Reimagining BICSI Beyond 2025 with John Daniels

We sit down with BICSI’s CEO to unpack why the fall conference is being rebuilt around immersive learning, real-time feedback, and six convergence-focused tracks. The goal is simple: stronger outcomes for installers, designers, and PMs who need practical tools for an AI-driven, wireless-first, data-hungry world.

• Purpose and benefits of the BICSI Beyond redesign
• From passive sessions to interactive, debate-led formats
• Post-pandemic momentum and why change is urgent
• Talent shortage and workforce development priorities
• Six tracks: intelligent infrastructure, wireless, AI, AV and security, data centers, professional development
• Measuring success through live polling and surveys
• New CEC routes via volunteering and ethics training
• Investments in microlearning and the BICSI Navigator
• How veterans stay anchored while formats evolve
• Team attendance, synergy, and take-home impact

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Chapters

• 0:37 Welcome, Platforms, And CTAs
• 1:53 Live Streams And Community Access
• 3:13 At Vegas For BICSI Beyond 2025
• 4:30 Who BICSI Is And Why It Exists
• 6:38 Visibility, Safety, And Staff Experience
• 9:55 Why Remap The Fall Conference
• 12:46 From Sit-And-Get To Immersive Learning
• 16:38 Industry Momentum And Post-Pandemic Shift
• 19:07 Talent Shortage And Workforce Development
• 22:48 Evolving The Format While Anchoring Veterans
• 27:10 Measuring Success Through Attendee Feedback
• 30:45 Real-Time Polling And Multi-Channel Surveys
• 34:05 Six Tracks Centered On Convergence

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:37

Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by apprentices, installers, technicians, project managers, estimators, customers, even IT personnel, maybe even CIOs at healthcare facilities, maybe you never know. Where you're connecting at the human level, where we can connect the world. If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being created? 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 help us take on the algorithm so we can educate, encourage, and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry. Wednesday night, 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, what are you doing? You know, I do a live stream on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, everywhere I can figure out a way to push out a live stream to, where you get to ask your favorite RCDD questions on installation, design, project management. I even do career path questions. But I can hear you now. But check them back, my check it, Wednesday night at 6 p.m. I don't want to get into an accident. Relax. I record them and you can watch them at your convenience. And finally, while this show is free and will always remain free, if you find value in this content, would you click on that QR code right there? You can buy me a cup of coffee. You can even schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me after hours, of course. So, again, like I said, if you haven't figured out I'm not in the podcast studio, I'm at Vegas. I'm not a gambler, so I'm not here to gamble. I'm not here to do all the other stuff. I'm here for Bixie Beyond 2025. And I've got a special guest, a repeat guest on the show, John Daniels. John, how are you doing, my friend? Hey Chuck, how are you, man? Good to see you again, my friend. Good to see you again. Same here. So for the couple of people who don't know who Bixie is and who John Daniels is, give us the 50,000-foot view of who you are.

SPEAKER_02: 2:21

Yeah, so it that's easy. Bixie is a nonprofit professional association, and we're focused on advancing the ICT profession. That's what we're all about. Everything that we do is focused on the professionals, folks, people like you, the installers, the project managers. We're here to help you all be successful. Nice. And then in terms of me, John Daniels, I'm just the CEO of Bixie. So, but but my team, the the staff of Bixie do all the work and they make all the magic happen.

SPEAKER_01: 2:48

Yeah, I got here kind of early because I'm I'm always kind of I'd rather be, my dad's a Marine and he always taught me be 15 minutes early or you're five minutes late, son. So I got here, I got here early to set up the podcast here. I saw that y'all were doing your your picture over there. I was like, that's a that's a great that's a great bonding moment as a company. I like that.

SPEAKER_02: 3:04

That's one that's one of the I guess the uh sort of the backs, the back behind the scenes touches that we did, but it's focused specifically on staff, but it benefits the attendees as well. Oh, absolutely. I attended a bunch of the committee meetings yesterday and what and I actually was wearing one of the bright orange neon shirts, which is very, very bright. And um I let the committees know that hey, all of the staff are going to be wearing these neon colored, bright shirts. And while it's fun for us, it's also um helps them to point out who the staff are. So if they have questions, they have concerns, they have feedback they want to share, tell us how happy they are about how the conference is going, they'll be able to quickly spot out one of the staff members and be able to share that feedback with them.

