done. I also have another interview lined up with Cable Installation Management Magazine. Yes, yes, yes, patrick, the chief editing manager. So we're going to be doing an episode as well, talking about how media um can impact the industry. Okay, so I got all those interviews lined up, those, some of those recorded. It's going to be really really cool, really cool. Okay, I'm so excited about this stuff.

Speaker 1: 18:28

I always come back from Bixie conferences fired up. I just do Now. The Beyond Bixie in 2025 started on Sunday and it went till today. I was there Sunday, I was there Monday, tuesday morning, I went to the JATC and then I flew home because I knew I had to teach today and I had to be home in order to teach that class today. And that was all three days. All three days I literally logged 18 19 hours a day between getting up early, going to the conference, doing all that stuff and then coming home and working on podcast stuff. You didn't't notice it. The podcast still came out on Monday, but I edited it Saturday night and rendered it Sunday night and posted it Sunday night and scheduled to post. So I, and then last night I got up and went over to Bixie. It was over there, oh sorry, the JTC. Uh, matt picked me up at seven, did that, and then I caught the plane home. I didn't get home last night until midnight, midnight. So I'm kind of tired, kind of tired.

Speaker 1: 19:33

Well, I didn't just work on interviews. I also attended a whole bunch of committee meetings. The one I first want to talk about is the PDC committee, the personal development committee. That's the committee that's in charge of the mentoring committee. It's in charge of women and bixie committee. They all kind of report up to this and I can't. I can't share with you what we talked about. But I can tell you this there is some. We had some great conversations, great conversations on how to attract people to this industry and how to attract, ready for this, young people to our industry. So I can't like ready for this, young people to our industry. So I can't, like I said, I can't really talk about it because a lot of this stuff is still kind of in flux and it's not finalized yet and it wouldn't do justice to talk about it right now in case they change stuff. But I'm telling you, people always complain. People always, always, always complain about Bixie and how much they charge and blah, blah, blah, woof, woof, woof. But I'm telling you they're putting that money back in. John Daniels told me I can't remember if it was in the interview or if it was somewhere else, but he told me that right now the financial status of Bixie is in good, solid ground. That's why they're able to reinvest back into some of these programs. So cool, so cool, man.

Speaker 1: 20:49

I also attended the Women in Bixie event. The Women in Bixie event. Now, the cool thing about the Women in Bixie event is obviously Chuck's not a woman, right? But I support that. I support the mentoring program and the Women in Bixie program. I always go to both of those always.

Speaker 1: 21:06

And so what they did this time at the Women in Bixie event was they lined up a bunch of us, what they call experts, experts and if you know me, you know how I feel about being called an expert. I don't consider myself an expert, right, I've been in the industry a long time, I know a lot of things, but I am not an expert. So they lined us experts up and then what they would do is the people who attended the women in Bixby and, by the way, they weren't all women, we had some men there too. So we literally sat across the table from somebody and they gave us a list of ice-breaking questions. But it was just a way for people who are kind of newer to the industry, younger to the industry, get to talk to seasoned veterans like me about stuff. And then you would talk to one person for five minutes and then they'd shift down one. You got to talk to somebody else and talk to somebody else. I talked to two very interesting ladies who were electricians and they worked for the JATC in Los Angeles and so they're instructors too for low voltage, low voltage, the voltage man.

Speaker 1: 22:10

The more I go to these events, the more I realize, you know, while we have a lot of work to do, we're in good hands. I'm really, really inspired by some of the people I met. I also sat in the outside plant construction and installation work group meeting and I got a new app I just downloaded today that's going to take notes and stuff. So I'll be better taking notes at future events. And, again, that's a part of those people who donate.

Speaker 1: 22:36

By the way, if you, if you enjoy this content the Q and A's, if you enjoy the regular, please consider becoming a Patreon member. Okay, becoming a Patreon member, you can pledge as little as five bucks a month. You can pledge as much as you want. Stuff like that helps pay for me to fly to the Bixie to represent you in those committees, because there were several times, as they were having those committee meetings and they would have some questions, I would stand up and interject on your behalf, on your behalf. So I sat in the outside plant construction installation group and they're going to open up the G document for revision and publication.

Speaker 1: 23:14

And one of the interesting things I got out of that meeting is air-blown fiber. Air-blown fiber. It's a cool thing, right, air-blown fiber. They're changing the name. They're changing the name to high-Speed Air-Assisted Installation. High-speed Air-Assisted Installation Pretty cool.

Speaker 1: 23:34

I sat in another committee meeting and this is actually a brand spanking new one Brand spanking new committee. It was the first time that they came together to meet and it was called the ICT Lifecycle Management Training Committee. And it was called the ICT Lifecycle Management Training Committee ICT Lifecycle Management Committee. So again, the first time they all come together because they want to create a committee to create a book and or maybe training curriculum for what happens after the install is done, what happens after the install is done. So right now the industry is really good at coming up with codes, standards and best practices on how to do installs, but what do you do after the customer takes final acceptance? Most people don't know this. If you listen to my show, you do, because I've said it about a gazillion times. If you listen to my show the bonding and bonding system. It's supposed to be inspected annually, looking for looseness and corrosion, a bunch of other stuff. They laid out the plan of what they want to do. They got the approval. Now they're going to come up with an action plan. They're going to submit that to the board of directors the Bixby board of directors and for final approval. If they say yes, then they watch it become a true committee.

