TMG’s collaboration platform for peer-to-peer information sharing by and for utilities–the “Utility Imagery & Inspection Consortium” (UIIC)–has seen record attendance and participation at its 2024 Summit full-day session in Orlando, Florida, co-locating this year within the DistribuTECH Conference. With well over 100 attendees from utilities of all sizes, this is the largest gathering of like-minded problem solvers since the 2021 inception of this objective, best practices sharing organization, and the content of today’s UIIC Summit has been robust and compelling.

The day started with an inspiring keynote session from Amelia Rose Earhart, who shared a personal and compelling story of her around-the-world journey in a single-engine aircraft, following the same route as her namesake, overcoming obstacles, and establishing the “Fly With Amelia Foundation” to provide financial assistance to young women to pursue aviation certification and become pilots. From there, the group dove straight into Asset Inspection, Analytics, Automation, Drone Engineering, GIS, Intelligent Image Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Synthetic Data Creation, and Scalable Cloud-based Infrastructures. Pioneering industry leaders like Exelon, Dominion, Duke Energy, OUC, PPL, and SDG&E (to name just a few) transparently spoke about the stages and relative maturity of their imagery and inspection journeys with real-life examples of how they are bringing ideas and strategy to life, and the challenges and obstacles they have had to overcome along the way.

TMG-RIA’s VP of Research, Ken Maness, stated, “Today was a high-energy, non-stop sequence of sessions and topics where utilities of all sizes and complexities came to share their stories and to promote their imagery and inspection journeys in a very candid and selfless way. Transparency and openness were the hallmarks of the 2024 UIIC Summit. The willingness by utilities to share in the spirit of helping others to learn, to avoid risk, and course-correct from early mistakes is so important for our industry as a whole.” Mario Bauer, CEO of TMG, added, “The UIIC collaboration platform is a testament to the concept of a rising tide floating all boats. It pleases me immensely to see the spirit of sharing between and among utilities that are here to learn from each other and to put their ideas together for the greater good of our industry. Egos are checked at the door, and this is all about learning, emerging best practices, and growing together.”

The UIIC is growing and expanding every quarter. Participation is free to utilities, and if you or your utility are interested in joining the conversation, please visit www.utilityiic.com and navigate to “Contact Us.”