SPEAKER_01: 3:46

I'm gonna give away one of my secrets. If I want to be spotted at an event like this, I usually wear a high viz shirt and says I stalk even on it. Yeah. Because you know, you know, it's worked last when in Bixie Orlando, in the main conference room where they do the keynotes, it's a huge room, you know, thousand, two thousand, three thousand seats, whatever it is. Yeah, uh I always sit in the front row because I want to be close because I'm I'm kind of ADHD. Yeah. And I want to be in the front row, and several people can be, yeah, I saw the shirt, it came up.

SPEAKER_02: 4:10

So yeah, they they call it high viz for a reason. They do, and and we're of course we're not the ones that invented that or or or recognize it. Just capitalizing on it. But we're capitalizing, capitalizing on it, of course. Um, but it's you know, it's I guess you could say it's it's a um recognition of the safety industry, right? Because that's really where I think it came out. Yep. And and um that could be another meaning behind the shirts is recognizing the safe the importance of safety within the industry as well.

SPEAKER_01: 4:38

And kind of raise that awareness and tell people, look, you need to take this, we're taking it seriously, so you should take it seriously.

SPEAKER_02: 4:44

And and and if you want some of those bright colored shirts, we have some in the Bixie store across the Oh I was over there yesterday.

SPEAKER_01: 4:50

I didn't see them. You must not have them out yet. May maybe not, but I did see them, so they're out there, yeah. Gotcha. So let's get to some straight talk, okay? The fall conference, you're re-mapping it, you're reinventing it. Why?

SPEAKER_02: 5:03

So the the Bixie Fall Conference has been a strong conference for many, many years. Uh 50, actually, right? And and uh it's done a lot to help people like you and others grow their careers, grow their professional knowledge, grow their their expertise in the field. Um, but it's been the same for a while. Things are changing. Bixie needs to change too. And so that's why we've been working very hard to reimagine the conference. We we've got a much broader vision. Um, we're going beyond the traditional, I use the word beyond, so you might hear that a few times in in my comments. Uh, but we're going beyond the traditional learning experience or the learning uh formats that that have been used in traditional Bixie conferences. And where we've moved towards a more immersive experience where we're involving the attendees more in the presentations than all the presentations just being a sit and get sort of situation where you sit down and you hear somebody talk and then you leave and go to the next one, right? So we we want to make sure that these are immersive. We're trying to elevate the experience of the conference. So that's why we're we're rethinking how we we do the formats, um, the learning formats in the conference. I think when we do that, it also helps us have a bigger impact on our mission, helping us to further advance the ICT profession. Because if we can get the audience involved, they're the ones that are going to go out and do all the work and um represent Bixie and the profession based on you know the work that they do. So I think they'll be able to have a bigger impact if they're able to engage with the speakers, engage with those who are doing the presentations, and um, and then it I think it helps with retention, right? So then they go home thinking, you know, we had to talk about that just last week at the Bixie conference, and so this is how a lot of other people are handling the handling this situation. So that's that's another reason. But I also think it creates a stronger community, it gets people engaged with each other, they're debating at a table on a particular, you know, set of solutions, and we'll talk about that in a minute, of course. Uh, but I think it brings the professionals together, brings the Bixie community together or the profession together. And so that's another big reason why we wanted to. That's right.

SPEAKER_01: 7:16

That does two things, right? And number one, it helps build up tolerances that people have different opinions than you.

SPEAKER_04: 7:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:21

And two, it also makes you know, you realize that there are other people who think the same way as you, so you realize you're not the only one out there that's thinking, hey, this is not the right way.

unknown: 7:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:30

So it does both of those.

SPEAKER_02: 7:32

That debates are really, really great ideas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're excited about it. In terms of the timing, I I think one of the things you were asking about was why now? You know, it's it's because look what's happening in the industry. It's evolving and it's evolving quickly. Bixie lights, big seed light exactly it beyond the speed of light. Bixe needs to evolve as well. I mean, we can't continue to do uh the same formats and have the same, you know, sort of uh conference experience that we've had for 50 years because it's not contributing to advancing the ICT profession and helping the professionals grow. So we have to evolve with it, and this is one of the ways that we're trying to evolve. We're also trying to capitalize on that post-pandemic momentum.

