Shane McCarthy, Daikin Ireland with Graham Wright, Daikin UK and John O’Shaughnessy, Daikin Ireland
Formal presentations were brief and focussed, the content and delivery style designed to educate, and to stimulate thought, ideas and discussion. They were also quite diverse and covered everything from nZEB through to innovative product development, new refrigerant gases and related legislation, and heat pump and boiler evolution.
The common theme throughout the day was Design Thinking, and Daikin had engaged a team of professionals in this field to coordinate the proceedings. While Design Thinking is now a very sophisticated concept that is being applied more and more across all business sectors, this was a first for a building services-related event in Ireland. Rather than dwell on the academic explanation of what Design Thinking entails, suffice to say that the embodiment of what it means is in the name … it literally does do – and did at this event – what it says on the tin.
From when delegates arrived they were encouraged to engage in a simple but very effective process that involved putting thoughts and ideas on post-its. These were then collected and collated and used to further stimulate and engage the delegates over the coffee breaks, the lunch, and finally for the final workshop session.
Here delegates divided into teams of five and “brain-stormed’ to come up with ideas, concepts and initiatives that could be rolled out to the public at large to explain the social, health, energy and lifestyle benefits of the products and systems now being introduced by the industry. On completion of this exercise a representative from each team had to present their idea to everyone present. Delegates then voted to select the best idea with the winning team securing a stay at Cliff at Lyons.
The whole concept worked extremely well with delegates seamlessly engaging and participating in the process, and with some excellent results. Even more beneficial is that, while the day itself came to a conclusion, Daikin regards it merely as the start of a process. The findings and suggestions from the day are currently being collated and evaluated, and they will shortly be shared online and through similar functions that will see the Daikin-led Home Energy Innovators Forum concept develop and grow.