EVENT | LIFT SYMPOSIUM MOVING TOGETHER The internet of things, energy efficiency and post-Covid building use were key themes at the Lift & Escalator Technologies Symposium, which returned as an in-person event. Richard Peters FCIBSE reports L ooking back at the 2022 Lift & Escalator Techologies Symposium, I dont think I recall seeing so many smiling faces at a lift conference. Post-pandemic, we all really appreciated the chance to meet in person again. Old friendships were renewed and new ones formed, and not forgetting the purpose of the symposium we were presented with the latest industry research and developments from around the globe. It is an exciting time to be in the sector and there are many new innovations; events such as the Lift & Escalator Symposium give us an excellent overview of what is coming soon. This year, over the two days, we had 26 papers and a panel discussion, making it a packed and fast-moving programme. The 15-minute time slot for each speaker encouraged everyone to focus on the key innovations, leaving the written paper to speak to the details. This format was popular with delegates; even the most committed conference delegate would prefer not to have a line-by-line exposition on the derivation of equations for traffic analysis, something I have been guilty of in the past! In case of a recurrence of the pandemic, the event was planned to be hybrid, allowing people to join online or in person. The technicalities of running a Zoom call in a conference room are complex, but the technology worked, including conversations between online speakers and delegates in the room. The conference was opened by Stefan Kaczmarczyk, who also chaired the first session on Engineering and energy. Matthew Appleby talked about the Generation and application of dynamic kinematics (without using any equations!) and Gabriela Roivainen addressed Dynamic simulations for lift health diagnosis. Jaakko Kalliomaki took us back in time with his paper 1927 the year that set the direction of traction lift engineering for a century. Adam Scott and I both addressed energy, Scott with his paper Energy-efficient buildings Assessing the impact of lifts and escalators, while I spoke about Lift energy modelling for green building design. The need for our industry to consider the environmental impact of our design choices was one of the recurring themes at the conference. Session 2 was titled IoT and Technology, chaired by Philip Hoffer. Kenneth Ong, Paul Clements and Michele Guidotti all spoke on the internet of things (IoT), which was another recurring theme of the conference. Ongs paper was titled Setting standards on remote monitoring and diagnostic for lifts a Singapore context, Clements was Exploring IoT applications for vertical transportation (VT) to tackle challenges in a modern world, and Guidottis was Lift IoT: Turning sensor data into value. Miguel Castro reminded us about the importance of building information modelling (BIM) with his paper Lift industry and BIM: a long overdue adopted and typically overlooked project enabler. Session 3, Traffic analysis and dispatching, was chaired by Graham Barker. For those of us heavily engaged in this topic, the symposium is where we pore over every paper and then discuss them enthusiastically in groups during the breaks; there was plenty to discuss in 2022. Lutfi Al-Sharif presented on Enhancing the I-S-P method (inverse stops-passengers) using the Monte Carlo Simulation method, and Jonathan Beebe on Global dispatcher interface initial prototype design. Aitor Arrieta discussed Design-Operation continuum methods for traffic master, Diana Andrei addressed Impact of the load-area bypass feature on passenger service level, and, finally, Gina Barney 30 December 2022 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Dec 22 pp30-31 Lift symposium.indd 30 25/11/2022 16:41