SPEAKER_01: 8:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 8:18

All of a sudden, within within the pandemic, people are required or were relying or dependent on sort of the ICT infrastructure to provide um education access for the kids who weren't able to go to school because they closed all the schools. Um, companies to be able to continue working, like Bixie, who before the pandemic, everything was hands-on, everything was live, everything was in person. Uh, Bixie too was impacted by that. And so fortunately, we are the uh association for the ICT infrastructure, and and we very quickly pivoted. And so we're continuing to build on that on that momentum of depending on infrastructure. And I think um there's so much more we could do with that, and that's one of the reasons, again, another reason why we're doing it now, because we think we can impact the industry more by being able to change how we do things.

SPEAKER_01: 9:07

And one of the things I've I've heard, because I've sat in several committee meetings myself over the oh yesterday, actually, and you know, it's been identified more than once, and hence the the the whole reason for the podcast is you know, we're aging out. So that's another good reason for changing it because what might attract the the 50, the 60, the the 70-year-olds, the people with 30, 40, 50 years experience is not gonna attract the the 22-year-old fresh in the industry. So and I think it's I think I think it's a great idea that you change it. What what two specific problems were you trying to solve with the whole revamping of beyond Bixie?

SPEAKER_02: 9:43

Um I would say obviously the the industry is facing some significant challenges. One of those is being uh talent shortage. So workforce development is a big initiative within Bixie, and we've got a few things that are sort of boiling or baking in the background to address that head on. Uh things that I can't really speak to specifically right now, uh, but I'm very excited about some of the initiatives that we're gonna be undertaking in the near future. And um we're using the conference platform to help us uh educate folks or inform others about the opportunities that are out there for Bixie to be in the middle of that, building that talent, building the workforce. We're focusing on our program triangle, which is the standards and the training and the public and the certifications. And so we're trying to use those platforms as well as here at the conference to um upskill, help people upskill, help people advance their their capabilities and evolve as well, because it's not gonna be the same. You know, the the design work, the installation work, and and the project management work is not gonna be the same a few years from now based on the evolution of AI and the other technologies out there and on the convergence of all these systems that are connecting to the network. So we want to make sure that we're helping to build the talent, make sure that there's a talent-ready force out there, workforce out there to be able to jump in and and implement and solve and and uh address those those evolving needs that that uh are being placed on the and demands that are being placed on the industry.

SPEAKER_01: 11:20

You know, as as we get older, we become less acceptable of change, right? So you're changing the whole format of the fall conference. What are you still doing to make the the veterans who've been coming to the fall conference still feel anchored here?

SPEAKER_02: 11:37

That's a good question. I think for the veterans, as we talked about earlier, we've been doing the conference the same way for 50 years, generally speaking. Sit and get, you come to the conference, you hear information, and then you go home. What we're trying to do is make this event more immersive. So we're trying to give the veterans a different experience. We're trying to give them a more experiential opportunity to not only listen, but actually to engage in conversations with the presenters, with the SMEs, about, hey, you just said this, but you know, when the work that I do, that's really not how it goes, or this is how we've solved that problem. And others that are sitting around, other veterans that are sitting around the table with them, uh, it gives them the opportunity to engage in that conversation with the people at the table and with the presenter, all in this new format that we that we're presenting. And there's there's two or three different formats that sort of uh provide that those opportunities, right? And and so I think from from a veteran's perspective, it's it's gonna be a different learning experience. And um I I expect, I hope to hear positive feedback from that. That's my next question. Because I think good, because I because I think that um if I was a veteran coming to a Bixie conference, I've been coming to the conferences now for five years. Uh not only because I have to, because I've enjoyed it very much. And it's fun watching the team and the attendees get together and and and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00: 13:08

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SPEAKER_01: 13:55

Listen, let's talk about this. After the lights are turned off and all of the stuff is packed in the pack in their boxes to be shipped back to Tampa and everybody catches their plane, rides home. How's Bixie going to measure whether this event was successful or not compared to previous conferences?

