Hello again from the Marketing Committee!

We continue to move forward with the main projects under our purview—namely the CFAA Journal and the CFAA Fire Alarm Technician’s Podcast.

For the CFAA Journal, I would like to recognize Suzanne Alfano, Catherine Aastrom, and Ann Law, who have been instrumental in ensuring that articles and content continue to move forward with both consistency and high quality. Thank you as well to all of our contributors for offering your time and talents for the benefit of everyone in the industry.

Now, let’s talk about my main project—the CFAA Fire Alarm Technician’s Podcast!

We are currently at Episode 57, with many voices and perspectives being highlighted on the show. The podcast has covered a wide range of topics, including personal stories of new Canadians entering the workforce, code changes (of course!), and many technical discussions. Some episodes have become very technical—so much so that I find myself a little jealous of today’s new technicians and the resources now available to them through listening and reading on subjects that, as a junior technician, I often had to learn through trial and error (mostly error!).

We recently released an excellent Episode 56 focused on AI and machine learning. Rather than interviewing someone from within our own fire alarm community (because what do we really know about AI?), we spoke with a PhD student from the University of British Columbia whose research focuses on the application of these emerging technologies in fire protection. The result is a highly relevant and educational episode, and we look forward to having this guest return for future discussions.

And we haven’t even begun talking about the upcoming episodes—we have some excellent topics ahead. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has been coming forward with ideas for the podcast; it is making my role as producer and host a great deal easier! Please keep the ideas coming. We are currently booked with guests through mid-June, but with new episodes released every two weeks, there is always room for more suggestions and fresh perspectives.