15 Years of BACnet

15 years ago, starting right about 10:55 AM, Thursday August 17, 1995, BACnet changed my career forever. Though at the time I didn't know it; I was just one of the software developers, wondering what I'd done to deserve this.

At 10:30 Tony, one of Alerton's founders, had called a company meeting in the lunchroom. (We could all still fit in there then.) He talked about the DDC revolution that rolled through the industry in the early 80s and how that gave Alerton a leg up when the big guys were sticking with pneumatics.

He then talked about this thing called BACnet and how once again, the big guys were just paying lip service but we were going to make a one-stop top-to-bottom true BACnet system that he believed the market wanted. This move could put the company at risk, and it meant we were going to have to really keep the customer happy, but the potential for growth was huge.

So far, okay, I've heard this sort of thing before but then he held up a copy of the standard (probably the 2nd public review draft on my shelves) and said, "This is now our bible." Then puts it in my hands saying, "And you're now the expert. Learn it."

The rest, as they say, is history.