SPEAKER_02: 14:12

That's actually an easy question. It's all going to be measured by attendee feedback. Plain and simple attendee feedback. I told a lot of the committees yesterday when they were meeting is that we really want your feedback. This is the inaugural Bixie Beyond Conference, where we're presenting these new formats and presenting new ways of delivering content and elevating the learning experience. We want to know if it works. We want to know if if after this is all said and done, we want to know if they actually were able to gain something new or take back something that they haven't necessarily taken away from previous conferences that they've been to. So it's all going to be dependent on attendee feedback. Now we may have some you know numerical metrics or something that we're measuring internally, but that's not as important as the attendee feedback because their feedback is what's going to shape what the next Beyond Conference is going to look like next year.

SPEAKER_01: 15:07

That was my next question. Is it going to be a next one? And then how how are these surveys going to be collected? Are they are they going to go through the app or are you going to email to people who registered afterwards? What's the mechanism there?

SPEAKER_02: 15:20

Yes, and yes, and some other ways. Okay. So yes, uh we'll we'll continue to do the the post-conference surveys where we're wanting to get feedback from not only the attendees but the the sponsors and exhibitors who help make this happen. So we're trying to make their experience as meaningful as well as as it is for the attendees. So we'll continue to do those email surveys after the fact. Um we will also have some online surveys uh through the app that I'm that they'll be able to take as they take a session. Uh but we're introducing a new technology. Not a new technology, but for us, it's new to us because we haven't really used it before. And it's um using real-time data collection through Slido. And I'm you're probably from what? You familiar with Slido? No, okay. I've heard the name, but so it's it's like a polling uh application where in the middle of a session the speakers may say, you know what, tell me what you think. I'm gonna ask this question and you answer this live. Go to them or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01: 16:21

I don't know how it can would compare to Zoom, but it basically. Yeah, where they they they they put up a screen and you you know the the speaker will ask you a question, there's like four responses, and you it comes up in your phone and you've got to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 16:35

Yeah, it's just like it's live, it's uh real time. Gotcha. And uh we're we've we've integrated that into the conference, not only for the general sessions, but we're we're we're testing it out in some of the for some of the uh concurrent sessions as well. Nice. And that will give us some immediate feedback uh on how those particular sessions, maybe the learning formats, uh the keynote speakers, or what have you. So that's another way that we're gathering that attendee feedback. And then, of course, with all the bright colored shirts of uh that the staff are wearing around the conference, they their ears are gonna be perked up. They're they're gonna be listening and they're gonna be gathering sort of that anecdotal, those anecdotal comments as they're interacting with the attendees and the exhibitors and what have you. And then, of course, we um we put our board to work as well. So we've got our board members walking around asking questions, finally earning our pay. Exactly. And if they do a good job this year, we'll double their pay. There you go.

unknown: 17:32

There you go.

SPEAKER_02: 17:33

But there's many ways that we're gathering that that feedback, and like, and again, just to sum it all up, it really comes down to the attendee experience. We're trying to elevate that experience, we're trying to give them an experience that makes them walk away saying, Holy cow, I'm glad I came to this because I'm taking this back home because I'm working on this project, and and I've and and this is gonna help me accelerate the work that I'm doing there or make it better or make it stronger or whatever. And then I'm gonna tell my friends, you got to go to Bixie Beyond next year because it was incredible. Right. So, so that's that's what's gonna tell us whether or not what we've done it works.

SPEAKER_01: 18:07

Yeah. I I just got a uh a message like literally like two weeks ago at the Orlando event. I had somebody come help me with the podcast because I just had too much stuff going on. And he went and did the tour over at the airport. Oh, yeah. And he he called me two weeks ago and he goes, Chuck, thank you so much for getting help helping me do that. He says, I now have the opportunity to go to my airport and relay the stuff that I saw for potential work. Yeah, you know, and that's that's exactly what you know this stuff's for. So you guys teased out there's uh six educational things that are gonna be going on. Give us a 50,000 foot view. What are they?

SPEAKER_02: 18:42

So the different formats, or are you talking about the six tracks that we have? The six tracks. The six tracks. Okay. Um, I I brought along my our our new wonderfully designed, completely different conference program.

SPEAKER_01: 18:57

You do the gotta do the van of white. So this is that's the thumbnail right there.

