The conference was held at the new Darwin Convention Centre on 11-15 May and the attendees included 106 C-Bus pointOne and C-Bus Platinum Partners as well as Clipsal staff. These members represent the best of the best C-Bus home automation and Commercial systems integrators from around Australia. They took the time away from their work and paid for their own flights to attend.

The five-day conference was the longest C-Bus event in Clipsal’s history and for good reason. There was an enormous level of activity, discussion and presentations to get through.

“The concept behind the conference was to bring together Clipsal’s VIP customers in one place,” said Simon Wehr, ISC Sector Manager Residential.

“We introduced them to the very latest C-Bus innovations, technical knowledge and training. We aimed to inspire them with lateral marketing strategies, to look at complementing technologies and to network and share ideas, which they did.”

Business development was high on the agenda and attendees were introduced to the new C-Bus Wiser home controller and C-Bus Platinum Partner programme as well as the latest Clipsal product offerings from Clipsal Data Communications. Clipsal also opened the floor to other brands within the Schneider Electric group including Moduline, Vieo and Pelco. Outside companies with strong relationships with Clipsal and offering products to complement C-Bus, names such as CISCO and Switch Automation also presented to the audience.

Highlight of the conference was the guest speaker appearance by Rich Green, former Executive Vice President of Software, Sun Microsystems.

“Rich is regarded as a technology god in the United States. He enthralled everyone for two and half hours, preaching the message of how we adapt to technology and how we as providers, can implement technology to change the way our customers feel. He said our ultimate goal should be ‘to create one button that does all."

Attendees were unanimous in their praise of the event, high calibre of presentations and networking opportunities.

“Everything was perfect. Even the venue had C-Bus installed in it. Many of the attendees told us it was the best conference they had ever attended.”

Stephen Cooper of InTechSys, a C-Bus installer since 1997, said the conference was the “best ever” in his involvement in the industry.

“I’m usually apprehensive about attending any conference, usually for the time that it takes me away from work, but I made it known to everyone on the last day that this was the best ever conference I had been to.

“The content and the other companies we were introduced to really made me feel that Clipsal was thinking outside the square.

“I’ve been in the home automation industry for some time but I learned things from Rich Green, about the world we’re living in and what we can offer our customers, that I feel as though I have been underselling myself.

“Rich enlightened us about the next generation of customers and their expectations and technology habits that I just wasn’t aware of – including my own teenage son.”

Based on the successful outcome and feedback, Clipsal Australia plans to make the C-Business Conference a yearly event.