Only two guests today, our new exchange student Yahel and our Guest Speaker, Henry Franc.

 

Yahel gave a repot on her activities for the last 2 weeks. She had a lot to report and despite writing as fast as I could, I didn’t catch everything. She went to Niagara Falls with Karmel where she also sampled Niagara fruit; she went on an orientation weekend to Woodstock; she has been going to school which she says is different than that in Switzerland and is not sure which she likes best; she witnessed a dragon boat race; she also spent time at Owen’s house. She would like to organize an evening of games with club members. She will give us more information on this shortly.

 

Terry Sedore introduced Henry today but before the meeting he sent out the following notice:  Henry Franc is a Technology Solutions Architect acting as a trusted advisor to end-users as well as the professional community.  In this role he provides technical, operational, planning and design support from a premises and enterprise perspective; focusing not just on products but on business drivers across verticals and geographies.

 

 

My first reaction was –OMG why did I have to be scribe today?  I probably won’t understand what this guy is saying. However his talk was just the opposite – as he said that he tries to help who feel trapped by technology and buzzwords. He used as an example – his mother who has Alzheimer’s Disease and her fear of technology.  He also used his experience when the Toronto Airport was in the planning stage of its expansion. During the meeting of the various trades, it was announced that their focus should be on the objective of moving people and baggage as efficiently as possible.

 

He used another example of a hospital where sometimes technology clouds what we are trying to do when our basic need is clinical care. The hospital staff has to articulate their needs. Technology helps us to achieve our goals in meeting our clinical care objectives. Don’t be pushed onto something if it doesn’t meet your need. He backtracked to his mother with dementia who lives in a one bedroom apartment. She doesn’t need a cell phone if she has a landline.

 

He also talked about some of the buzzwords being used – IoT  - internet of things where there is an increasing connection of devices – now more than there are people in the world; 5G – future faster cellular system but not available yet;  AI – artificial Intelligence; and Smart Cities which are interconnected with all facets of their operation. If you are interested here is a brief blog article on the focus of his presentation:  https://www.belden.com/blog/smart-building/technology-buzzwords-fit-form-function .

 

To conclude, he cautioned us to – make decisions right for you; don’t get what you don’t need and don’t be snowed by technology buzzwords.

Kathleen O’Connor thanked the speaker for his interesting presentation.