SPEAKER_02: 19:02

This is amazing. The team has really gone beyond what we've expected of. There's a word again, beyond and and done an outstanding job on this program. There's so many new, even the program, we talk about interaction. Right. The program is also an interactive tool that that attendees can use. So we have six tracks. The six tracks are color-coded. Uh, and that allows the attendees to be able to say, okay, I want to go to all the blue ones, right? So I'm just gonna look at the blue ones, and then when they attend that session, they can check it off. Gotcha and say, Well, this is the session that I went to, and and here's what I learned out of. So it'll help reinforce sort of that that learning experience and and maybe uh I think bring help them to be able to take something home with them. So the six tracks that we've focused on at this particular conference, which the theme of this conference is convergence. As you know, there's a lot of convergence happening. Everything's being connected to the network and becoming more and more dependent on the network and the infrastructure that that makes it work, right? So all six tracks are really focused on that convergence, but in different on different topics, different areas. Uh, intelligent infrastructure advancements. That's a big one. And so all of the topics that are related to that, as well as the other ones, um, they may be different presentations, but their the content or the topic feeds into that overarching uh track theme. We also have wireless innovations, uh, AI transforming business. Everybody's talking about AI. You can't go to a conference these days without hearing something about AI. It's just as applicable in our industry as it is anywhere else because AI is not going to work without us. That's right. Right? So we're we're trying to upskill, we're trying to inform those about how AI is impacting the designers and the installers and the project managers and others that are peripheral to or adjacent to uh our uh industry. Um AI transforming business, A V and security integration. Again, that's that's a big one where you've got convergence happening. Um optimizing data centers. Everybody's hearing so much about the boom of data centers, and the boom of data centers is in large part being driven by the demand for AI and and the evolution of AI and how it's continuing to evolve and getting more uh I don't even know what word to use. It's just incredible to watch the advancement of AI. Now they're talking, you know, agentic AI. We started with uh gener um generative AI. Now we're going to agentic AI, and eventually we'll have uh artificial generative intelligence, AGI, which is I mean, people are starting to do that now, right? So um you can't do that without the infrastructure. So optimizing data centers, uniting limited energy for uh the industry evolution. The electrical trade and the ICT trade have been sort of we're we're we're we're step brothers.

SPEAKER_01: 21:56

Exactly. We're step brothers. We we we we like each other, we love each other, we won't let somebody else pick on each other. Yeah, but we fight amongst each other a lot.

SPEAKER_02: 22:05

I need to go back and watch that movie again because that's a that may be a good description. Yes, but anyway, we're we understand and we recognize that that that is a um I don't want to say a contentious point, but it but it's a point of convergence between two trades, and we're each trying to kind of feel our way through that. We want to uh facilitate the conversation between both trades. We wanna we don't want to fall down on a specific position on one side or the other. We're trying to pull people together to have those conversations, and I think that lends itself well to the new formats that we put in place to allow them to be able to have the conversations at the table, have the individuals have conversations with the speakers, and and just increase our knowledge and understanding of what that convergence means and sort of get a feel for maybe where it's going in the future. Uh so that's that's the other one. And the last one is professional development. Uh, and related to all of these things, as designers, as installers, as project managers, it's it's incumbent upon them to educate themselves on how the industry is evolving. How's AI gonna affect my ability to run cable, run fiber, or what have you? How how is AI gonna affect my work in terms of designing um projects or what have you, even project managers, right? So it's gonna affect them all. And so they need to have a pathway to be able to upskill themselves and to understand how AI and these evolving technologies are gonna impact the work that they're doing on a day-to-day basis, and that's the professional development track to help them through that process. So those are the six tracks at a very high level. There's obviously several sessions within each, and each of them obviously point back to the to the topic.

SPEAKER_01: 23:54

I'm gonna tell you something. I'm I hope that you and your team don't think less of me. I haven't even opened up the book yet in my bag because I'm so used to so many years of just being the same thing. Yeah, I haven't even opened it up yet.

SPEAKER_04: 24:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 24:06

So now you don't have to go look yet.

SPEAKER_02: 24:09

Well, you have to at least pull it out and feel the nice soft cover. Yes. Yes. And see the beautiful colors inside that you never saw before. Right, right, right. Again, the team went beyond and did it.

SPEAKER_01: 24:18

And a lot of people don't realize I do being an instructor, is you know, color is more engaging and people tend to pay attention to more, but it also costs more money. You know, as a but I just put that out there because I one of the things I hear all the time is, you know, Bixie's only out for money. No, they're investing it back in things like this and training and everything else and personal development and the all that people don't see the backside of that. And that they're just short of sight when they say that.