Speaker 1: 24:56

I also sat in a couple master classes while I was there. I didn't sit in the entire master class for any one of them, because I would pick and choose and go to each one for about an hour, and I think the best master class that I saw, the best master class that I saw, was on public speaking. Public speaking it was done by my good friend Shelly and Tony from IES, because they got I'm telling you, ies is a fantastic company the great training program. So they actually sat down. It was a two-day class and I didn't and again, I didn't sit in all of it, but the part that I sat in. I can kind of figure out what they did the other ones right. So they obviously went through tips for public speaking and stuff like that, and then they actually had everybody in the master class get up in front of a camera, do a short presentation on whatever, and then they recorded it and then they put it up on the screen afterwards. And that's when I sat in there. They were actually doing the reviews, and then they would critique that person doing the thing. Now you're probably thinking well, chuck, I'm never going to be a public speaker at a Bix event. Okay, what if you want to become a trainer? What if you have to present information to a customer? It was a great class, great class.

Speaker 1: 26:12

I also sat in, briefly too, for the pre-conference master class for designing power over Ethernet, lightning and automation, and again, same kind of thing. They did hands-on. But I was there when they had the panel discussion. They had one, two, three, four experts on the panel and they answered questions from the audience about, you know, power over ethernet, intelligent designs. They shared best practices. They shared you know lessons learned. Okay, yeah, very cool.

Speaker 1: 26:40

I also sat in the the the standards power facilities workgroup meeting. That's out of my, that's out of my purview. I'm not an expert there, but the thing I did pick up is they're going to start talking about opgw. They're starting putting that in outside plant ground wire, um it's, it's doing fiber inside long haul high voltage transmission lines pretty, pretty cool stuff. And then I sat in the ict installation workgroup meeting um.

Speaker 1: 27:07

So, for example, I talked about Chuck Wilson earlier. He is the subject matter expert in charge for that plan and they're revising the N1, the N2, and N3 documents and they said they'll probably be done in I think he said probably early next year. But one of the things he said is they need experts. They need experts. So, mr Cat's Meow and anybody who has a desire, volunteer for this. If you've ever complained about how the Bixie books lack good information, this is your chance to put information in that book. It is, and you don't have to be in RCDD to participate. You don't. You don't even have to be a Bixie member to participate. Now you do have to be a Bixie member, I believe, to vote, if I remember right, but you can certainly participate and add content. So they're needing experts and they're looking for experts with field experience. Field experience.

Speaker 1: 28:19

I also, if you know me, I went to the exhibit hall. I love the exhibit hall but because so much was going on I didn't get a chance to see everything. But I did. The two things I took away from this is number one. I sat with Tom Jello. Tom Jello is from Softing right and he went through. He went through how to find and fix Neon Crosstalk. I recorded that. We'll have a video short. It'll be coming out probably within the next day or two or so.

Speaker 1: 28:52

Like I said, I did not have time to put that video together. I got the recordings on my phone, but I got it put together. And then I also stopped by the Trend Networks booth. Trend Networks came out with a brand-new qualifier. It's called the SignalTech QT and it can do copper. It can do copper, it can do fiber, it can do wireless. There's a lot of stuff this thing can do.

Speaker 1: 29:14

I did not have the opportunity to record a video there and the reason I didn't is because I didn't expect it to be as interesting as it was. My fault, my fault and I'm sorry, mike and Dan, but that thing is way more interesting than I thought it was. So what I did was I reached out to to mike. Uh, today after hey guys, I reached out to mike after I left to say, hey, look, can I, can we do a zoom call where I can record to talk about your new tester and put it on the show. He's like absolutely so. There will be a video recorded on that which talks about that stuff.

Speaker 1: 29:50

Now you're probably here because of the main event, so they had a keynote speaker. The keynote speaker guy the guy was his name was Matthew Griffin. He's really known for AI stuff, right, ai stuff, and he had a pretty, pretty scary thing to say right, pretty scary thing he's. One of the things he said was how ai is going to impact our industry. Now a lot of people say, well, chuck, ai is not going to take my job because I'm pulling cable. You know, wait, wait. But one of the things he said because he's known for doing his research he said that 67% of the workforce for low voltage, 67% of the low voltage workforce, is over the age of 40. Over the age of 40. And only 13% of the workforce is under the age of 30.

