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Stanford University: Developing Talent for Smart Building Strategies

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Stanford University is considered one of the top universities in the world and for good reason. This institution has fueled the innovation that has created some of the world's leading technology companies including HP, Intel, Cisco, Google, PayPal, Netflix and others. With Stanford's extraordinary focus on breakthrough innovation, it is easy to understand how their Real Estate and Facilities Group has also embraced technology to leverage how they run their smart campus and, in many respects, their smart city.

In this October's Video Showcase, Gerry Hamilton, Stanford University's Director of Facilities Energy Management, discusses the status of their smart campus strategy. He talks about the importance of continued technical education for facilities engineers, IT / OT organizational alignment, leveraging multi-departmental resources, and using creativity to fulfill advanced staffing needs in a time of fast-changing building technologies.

Hamilton shares four approaches to developing human resource talent to achieve a smart campus vision:

(1) Take a deep dive into the IT and OT partnership. There's no single IT Blackbox, so a lot of people are responsible for IT and OT success. Knowing your entire team creates opportunities for new synergies and specializations. It also identifies where efforts can be saved and work outsourced.

(2) Bring your entire facilities management team along for the smart campus ride. Everyone gets their hands dirty. They buy in and understand that learning new technology may lead to redefining job descriptions in a new paradigm. Give everyone the opportunity to grow, from IT professionals to HVAC, plumbers and electricians.

(3) Partner with the HR department. When HR understands that a new set of skills is required for a building automation system, they get enthused and come up with great ideas. HR knows how to develop, get and retain talent.

(4) Always remember your people are your solutions; invest in them.

Keep current with industry insights and trends from around the world. The Realcomm | IBcon Video Showcase is a monthly feature of curated interviews selected from our Conference LIVE Video Library. Learn how Commercial and Corporate Real Estate organizations implement new technology, fail fast to improve, build innovative teams, connect buildings and neighborhoods and manage cyber hacks and security attacks.

Check out other Realcomm videos on YouTube

These topics and more will be discussed at CoRE Tech 2019, the leading conference on technology, automation and innovation for the Corporate Real Estate and Facilities Industry. The event will be held on Nov. 13-15 in Silicon Valley. Register today!

Realcomm Staff Realcomm Conference Group LLC is the leading research and educational institution that produces annual conferences and expositions on technology, automated business solutions and intelligent buildings strategies for executives in commercial, corporate, government and institutional real estate. Realcomm was founded in 1999 with the goal of bringing industry leaders together each year to discuss, demonstrate and debate the latest innovations that impact the industry.

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