SPEAKER_02: 24:40

We're very fortunate as as you've heard us uh talk about how Bixie has come to a point in its life that we're we are uh more we're we are financially sound in how do how do how do I put this? Our financial status is the best it's been in the history of the organization at this point, right? And so that's how we're able to begin to pour that back into the organization to deliver a much better, a much elevated experience to the attendees, to the members. So it's not just on the conferences where we're making these investments, we're making investments in the membership program for both individuals and corporate members. We're making investments in uh how we deliver our training, uh micro training, for example, micro certification. Micro learning is huge. Micro learning, absolutely. So we've already begun launching some of those uh micro training classes and the certifications or the certificates to go with it. So we've invested in that. Uh we're investing in our standards and publications programs, we're investing in um our infrastructure specifically within Bixie, right? So not only does the industry need to evolve and you're putting in new cabling at Bixie? We we are not necessarily putting in new cabling because they just did a renovation of the building back in 2019. I thought they did the one or two long ago, which is still looking great, although, you know, I'd like to have some nice furniture someday, but I'm just kidding. Um we we're we're investing in Bixie's infrastructure. So I don't know if you've seen it yet, but Bixie Navigator. So it's a it's a new platform for members and corporate members and credential holders to use to track their own progress. And uh we've already come out with the first two versions of Bixie Navigator. We're about to come out with version three, adding more features that are focused on uh the corporate members and their ability to manage the benefits that they get as a as a Bixie corporate member. Uh and and this is just version one. So we got version two already in the works for for next year. Right. Uh, but we're investing in that infrastructure because if we're not able to support our members, support our our corporate members, support our credential holders uh as effectively and efficiently uh as we can, then we're not doing we're not doing our jobs. We're not we're not doing you all service. Right, right. And so we're trying to uh elevate or or or uh modernize our infrastructure to to be able to do a much better job and to make it easier for people to engage with Vixie and to get the learning that they need, to access the credentials that they need, to get the continuing education credits that they need. Um we're we're coming out with a new policy on that.

SPEAKER_01: 27:36

So so this wasn't one of my pre-arranged questions, and I promise I'm not trying to blow up the city. It's okay. It's okay. You mentioned you you mentioned it the last time you talked about that you were revamping that process. And then I sat in a couple of committee meetings. You can you said the same thing that it's uh can't are you are you familiar enough with or confident enough with to kind of give us a high level what's changed with the yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 27:58

Absolutely. We've been working on this for a while. Uh we recognized in the beginning that um it's hard to get CECs, especially for the global members, because uh for those who are RCDDs, it comes with, you know, the renewal comes with the required conference credit, right? And um it's been very difficult, particularly during COVID, yeah, when you couldn't attend conferences face-to-face anymore. So it was in COVID basically when we started thinking about how do we how do we improve that process? How do we improve or or um create uh more accessible, more accessibility for gaining CECs and getting those the CECs that you need to continue um renewing your credential and to stay up to date on you know the latest and greatest trends and that sort of thing. So what we've ended up with now is a a new credential holder recertification policy, and included in that policy are new CEC earning opportunities. So, for example, if you volunteer at Vixie on one of the committees as an SME or you're a chair or or in whatever capacity, if you're a member of a committee, a voting member of a committee, and you're volunteering on that, um, you will get CECs for that.

SPEAKER_01: 29:14

Oh, very cool. Yeah. If you um that needs to be that needs to be broadcasted from the top of the mountain. Because A, we need more volunteers, yeah. And B, one of the biggest, biggest hurdles that credential people have is because they're busy, they're running projects and family life, and it's you know, getting their CECs and and it and unfortunately, I've heard it more than once because people reach out to me because I'm a trainer in my day job. Chuck, I got uh 30 days left, I don't need CECs, what do you got for me? Yeah, yeah, so that's that's huge.

