Follow the Yellow Brick Road to AHR and ASHRAE in Las Vegas
Something unusual is happening at AHR + ASHRAE this year: a cluster of sessions is finally converging around a shared goal, breaking the building data silos we’ve all complained about for years… and showing, live, that it’s actually doable.
This is not another “digital twin” marketing parade.
This convergence is being intentionally anchored in open governance rather than proprietary platforms.
Through C4SB (the Coalition for Smarter Buildings), working in collaboration with the Linux Foundation ecosystem, these sessions reflect a deliberate shift: applying proven open-source and open-standards models to buildings, just as they transformed operating systems, cloud infrastructure, and the internet itself.
The message is simple: open isn’t optional anymore if buildings are expected to operate, evolve, and interoperate over decades.
This is not an invitation into another vendor ecosystem. It’s an open call. Anyone can participate, but only if they are willing to abandon walled gardens and engage on equal footing. Owners like PAE are signaling clearly: openness is no longer optional, and those unwilling to meet that bar will simply be left out of future work.
This is a practical, show-floor series of talks, coalescing around AutomatedBuildings, C4SB, and the LonMark Booth #C743, that demonstrates how building data can be decomposed, normalized, and recomposed across systems without getting trapped in closed stacks.
And the catalyst: owners are done waiting.
The PAE Living Building is showing up with a candid story:
They did not have a true digital twin (i.e., many operational systems connected and usable together) until this work forced the connections and exposed where handover and “BIM-as-a-twin” breaks down. Owners like PAE are now demanding open access to their building data from OEMs and vendors, like never before.
That’s the moment.
Owners, OEMs, vendors, integrators, and AEC: this is a chance to align around what “open” means in operations, not in brochures.
- Interactive Schedules Here
Documentation + recordings:
We’ll be documenting and recording selected sessions (and publishing follow-ups), so if you can’t attend everything live, you’ll still be able to track the through-line and reuse the content with your teams.
If you’re an owner: come see what “demanding openness” looks like in practice.
If you’re an OEM/vendor: this is how you sell more, by making owners successful long after install.
If you’re AEC: this is how your deliverables stop dying at handover.
See you in Las Vegas, at the LonMark Booth #C743