Speaker 1: 30:51

He also said in that same presentation that there are 9.9 million vacancies in the low-voltage industry, 9.9 million vacancies. And that includes everything from fiber deployment to telco, to infrastructure, us, point Gable. This is called 10 million, 10 million vacancies, 10 million vacancies, 10 million vacancies. There's a, there's a, there's a. This is hurt, it's hurt for, for skilled, qualified people. And then the thing that scared me the most, the thing that scared me the most he said in his presentation again.

Speaker 1: 31:25

Again, this guy is considered an expert in AI by people like NASA and a bunch of other places. Again, if you want to go find out more from him, his name is Matthew Griffin. I think his group is called 311 something or another In Japan. Listen to this carefully. Now in Japan, in a lab environment, they were able to build a prototype robot to pull and terminate cable. Let that sink in. They have a prototype robot that can pull and terminate cable in their simulated lab. Now, keep in mind, it's a simulated lab, so it's not going to have a real, real environment with construction sites and all that other stuff. It's a sterile environment and it's under very strict control.

Speaker 1: 32:12

But I'm telling you, if they have it now remember I told you earlier there's 10 million spots where we need people in this industry. Somebody like an Elon Musk is going to see that as an opportunity. People thought he was crazy when he built electrical cars. People thought he was crazy when he built electrical cars. People thought he was crazy when he came up with Starlink. I'm telling you, somebody like that's going to see that need. That's how sales work right. If there's a need, fill that need. If there's a need. We need 10 million people to pull, terminate and test cables and they already have a robot, a beta-type robot, that can pull terminating, test cable. It's just a matter of time before some smart entrepreneur grabs a hold of that and they start doing it in the field. It's just a matter of time, it's truly on.

Speaker 1: 33:00

So he also went on and talked about how other ways AI can impact our industry. He said it's going to help with the design and planning phases. It's going to help by helping designers reduce their errors so you have less projects that will go into red. It's going to help by speeding up the design and the planning process and both those tied together is going to make creating estimates and designs cheaper Cheaper. He said another way that's going to help impact our industry is automating compliance, so making sure that projects are installed by the standards, installed by the code. You're probably thinking, well, how's he going to do that?

Speaker 1: 33:40

I was talking to a peer at another event not the Bixie event, but another peer at another event and they were telling me that the general contractor had one of those robotic dogs. You know, you see him at the trade shows and stuff. He had one of those electronic dogs which had a 4K camera and literally, he had programmed it so it would walk around the job site and it would check things. It's just going to be a matter of time before you have automated QA inspections by some type of a dog robot or a person robot, whatever. And then also, finally, the last thing he said, he had scenario modeling, which is going to help simulate future changes in the industry and design practices. It's going to identify risk, which is one of the biggest things that you've got to watch out for in our industry. Risk is that's the thing that's going to come up and bite you and help us optimize installations.

Speaker 1: 34:41

And of all the things I preach about AI, about how it's going to impact our industry, I didn't have any of those. I didn't have any of those. I didn't have any of those. You know I've always said that you know AI is going to help us because we can, you know, write proposals faster and create, build materials faster and all that other stuff. I'm telling you this AI you need, you need to pay attention, you need to pay attention so you know they're not going to have that cable pulling robot out in the field tomorrow. But when you look at AI, the language learning models, and how fast they are getting smarter. It's coming sooner rather than later. Are you prepared for that? Are you prepared for that? Are you prepared for that? All right, so that's my show for tonight. I'm sorry I did not get to those two additional questions, because I'm looking at those questions and I'm already at 635. I've got to go to Lowe's.

Speaker 1: 35:42

When I flew out to Vegas for this conference, while I was flying out to Vegas, I broke my glasses. I broke my glasses. I broke my glasses, so I have to go over to Lowe's and get some new ones, because I wear special magnifiers. I wear. I was that old guy that was wearing broken glasses at the conference all week. Yeah, people were making fun of me, but you know what? Oh, I do want to say one more thing before I sign off. I want to say one more thing before I sign off. I want to say one more thing before I sign off.

Speaker 1: 36:12

Those conferences, bixie conferences, icew, infocom one of the biggest proponents of that is networking, getting to know people and meeting people. If you ever see me at one of those conferences, ever see me please come up and say hi to me. Please come up and talk to me. Don't be afraid to come talk to me. And the reason I'm saying this is because I had a guy. He read a dm to me through linkedin. He goes chalk. Yeah, I saw you at the conference.

Speaker 1: 36:46

I didn't want to come up to talk to you because you were surrounded by your groupies. What Groupies? No, I don't have groupies. I have friends. I have family in this industry, so they were friends. So, yeah, if you ever see me at a conference, please, please, please, come up and say hi to me. Okay, I'm there to network. I'm there to network, I'm there to meet people, and so don't be afraid to come and say hi. Be prepared, if you come up to me and you want to talk about cabling, I will talk your ears off. I will talk your ears off, but that's just a part of being me. Let's talk, let's talk, let's cable with pride In the world of ICT. Let's ride this tide. Thank you for joining us on let's Talk Cable and stay tuned for more episodes filled with innovation. Keep connecting, keep achieving. Until next time.