EuropeOn is happy to announce the return of the Installers’ Summit, organised with GCP Europe, the European voice of the efficient building engineering services. As in previous years, this will be the opportunity to exchange and learn about the most salient debates and trends for the European installation sector, for both mechanical and electrical installers. While the last Installers’ Summit took place in Montreux in 2019, when in-person conferences were still possible, we have decided to bring you another edition this year, albeit in an online format. We will have two sessions of about 90 minutes each with speakers from both associations and from EU institutions.
Since our last edition, there have been many new developments impacting installers, and further changes are yet to come. Indeed, confinement measures have given rise to new ways of working for the entire constructions sector and have accelerated existing trends such as digitalisation. At the same time, consumers have reassessed their needs and the value of high-speed connectivity and indoor environmental quality, putting installers’ work in the limelight.
Indeed, our first session will focus on new areas of business stemming from accelerated digitalisation, the use of new technologies and smarter buildings. EuropeOn has recently released a flagship report on “Business opportunities since Covid19” to give a glass-half-full perspective on this period of crises. It showed the many new areas of business that electrical installers can target, thanks to increased digitalisation and more emphasis on the energy transition. For instance, these trends have facilitated the move towards more service-based business models for installers, leading to increased value added and more modern and exciting work for aspiring installation professionals.
Our second session will focus on skills and employment, the most pressing and horizontal issue directly affecting installers but also other actors of the electrical and HVAC value chain, although more indirectly. There is a shortage of workers in both electrical and mechanical installation companies that is threatening the smooth rollout of the climate-mitigating technologies our policymakers are betting on to meet emissions targets. And not only will installation companies need to hire more professionals, the latter will need to possess new and more sophisticated skills to handle the digital aspects of clean energy technologies, and efficiently integrate them in a building or energy system. EuropeOn has recently released a study on the job potential for electrical contractors in the coming decade, highlighting the magnitude of the skills and workforce needs of our climate targets (more on this here). This session will showcase how installation companies and their associations have been active on this issue and how policymakers at EU and national level can support them.
Stay tuned and check your inbox for a more detailed agenda and a full speakers list in the coming weeks!