SPEAKER_02: 29:43

It is, and and that's just one way. So being a volunteer, and you know, to your point, when you volunteer for Big C, you're helping us write the standards. Yes, you're helping us write the technical manuals and the best practices. That means you're contributing your expertise to this, which tells us. Us, you have the expertise and the updates that we're making to each of the standards, you're the volunteers are doing that for us. Yes. So they need to get credit for having that knowledge and having that expertise. So that's why it just makes perfect sense to give them CEC credit for contributing back to Bixie and back to the industry by keeping helping us keep our standards and manual.

SPEAKER_01: 30:20

You offer to double the salary of the board of directors. How about doubling the salary of the volunteers?

SPEAKER_02: 30:27

Done. Done. Nice. Nice, nice. All right. But that's just one of the ways that that we're adding to the policy that allows you to get more CECs. The other thing that we've added to it is uh ethics training. So when you renew your credential, you're gonna be required to get at least one CEC from ethics training. Okay. As professionals, we need to act like professionals. And and Bixie in the past hasn't traditionally had any training on ethics. We've had our code of ethics and professional obligations for a long time, which I know everybody takes seriously. And uh the credential holders have to agree to abide by that before they before we give them the certificate, right? Um but now we want you to demonstrate that expertise by going taking the training and and passing the exam. Or it's not an exam, it's like it's built into the training. It's not it's not that difficult. But we want to keep ethics in sort of in the in the forefront, if you will, for everybody who represents Bixie with the credential that you've got on your shirt or on your you know your signature line on a plan or what have you. Um so we're requiring, we're going to require uh credential holders to obtain at least one CEC during a three-year uh certification cycle.

SPEAKER_01: 31:44

That that's so when we say ethics training, it does have to be Bixie ethics training? BCX ethics training.

SPEAKER_02: 31:50

We've actually created an ethics training course that's built on uh and based on our code of ethics of professional athletes.

SPEAKER_01: 31:57

It's free or is there is there charging?

SPEAKER_02: 31:58

It's free. Nice for now. No, it's free. Uh so it's it's and it's really important, but that's another way to get a CEC. Right. And and there's other ways to get CECs beyond what what they've traditionally been able to get. So that's that's the changes that are coming, and it's actually going to be coming pretty soon.

SPEAKER_01: 32:17

All right, you ready for a lightning round? Let's do it. Five quick questions, quick answers. All right, here we go. What's the first stop for a newcomer coming to the event? Uh the member village. Like that.

SPEAKER_02: 32:30

And and there's two reasons why they need to go to the member village is because one, uh, if they're not a member, they need to sign up. Because there are a lot of benefits that they get for being a member and it and it pays to be a member. And two, if you're due for renewal, get it done. You might get a discount if you do it here at the conference. Yeah, there you go. There you go. So the member village is definitely the first place they need to visit. Second one after registration, of course.

SPEAKER_01: 32:55

There you go. Second one, um, what debate topic is going to spark useful arguments?

SPEAKER_02: 33:02

Should limited or must limited integrators, limited energy integrators be licensed.

SPEAKER_01: 33:14

I could do a I could do a month's worth of shows on that one. A month worth of shows. Right, right, right. Yeah. What's what's the best reason for someone not to take a teammate or a peer to the next Bix Beyond event? Because I know there's gonna be one 2026.

SPEAKER_02: 33:28

Oh yeah. Uh there's power in numbers, Chuck. Yes. There's power in numbers. You can bring your colleagues with you. I've seen I've seen whole teams come together, and what I've heard from them is that they get more done together as a team in terms of team building and working on specific projects that are that are hot right now. Uh they get more done by coming together and working together and sitting at those roundtables together, having those conversations as a team. So there's power in numbers.

SPEAKER_01: 34:03

There's a synergy. A synergy in the city. 100%. And the beautiful thing too is when you go with when you go to events with people, you both two people can sit in the exact same event, hear the exact same speaker, say the exact same thing, and they're gonna come with two different things. And when they talk about it, they get a deeper understanding of that.

SPEAKER_02: 34:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 34:19

So that's that's that's great.

SPEAKER_02: 34:20

That's why I like to surround myself with people like you and and my my leadership team because they bring a completely different perspective and they keep me out of trouble. John, I appreciate your time. Thank you, Chuck, and thank you for supporting the Bixby on conference. My pleasure being here to spread the words. Do what I do, spread the word, do what you do. Right. Knowledge is power, man.

SPEAKER_01: 34:39

Oh, you know that's gonna be you know that's gonna be an audience.