The Smart Buildings Exchange (SBX) Fall 2025 Conference brought together a diverse audience spanning building owners, operators, utilities, engineers, policymakers, and solution providers for an afternoon packed with honest conversation and forward-looking inspiration. This year felt different — more urgent, more collaborative, and grounded in a shared sense that smart, efficient, decarbonized buildings are no longer a niche pursuit; they’re the backbone of a modern, resilient energy system.
For Building Operator Certification (BOC) graduates, the day began with a credential maintenance Lunch & Learn sponsored by Seattle City Light and Puget Sound Energy. This event didn’t just sell out — it was a packed, standing-room-only space filled with innovative facilities staff. Representatives from City Light and PSE were on hand to deliver valuable insights on available utility programs and incentives to help buildings comply with regional and statewide performance and emissions standards. The energy was collaborative, reminding us of all the benefits that come from peer-to-peer communities like BOC’s.
After a brief networking interlude, SBX 2025 attendees were ushered into the beautiful Harbor Room at Bell Harbor Conference Center, which sported sweeping views of a moody Puget Sound and would-be Olympics were it not for the fall weather. Robb Andrade, President of the Smart Buildings Center (SBC) Board of Directors and Managing Director of Overcast Innovations, called the conference to order, welcoming attendees and charging the audience to lean into the day’s conversations and to support the nonprofit SBC in whatever manner possible. He then welcomed Bert Van Hoof, CEO of Willow, to deliver the Opening Remarks.
Bert spoke about the massive opportunity and promise of operational AI, describing how it dissolves previous limitations of smart buildings, drives down the cost to deploy them, and improves their ROI. He showed how AI now lets us quantify the value of smart-building investments by measuring previously “soft” impacts like productivity. Bert set a tone that was both pragmatic and optimistic — a reminder that AI-enabled building management isn’t theoretical; it’s actively unfolding.
Bert was followed by our keynote speaker, Ash Awad, President and Chief Market Officer at McKinstry. Ever the dynamic and charming speaker, Ash delivered a talk that wove together the big themes shaping the industry today: decarbonization, electrification, grid-interactive efficient buildings, and the urgent demand to accelerate the pace of change. He spoke of the tremendous accomplishments the Pacific Northwest has achieved in drafting some of the leading national climate and clean buildings policies — such as the Clean Energy Transformation Act, the Clean Buildings Law, and the Climate Commitment Act — but admonished the region for stalling on implementation right when we need to put the pedal to the floor. Multiple attendees commented later that his inspirational remarks helped “pull the day together,” surfacing practical next steps while also acknowledging that structural challenges can’t be solved in silos.
After a networking break, the conference was reconvened for two afternoon panels. The first examined the current state of the buildings industry, tackling topics such as challenges to complying with building performance standards, what’s missing from utility incentive programs, and how successful buildings manage to lean into smart technology while still managing their costs. The second panel showcased successful deployments of smart technologies such as advanced sensing and controls, virtual reality, operational AI, and grid-interactive building technologies.
Juan Carlos Blacker, Commercial Whole Building Lead at the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, closed out the presenter portion of the day, summarizing lessons learned and noting the glaring absence of small and mid-sized commercial buildings in the discussions — something we hope to remedy in 2026!
Attendees then joined together to listen to the lively jazz band —Bossa in Wonderland— while mingling over appetizers (including a burger bar!) and drinks. The atmosphere was both energizing and celebratory, with attendees engaging in thoughtful conversations about the day’s sessions, exchanging contacts for future collaboration, exploring solutions to shared challenges, and already imagining the debates and content they hope to see at SBX 2026. Throughout the afternoon, attendees mingled with solution providers, innovators, and long-time colleagues. Several commented that the in-person format was welcome, and everyone wished there were more time to network. We heard you!
The Smart Buildings Center is a nonprofit organization driven by a mission to accelerate the adoption of smart building practices and technologies through education and demonstration. We believe the smarter use of technology and practices in the built environment will enable a smarter, cleaner, and more productive future for everyone — and we know smart buildings are essential to the clean energy transition. Our sponsors allow us to keep our programming low cost and often free, which we believe leads to a more inclusive and therefore impactful audience. Each of us plays an important role in achieving this vision. Thank you to our sponsors, and thank you to all of you who attended the event and/or keep up with our updates!
We have begun work to develop an exciting 1+ day in-person event in Fall 2026 in Seattle — stay tuned (or reach out if you’d like to be involved) for the date announcement and registration details. Our year-round SBX Virtual conference program kicks off in February of 2026 with the following six webinars planned for the year.
All webinars will be held from 11am-12pm PT and registration details will be available in December 2026.
- February 18th: Thermal Energy Networks as a Driver for Building Decarbonization
- March 18th: Artificial Intelligence, Fault Detection & Diagnostics for Predictive Maintenance
- April 15th: How to Utilize Diagnostic Tools to Identify Energy Savings
- May 20th: Efficient Energy Management with ISO 50001
- September 16th: Retrocommissioning as a Tool for Compliance with Building Performance Standards
- October 14th: Cybersecurity for Smart Buildings
A huge thank-you to everyone who traveled, presented, asked questions, stayed for the happy hour, and helped carry the conversation forward. It was a joy to share the day with you and a delight to see how large and strong our community has become.
See you in 2026!
